The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 12/04/2018

Episode Date: December 4, 2018

Colin thinks Aaron Rodgers having Josh McDaniels as his head coach would be a disaster. He thinks the biggest winner of the Urban Meyer retirement is Jim Harbaugh, but the biggest loser is the Big Ten. Plus, Rams LT Andrew Whitworth comes in studio and talks about the impact of Sean McVay on the team and differences between playing for him and his college coach Nick Saban. Presented by Perky Jerky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's a Tuesday. It's the herd live in Los Angeles, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and S. S-1. Joy Taylor is joining me in a Tuesday one hour from now. The herd hierarchy, top 10 teams in the NFL, and we are post- Thanksgiving now, so they're starting to stack up. The good, the really good, the sort of good, the not-so-good. Joy, how are you this morning? I'm great. Good morning. We have a lot of different things happening, coaching stuff. I'll get to that throughout the course of the day, throughout the course of the next 30 minutes. Speaking of coaching, Erin Rogers needs

a new coach. And according to Charles Robinson Yahoo Sports, a guy I trust, a handful of NFL assistance have indicated interest in joining Josh McDaniels and a bunch of good coaches to coach Aaron Rogers. Josh McDaniels is, of course, Tom Brady's offensive coordinator, the best one he's ever had. And I'm saying this morning, I'm not so sure if I'm Aaron Rogers privately. I love that. First of all, if Green Bay wins big with Josh McDaniels, Josh McDaniels is going to get a lot of credit. Number two, if Green Bay doesn't win big with Josh McDaniels, he won with Tom. I mean, Tommy he won with him.

Tommy didn't have great players everywhere. Tommy didn't have a pass rush. Tommy would rebuild offensive line. Tommy didn't have star wide receivers. Josh McDaniels comes with a lot of trophies accumulated with Aaron Rogers' nemesis, arch rival. Now remember, Tom Brady admits, has gone on record admitting Aaron has more talent than I do. He said it, he said, boy, in this system in New England, he'd have 7,000 yards a year.

Boy, if Aaron Rogers had the system I had, well, who created the system, Josh McDaniels. So if Tom is admitting that guy's more talented than me and that guy doesn't win with Josh McDaniels, then what does it tell you? Aaron's not very coachable. Aaron's hard to get along with. Remember this. Josh McDaniels also is the highest paid coordinator. What does money do to men? He also has multiple Super Bowl trophies.

What is accomplishments? What do those do for men? As I've told you, people that can be difficult are more difficult. Men with money, trophies in power. Josh McDaniels has all three. And by the way, Josh McDaniels ticked off Jay Cutler before he even got to Denver. Josh McDaniels has a strong point of view. He did early.

It's even stronger now. So he'll go right back at Aaron Rogers and be Belichick snarky. We've seen he and Tom Brady get into shouting matches. You don't think he's going to do that with Aaron Rogers? He's done it with Tom Brady. Tom Brady, eight trips, five rings. So this will be very, now this story is great for the NFL. It's a talking point, and it's great for me.

We can track it. That worked with Tom, that didn't, that worked with Aaron. But just ask yourself here. There's a story out today. Jeff Saturday, a former Green Bay teammate of Aaron Rogers, says that when Aaron would go in the huddle and the play would be called from Mike McCarthy, Aaron Rogers would roll his eyes at Mike McCarthy's play call. Basically, dog him in front of players.

How do you think Josh McDaniels going to sit with that? The eye rolling. Because McDaniels will roll them right back. Hey, pretty boy. How many Super Bowl trips? I've been there like five times. You finish third in your division. I win mine every year.

So don't kid yourself. They're going to be in film rooms. and if the great ad liver, passive aggressive Aaron Rogers, rolls an eye, does what he wants to do, Josh McDaniels can go, well, that worked with Tom. I mean, that play worked with Tom. I mean, that thing worked with Tom with Josh Gordon, Philip Dorset, an old gronk and running backs nobody watched play in college.

There we go. Josh McDaniels, staff interested in Green Bay. Listen, Josh McDaniels was interested in Indianapolis. Why? Andrew Luck. Josh McDaniels is not going to go to one of these teams with Blake Bortles. Josh McDaniels, Tom Brady's guys, only leaving Tommy for like a legend. That's why he wanted the Colts job for a while, Andrew Luck.

I mean, if you couldn't have Tom Brady, who would you want a quarterback for the next five years? Not Breezy, he won't be around. Not Benny won't be around. Not Cam too inconsistent. Who would you want? Seems to me Aaron Rogers, top of the list. McDaniels is not going to fail for the second time his head coach. He's going to make sure, unlike Denver, wherever he goes, they've got the quarterback set.

McDaniels went to Denver and Denver didn't have the quarterback situation settled. He's not doing that again. He's going to a place where he's got a four-year contract for a star quarterback. That's where he's going. Sounds like Green Bay to me. All right, let me shift gears to this. Speaking of coaching, how valuable it is. Philadelphia led Washington 14 to 3 it has.

and led heading into the fourth, 14 to 3. Philadelphia won 2813 last night. Their season's over. I mean, it's not officially over, but Philadelphia's season is over. How do I know that? Because they had 28 to 10 first down advantage, double the yards, averaged almost twice as much per pass, had the ball double the time of possession,

and were three for five in the red zone, and struggled for 75% of that game to put away Mark Sanchez and the Washington Redskins. It's over. What do they do well? What does Philadelphia do well? Not much. First two-game winning streak of the year.

Here's what happened. And this is why coaching matters. In the NBA, LeBron is a semi-coach. In Major League Baseball, the general manager is a semi-coach. In the NFL, the coach is the coach. And Philadelphia lost Frank Reich. Indianapolis and John D. Filippo to Minnesota, and they've never replaced him. They've never replaced him.

Doug Peterson wrote a book after winning the Super Bowl. How to win a Super Bowl. I hope chapter one was hire a really good offensive coordinator, and chapter two was, and then have a really good assistant under the offensive coordinator, and pray they don't leave because they left and they're not the same team. And by the way, it's not about lack of players. Carson Wentz is still there. Zach Urch is arguably the second best tied in in football.

Alshan Jeffrey, Nelson Aguilar, Golden Tate, that's a way above average, way above average receiving core. Lane Johnson's still playing. Jason Kelsey is still playing and they've scored over 30 one time. Last year over 12 times. So, you know, here's a prime example. Their entire season comes down to the game against Dallas on Sunday at Dallas. Season's over.

If you're struggling with Washington last night at home, season's over. over. But this is all you need to know about coaching. Here was the fourth down play in the Super Bowl last year when you had Doug Peterson and those two great offensive coaches. It was the Philly special. All right. That's pretty amazing. Here was the fourth down last night out of a timeout against lousy Washington. Let's show last night. Yeah, that right there stuffed, lost a yard. So it's over for Philadelphia. They don't know it's over. I think they probably sort of kind of feel it's over, but it's over. If you're struggling at home against Mark Sanchez, who has been in the nation's capital for what, six days, maybe eight, it is over.

And this is, this is a cautionary tale for all you big talky, talky, talky sports fans when your team wins a Super Bowl. What happens? You write books. You lose really good questions. coordinators, you don't work as hard in the offseason. And that once again is the most remarkable thing about New England. 18 years without a hiccup. The Philadelphia Eagles couldn't go six months without screwing it up.

Lost assistants, wrote a book, big parade, let's do politics, let's wear silly dog masks. They struggle to beat Washington. You kind of have to have the parade. I don't know. If I was a, I would not hold a parade. By the way, the Patriots have parades. Under protest every year. Every Patriot protest.

Every Patriot parade is under protest. By Belichick. But he cut. It's supposed to be four hours. It goes down to an hour. But I mean, you watch it last night. Like this is, it's over. Like they have to go to Dallas next week.

They're not going to win that football game. But don't tell me it's all the players. Your offense has more talent than 90. may not have Rams talent, may not have Chiefs talent, maybe not have Chargers talent, but that offense has all sorts of dudes. All sorts of dudes. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Story we broke it two weeks ago.

We like to call it on this show, Joy, Big J. Journalism, two weeks ago, we broke the story that Urban Meyer would retire either after the Big Ten championship game or after the Rose Bowl if they won the Big Ten championship game. It was announced this morning that Urban Meyer has officially retired from Ohio State. He'll coach the Rose Bowl, where I think Ohio State will probably go on to beat Washington in a very, very good Rose Bowl game. First of all, I think he's the second best college football coach of all time to Nick Saban. I include Mac Brown, Pete Carroll, Bear Bryant, I include all of them. I think he's the second best head coach in the history of college football.

I think Nick Saban over the last three to four years has separated from everybody, And it's not really close, and Nick's got several other national titles coming his way. Urban went four for four. He won it bowling green immediately. He turned around Utah immediately. He turned around Florida immediately. He turned around Ohio State immediately. He has won over 90% of his big 10 games.

Just because you can't beat Alabama and you struggle with Clemson, that's no big mark on your life. He is an all-time great coach. I told you two weeks ago he was retiring. It is a real retirement. none of my sources tell me he's going to the NFL. He has been offered multiple NFL jobs through the years. He could have both the Brown's job and the Bengals job if he wanted it. My sources tell me that at this time, that's not what he's interested in.

This is a real retirement. Now, I am also told in one year after he gets it together, he may consider one college job that could be open in a year. There's a top five, top 10 job in college football that could come over. In one year, I'm not going to give it away, and he would be, he's always been a little bit interested in that job. But I'm told it's a real retirement. He'll do some TV and hang out. He's got a house down in Naples, Florida.

The two winners here, number one is Michigan and Jim Harbaugh. Urban Meyer was 7-0 against Michigan. Urban has always been an early adapter offensively. Jim Harbaugh is a great coach, but is not an early adapter offensively. He is old school. 7-0 against Michigan. Ryan Daze the new coach at Ohio State. He ain't Urban Meyer.

The second winner is the next program that gets him. If there's a next program that gets him. I think it's 50-50 now. I do not hear NFL. I do not hear this year he's coaching anybody else. It's very possible he retires and does a TV gig and consults and messes around, play some golf down in Florida. That's a real thing.

He's made a lot of money. So that's where we are today on that story. He's the second all-time best college football. football coach I've ever seen four for four in turnarounds and he turned them all around immediately. The loser in this is the Big Ten. Pac-12 has never been the same since Pete Carroll left. It's never been the same conference. It's never been the same conference.

And the Big Ten will not be as good if Jim Harbaugh doesn't have an arch rival as good as Urban Meyer. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart Radio app. Search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Kobe Bryant is very connected to the Lakers. Not only because Kobe Bryant's a former Laker, but the current person running the Los Angeles Lakers is named Rob Polinka. He's the guy that looks like Rob Lowe.

He was an agent. He just happened to be Kobe's agent. They're boys. They roll. They're tight. Kobe Bryant came out yesterday talking about the Lakers. And he said, Laker Nation will be, quote, laughing at Warrior fans soon enough.

Hmm. That is interesting because we don't think they're going to beat the warrior soon, but what would make the Laker fans laugh at the warrior fans? Maybe taking one of your star players. I would like to say this, though. LeBron was quoted saying about LeBron James, listen, the offense was struggling. Braun got the ball, took control, decided to start playing point, doing everything. It's a recipe to keep your head above water.

They'll figure it out. We'll be champions before you know it. And we'll be laughing at Warrior fans who say, these guys came out of nowhere. I want to say this, though, to all the LeBron Laker haters. They are 14 and 9. They are favored Wednesday in L.A. to beat the struggling spurs. They'll be 15 and 9. There is no clear number two seat in the West.

and here's what the Lakers aren't dysfunctional. Oklahoma City's got some, Utah's got some, the Warriors have some, Houston had some, New Orleans has some, Minnesota's had some. The Lakers are not dysfunctional. They're about to go 15 to 9, defensively top 7 in the league in opposing field goal percentage. The locker room is outstanding, and they've won 10 of 13 so they have momentum. They do have issues. their offensive identity is a little muddy because what do you do with Lonzo and Rondo if LeBron needs the ball, which LeBron does for the Lakers to be at their best? And the second thing is, man, they could really use one great shooter.

I don't know, Bradley Beale, they're not interested. But you tell me right now in the NBA, who is absolutely in a seven-game series, absolutely definitively better than the Lakers. I'll give you Golden State, and now I'll give you the Sixers. I don't buy We, the North. I'll give you the Warriors, and now with them Beed, Butler, and Simmons, I'll give you the Sixers. Seven game series, LeBron, would you bet your life on the baby dinosaurs in Canada or LeBron? They're in a good spot. What's up, everybody, John Middlecough, the three and out podcast on Colin Coward's Podcast Network.

If you like Colin's show, you will like mine. I talk all football. Mike McCarthy fired. I have some opinions on that. Let's face it, he had to go. College football playoffs, it wasn't really that difficult. And the Seattle Seahawks, they are alive and well in Russell Wilson's team. The Three-N-Out podcast with me, John Middilcock, wherever you listen to your podcast.

Aaron Rogers, does he get say with Green Bay's new coach? Before I get to the hurt hierarchy, let me say this. I don't think he should, and that's nothing against Aaron Rogers. I don't want Tom Brady picking the coach. Number one, if you ask Aaron Rogers, who do you want to be head coach? And he gives you an answer, and then you don't hire that guy. That creates some resentment. Hey, Colin, who do you want to be your co-host?

Oh, I think blank would be great. And then you hire somebody else. I'm like, well, you're just trying to toy with me? You know, you're not going to listen to me? So number one is, if you ask his opinion and don't hire who he wants, that gives you a situation that's kind of an emotional mess. The second thing is, Aaron Rogers would be a great guy to ask about what corners, what receivers, what tight ends. That's his strength. I've been asked before by bosses, you know, who's a good reporter?

Who do you trust? When I came to FS1, I wrote a list of 10 to 12 people, I thought you should hire those people. They didn't ask me about how to negotiate the Big Ten contract. That's way above my pay grade. So I don't think that's a situation. You want to ask Aaron Rogers. Chris Carter was very funny on First Things First this morning. When he was at the Minnesota Vikings, he was a star player,

and he talks about a situation where they were looking for a new coach. There are people think that Aaron should be a part of them selecting the head coach. I wouldn't do that. I think that's a critical error because I don't think he has the skill nor the temperament to be able to pick a head coach. Nor do I. When they fired Dennis Green after all the success he had, the owners came to me. Chris, who do you think he'd be the next coach?

ain't none of my business. I ain't got nothing to do it. I don't even know how to select it. I'm guessing that further validated for you where you were, that they have enough respect for me, that they are at least opening this door to me. No, it let me know the Vikings didn't know what the hell they were doing. That's what it let me know. They did not know what they're doing. Guess who they hired? Mike Tice. Mike Tice. So I just don't like the idea of it. It's nothing against LeBron, but in the NBA, it is, kind of a different world where it's a star-driven league baseball.

It's an interesting perspective, though. Yeah, I mean, what Chris is. Aaron Rogers going to have that self-awareness that Chris had in that spot? Here's the thing. Here's another thing. I'm Aaron Rogers. And you, I get to pick the coach. Well, time out.

Don't I have enough pressure? I'm making $33 million. Now it's out that I'm hard to coach. I got my brother banging on me on Twitter. I got ex-players banging on me on networks. now I want to be the guy that's hand-selected the coach. At least if I don't have anything to say with it and the coach doesn't work, you can say, man, Green Bay doesn't know what they're doing.

They can't hire the right coach. But if every time, like, by the way, LeBron's been very smart about this. LeBron's always like, I didn't hire the coach. Whether he did or not, LeBron's like, I don't want that on me. I didn't fire that GM. I didn't hire that coach. You don't want that responsibility. Because then if you go south, then I'm going to blame you for that.

We're already blaming Aaron for passive aggressive, can't get along with people, making so much money, the roster's got. We want to blame him for that? If I'm Aaron, I don't want any. You know, I said this years ago, Jerry Jones, a very smart guy owns the South Cowboys. And this is very smart. This is why Jerry is a billionaire. And somebody asked Jerry, Jerry, why are you not on Twitter? He said, I want deniability.

I never want you to say, well, on Twitter. Yeah, I like the niability. I have told so many people this in my life. I don't want to know. When people say, hey, did you hear about the rumor? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't want to know about the rumors. I'm so with you.

I don't want to know. I have been told a million times. Hey, do you hear who's going to get fired at your company? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't want to know. Don't tell me because I don't want to have to be an actor for the next two months. Oh, good to see you. Hey, Pally, palie, friend of mine.

How you doing? I don't want anything to do with that. You don't want to do with that. thing. You don't want ultimate power. Jeff Bezos has ultimate power. He can handle it. I can't handle it. I don't want ultimate power. Seriously, I'm just struggling to keep my family from hating me.

I can't. I'm just trying to do a radio show and go home and not have my wife throw stuff at me. I don't need any more power in my life. All right, here we go. By the way, the Niners moved off Montana. The Colts moved off Peyton Manning. The Dolphins moved off Marino. You can't give the franchise to a quarterback. This is what I say, the problem in Green Bay, they don't have an owner. There is no superior to Brett Farve and Aaron Rogers.

This is why the quarterbacks in Green Bay feel like they own the franchise. Because they're ultimately the richest guy in the room, the richest guy in the city. Nobody's richer in that city than Aaron Rogers. I mean, Sean McVeigh makes $7 million a year. If he lives in Beverly Hills, he's the poorest guy in his block. Stan Cronkey owns like 18 teams, 13 arenas. when you have an owner among men, that's the ultimate alpha. He's the owner.

Keeps you in line. Farvin Rogers don't have an owner. Richest guys in the town. I mean, it's a, it's a, you give, ultimate power is a dangerous thing to have. All right, here we go. Top 10 teams in the NFL, the herd hierarchy. Heard hierarchy. Time is now.

Let's go. The top 10 NFL teams, according to college. Number 10. The Chicago Bears are my. number 10. Now, let's chase Daniel, let's not crush them because we know they're using a backup quarterback. But over the last month, their offensive numbers have come down. People are figuring out some of their sleight of hand. They lost the turnover battle against the Giants and therefore lost the game. But they are number one in takeaways in turnover differential. So that is rare.

I think the bears are a two-pronged story, their front seven defense and their head coach. I think ultimately the ceiling is low because of Mitch Trubisky at quarterback bears at 10. Number nine. Dallas Cowboys, they're on a four-game winning streak. Again, they have to win a certain way. Low scoring, feed Zechiel Elliott the ball, keep the game close. You can't ask Dak Prescott to come back from 13 down in the fourth quarter. They are second in scoring defense.

They are fourth in rushing defense. they can win a playoff game. Do I think they can go on the road and get in a shootout with the Rams and win it? No, Cowboys at 9. Number 8. Steelers, they're a really talented number 8. They don't close out games

because they get really sloppy and now I worry about running back James Conner's help. But I will say, they're first in sacks, their fourth in total offense, and they can beat anybody anywhere in this league. What I worry about the Steelers

is Joy what I always worry about. Situationally, late in games, I don't trust him. By the way, James Connor is out for the game this Sunday, Steelers at 8. Number 7. The Seattle Seahawks are a very strong... They're kind of the opposite of the Steelers. I do trust them late because I trust Russell Wilson, who, by the way, has multiple touchdown passes in eight straight games.

The Seahawks have become opposite of the Steelers. They're sealing offensively as well. lower, but they have the fewest turnovers in the league. Penalties are down, and they're averaging 150 yards rushing. That is first in the NFL. This is a great story. Myself included,

we all kind of buried Seattle and Pete Carroll. Do not count them out. Do not count them out. They're playing defense. No turnovers. Running the football. How do you beat a top quarterback? Don't let them have the ball. They will

take the ball out of your quarterback's hand, Seahawks at 7. Number 6. Houston Texans, just a nudge above Seattle because I like their pass rush. Listen, Deshawn Watson, I said it when he came out of college. I don't get the Trubisky love. This kid is special. He has had a hundred plus passer rating in four of his last five games. And their defense, which has always been star-studded, has held people under 20 in six of the last eight games. First time in league history, a team that starts 0 and 3 wins nine straight games, Houston Texans, at 6.

Number 5. Well, we've been on the Chargers all year, and finally you, prime time, stand-alone game, second half, got to see the Chargers. For the record, I know we're talking about MVP. Can we at least put Philip Rivers in the discussion? Good Lord. A hundred plus passer rating in 10 of his 12 games this year. He's the only player in the NFL with multiple touchdown passes. The Chargers have the best receiving core in the league.

Melvin Gordon didn't even play it running back. They have the deepest running back in the league now. Dearest running back. Justin Jackson, a seventh rounder. You saw him against the Steelers. Lord, he can play Chargers at number five. Number four. The Rams.

They're better than the Chargers by a little bit because I trust them. They have an offensive coach late in games. It's a star-studded team. Domican Sue, Akeb to leave, Marcus Peters, Todd Gurley. Aaron Donald leaves the NFL in sacks. Todd Gurley leaves the NFL in touchdown. There's a lot of stars on this team. And they're going to play most of their playoff games, if not all of them, in Los Angeles.

But that's not a huge home field advantage. And I worry about star-studded teams. When I watch this defense, I see occasional freelancing, and they're trying to hit the home run, instead of being satisfied with doubles. Rams at 4. Number 3. Chiefs. The Chiefs are kind of falling into a situation where they don't lose indivision.

They're kind of like the Patriots. They're 20 and 2 in the last 22 games against the AFC West. Now, the Chargers are good, but they have had the Chargers number and Phillip Rivers number for years. Here's a big stat in Vegas. Vegas loves this stat. They're averaging 7.3 yards of play. that is number one in the NFL. Vegas loves that stat.

You get into that six yards of play, six and a half yards. They're almost at seven and a half yards of play. I have the Chiefs at number three. Number two. And I only have the Patriots ahead of them because I think they could ultimately, with an easier schedule, get home field in Foxborough. Patriots of 1-8 of 9.

Now, they don't have a pass rush, and they're not an over-the-top dynamic offense. I will say this, though, how do you beat the Chiefs? Take the ball out of their hands. With James White, Sony Michelle the rookie running back, and Rex Burkhead, that is the deepest running back troika. They've ever had in New England. That's as good as it gets for them.

They're becoming more of a ball control offense, and that's how you beat Big Ben. That's how you beat Philip Rivers, and that's how you beat Patrick Mahomes Patriots at two. Number one. I still think the Saints are the best team in the league. Listen, they got caught by the Cowboys on a Thursday night in the road after a series of wildly crucial, wildly big games.

They got caught, and it was Drew Breeze's worst game ever. I still think, now, I think they're a little more vulnerable after the Cowboy game. I think the Cowboys' pass rush gave them fits. And I do think other coordinators looked and said, You know what, get Drew Brees off his mark, get some pressure, bringing four or five. But the Saints to me are still the best team in the National Football League. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Our next guest is moving his way toward the Hall of Fame, whether he would admit it or not,

13 years in the NFL, four-time Pro Bowl, or along with Tyron Smith of the Cowboys, the best last tackle and football, Andrew Whitworth of the L.A. Rams. This guy is busy. So for you to even come here today, it's great. You know what? I'm happy to be here. We love having you. We love having you. You know, you're the first team to clinch a playoff spot. That's great, but it's early. And I mean, I sit there and I think to myself, you know, McVeigh is the kind of guy that could give an old veteran left tackle a week off, but wait, I can't because I have a rookie or I have a young quarterback. So when you clinch this early, have you talked about as a team? You know, that's not pound girly 32 times a game because you want to be healthy come January.

Well, I really think for us, though, there's still a lot to be had. I mean, we've got the opportunity to trying to earn a by week. You're in the race for that. And then also trying to be the top seed. I mean, to have the opportunity to have all these games have to come out and be played in L.A. I think everyone knows that that's huge factor in the playoffs. So I think it's something that we have a lot to play for, but obviously I think down the road, if we can accomplish some of those things and be in a position to arrest them guys, I think that's something, you know, that Sean and the staff's going to have to make the best decision for us. But right now, I feel like we still got a lot to play for and have really the kind of the pressure off your back

that you've already got the division solidified. You check that off. Now you really can just focus on what do we need to do to secure ourselves the best position possible for the playoffs? So the game, you can look at the data, the Chiefs Rams game, From that game forward, every network got a bump. The game was so magnificent that every single game in the NFL on TV feels like they got a little push from that game. When you were in that game and you've been in a lot of big games, that did not look like most LSU games you've been in,

which are lower scoring. Did you realize, wow, this is an all-timer. Did you sense that? I think you could sense leading up to it. It was going to be a really special game just from, the energy around it. But no, I mean, I think in the game, as it was going on, you're really just thinking, you know, of the next possession and what can you do to possibly figure out a way to win this game. And then afterwards, as soon as, you know, everything kind of was settled and over,

it was like, what a game was, I mean, you're just sitting around thinking about it. And then we actually, you know, both of us having bi weeks right after it, it was cool when we came back as a team, every single guy wherever they went that went home anywhere across the country was like, I literally the entire time all I did was have people come up to me and say, best game I've ever seen, greatest moment I've ever sat and watched in sports. Now, is it fun for you to play in a shootout? You know what? That's nerve-wracking sometimes, but you know what?

It's a lot more fun than playing when you're down four scores and you know you've got to throw it every single play. So I think it was fun. I think for me at this point in my career, any kind of experience like that, it's just like, man, what an honor to get to play in the game. What an experience. and then just to hear how much it meant to people, how much the game was exciting to people just all over the country. It really made you think,

wow, what an experience I really just had, even getting not only just playing in it, but getting to hear from other people what it meant to them as well. This is a star-studded team. You are embarking on a Hall of Fame career, Aaron Donald, Todd Gurley. I mean, I can go through like nine guys. It's a star-studded team. Aaron Donald is doing something that's just unheard of.

He leads the NFL in Sachs from an interior line position. only that, he has doubled statistically more than any player in the league. So, like, you're strong. Like how, you're 6-6-3-12, right? About 6-7-325. Okay, okay. And you bench what? Throw a number out? I don't know. A lot. Yeah. Yeah. Like Delaware. Okay. And you're, and you could squat a lot. You're a big, strong man. I have talked to Lyman and they're like, yeah, there's like, then there's Aaron Donald. So you see him every day at practice. Describe as somebody who doesn't get pushed around to like what it's like to watch arguably Andrew the greatest defensive lineman ever what's it like you know he is just so rare i think that we look at him sometimes

and it's like he's really not a big guy at all like he's you look at his size size and his stature and you think you know you would think all right well bigger stronger linemen will probably not have much trouble with him because he's in the interior and so how would he possibly hold up against them And then what's magnificent to me is the ability he has to rush on those guys and also play the run at the same time, which is just so rare. Usually those guys are one-dimensional if they're good on the interior. But he is a tremendous rusher and tremendous against the run. And his power for his size is just something unseen. I mean, I don't think, I think guys literally can't prepare because they just can't imagine looking at him that he could be that powerful when they hit him.

You could make an argument he has leverage his size as an advantage, like pad level. they always talk about. You can't possibly get quite as low as him. No, there's no chance. And he's quick as a cat. And I think it's rare because you look at it I think of early in my career a guy like Dwight Franey, who was just an exceptional pass rusher and people chipped and doubled

and just kept ways, and I always used to make the argument that when J.J. Watt became big, I used to say, you know what, JJ Watt's a tremendous player. But in my opinion, Dwight Franey was a guy that every single week teams completely changed their offense and didn't run plays they'd normally run because they couldn't throw the ball and drop back pass against

Dwight Freeney. They triple team him, double team him every single play. Well, Aaron's doing that from the inside of the line, which is just to get double, tripled, hit with backs, all those things from the interior. Honestly, it's amazing that he wins at the rate he wins. Sean McVeigh, there's a lot of talk about coaches. Green Bay needs a coach and Ohio State Urban Meyer retired today. And, you know, coaches in football matter more, I think, than any other sport. what are one or two things about Sean McVey? I said about a month ago, he's going to get guys fired. There's certain coaches that, you know, Nick Saban's gotten like 60 guys canned quickly.

It used to be you got like four years. Now after two, if you're not close to Bama, they're moving you out. Les Miles got fired. He was winning 10 and a half, 11 games a year. What does McVeigh do that other coaches didn't? I think the biggest thing to me, and a guy that played for Nick Sabin, obviously when I was at LSU, Belichick made some appearances because Nick and him are close. And so you got to kind of see those guys.

So you know Saban and Belichick. Yeah, how they carry themselves. I think the most thing I always tell people that really immediately I knew was Sean is the intensity every single day to focus and what needs to be accomplished in that day. It literally never changes. There's not a moment he's relaxed. There's not a moment of, you know what, this isn't a big deal or this little tiny detail we can worry about later. every single day you were on eggshells like, I need to have every detail,

every bit of focus and accountability for every single action I have today because if not, he is right there lurking and ready to address it. I mean, that is the thing to me that is just rare. There's some coaches that are intense or have moments of intensity, but the intensity that every day

his demeanor, his attitude never changes, that is, it's rare. And there's just rare coaches that are that way and he is one of them. And I would say that's, a big part, but also the next part to me is that he is just himself. I think you see a lot of guys leave Belichick, leave Sabin, leave successful coaches, and they try to be Nick Sabin, and they try to be Bill Belichick, and they try to be whatever coach it is they were with, and that's who they're going

to be, and they're not who they are. And Sean's biggest attribute, and he encourages us as players every day, be you, just be you, be the best version of you that you can be. Don't be anybody else. Don't try to do anything else that somebody else does. You do what you do best. And will be successful. And I think that starts with him, that that's the attitude he comes with every day. He's going to be himself. He's going to study and prepare himself to be the best coach he can be every day. And he's not trying to emulate anybody else. You played a decade in Cincinnati. And if memory serves me correct, they did not have an indoor facility when you were there. No. Okay. So you practice outdoors. Oh, yeah. The indoor was the stadium. So you got to be on the

turf while you were wet and cold instead of the grass. That made it better. When you came out here to Los Angeles, somebody had told me they said, listen, he's going to be a huge signing for us, but we don't know how long Andrew's going to play. He's a, he's a lineman. And then I watch you, and I watch your feet, and I watch your energy, and I'm thinking to myself, maybe this is I'm too close to the forest. I live in L.A. But you look, the practice, it's 74 degrees, the weather.

It almost looks like the weather, L.A. McVeigh, he's not a grinder. you look like you have a lot of years left if you chose to have those years left. That's what my eyes see when I watch you. You're nimble. You're healthy. Am I close to that? Because I thought coming here, I thought two years and this guy's out. I watch you now and I'm like, oh, God, sign him to another four-year deal.

I don't know about all that. But, yes, I agree. I mean, I will say that it has been fun. It has been a great energizing, just kind of I feel it out here. I feel good. You don't have as many days where it's cold. really, really cold temperatures that you're trying to practice and the joints are killing you and all those kind of things. You definitely feel better. And then also I think Sean is just, you know, really his style and

the way he goes about things, you know, is invigorated a lot of us. And I think even guys that were here that had been through tough times, I think, I think this, you appreciate it. You appreciate that he isn't really a grinder, but he is a, hey, you know what, when we work, it will be ultimate focus, ultimate detail, everything will be perfect. And then when you don't work, Then you rest guys. You find a way to re-gen and get guys healthy. And then when you work, it's short burst of, you know, what, perfection and situational perfection. I mean, that's one of the things I think's been unique with Sean is everything that way.

And so it's kind of like you work less, but you're really working actually, in my view, more efficiently because you're actually working on being great in situational football, which is what NFL football really boils down to. Is it a complicated offense? You've worked with Carson Palmer, Andy Dalton. and golf. Is this a complicated offense? I think it takes a lot of, you know, what, appreciating the game. And when I say that is like all the little nuances that can help you be successful, you know, in the sense of do things all kind of look the same, but they're all very different. And you kind of got to understand that, you know what, you're not going to have this set play where you're in this

formation, you're going to run this exact play. You're going to be in a bunch of formations and run a bunch of plays out of all those. But you're going to know that, you know what? They have no idea what we could run because we do everything out of everything. So it's a sense that, yeah, you do have to learn a lot of terminology. You do have to learn a lot of things. But the reality is, is that every single play looks the same. We have the photo of your son and Jared Gough. Gough bought him a new goldfish when the other one had died. Jared is a really interesting cat. He's a star quarterback in Los Angeles, and I never hear from him, and I never see him. He was obviously raised right. I mean, you talk about Baker Mayfield's been in the league 15 minutes.

I hear about him every 50. Gough's an interesting cat. Is he behind the scenes funny? He's obviously a good dude. The star quarterback of the L.A. Rams, the number one scoring offense, he's as anonymous as a prank phone call. I never see him in Los Angeles.

What does he like? You know, I have to be careful because I still got to play with him. I don't want to be too nice about him. Right. But he is a tremendous kid. He really is. And I have been just blown away at the humbleness and just the attitude he has every day to just come to work and be unmovable and you can't really

affect him in games. His personality is flat. Nothing changes. Nothing. There'll be moments where I'm like, oh no, that's a bad, bad play or a bad situation. And he just like, he just gets up and he's like, all right, man, let's go the next one. And you're just like, what? That's for a young quarterback kid. I mean, it's unbelievable. And yeah, I mean, he's a tremendous kid. You know, the fish story was was awesome, but that is really who he is. He struck a relationship with my son, and he was like, you know what? Michael told me about losing one of his fish over the off season, and it means, you know, I really want to do something for it. And I said, well, what do you want to do? He's like, well, my next Tuesday that I'm off, we had a Thursday night game that week, so he couldn't do it.

And he was like, my next Tuesday, I'm off after the Thursday night game. I want to come pick him up from school and take him to go get a fish. And I was like, all right, man. So he came, got his car seat, picked him up from school, took him to get fish, got him a fish tank. And I'm sitting there going like, here's the starting quarterback. We're about to go to Seattle this week. You know, I got a great opportunity to be in four and O to go play Seattle Seahawks on our first division game. And what he's worried about on Tuesday afternoon is like, I got my studying in. I'm going to go pick Witt's kid up, take him to get a fish. And that's going to give him something. And you know what? You just don't know how people feed. And for him, if it's just being a great person and doing

stuff for people around him is, is what feeds him to be who he is, then that's exceptional. And You just, you feel honored to get the chance to play with him. Andrew Whitworth, a good dude, rock solid. This has been an interesting year. There was the tragedy in Thousand Oaks. There was the fire. Somehow you guys as a unit, it was really remarkable. You had these tragedies, your neighbors being affected.

You guys had to sleep in separate hotels in multiple nights. When you look back at it, are you shocked that you kept it all together? I would say there's definitely moments in there where you would have expected a lull. I mean, you would have expected, I can remember for myself going through Katrina at LSU and really the effect that had on us as a team that was my senior year there under Les Miles. And then I can remember also the Giants when they went through the hurricane. We actually played them the next week. And I remember just how exhausted.

And you could just tell they were emotionally spent, you know, going through that. And that game was really lopsided that when I was in Cincinnati, we beat them really bad. They had just come off winning the Super Bowl the year before. And you could just tell that that time they just weren't ready. you know, to handle it. And so, I mean, you expect that, honestly. I mean, you almost say, hey, all the stuff that's going on around us, like there's going to be a drop off to really look back at it

and see how we handled it and what we really went through from the shootings that happened in our community right there where we practice to the fires to go into Colorado. And then that kind of turned into a debacle. The night we're leaving Colorado. They have an ice storm. So, like, our buses, we can't even leave the facility. They're sliding all over the road.

We end up late getting to the airplane. The airplane is sliding on the runway. it can't leave, so we end up not leaving until like midnight, you know, two days before we're playing the game. So, I mean, it was just, we all felt like, oh, what in the world is just keeps happening? Something's just going to keep happening and trying to stop us. And I think the resolve and the strength that it took as a team to really just hold together, relax and go play in those two games that we had to play through through all that. I mean, I think that is really, if anything, it's just bond to us. And I think it's created a really special bond on our football team that we

feel like even in adversity, we can bond together and find a way to go be successful. Absolute pleasure having on the show. Thank you so much. What are the wise guys wear? I get asked that from time to time. The answer is the new gear from theherdnow.com merchandise store. We are now officially open for business. We have all the apparel, diehard herd fans need to represent the show.

Go to theherdnow.com. If you don't, that's a you problem. And that's a you problem is one of our shirts. Check it out. Theherdnow.com. Theherdnow.com store is open for business today. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind,

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