The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast Prime Cuts - Chiefs Back To Form? Jaxson Dart’s Big Win For The G-Men, Bo Nix Can Sling It, Is Bama Back?

Episode Date: October 4, 2025

Colin’s top takes of the week. First, Colin’s joined by John Middlekauff, host of “3 and Out” to break down the week 4 NFL Sunday slate. They break down why the Chiefs are in Lamar Jackson’s head (3:00) and why the Chiefs are poised to recapture their dominant form as they get reinforcements in their wide receiver room (9:00). They laud Jaxson Dart’s win over the Chargers in his NFL debut (13:30) and worry that injuries could derail a strong start to the season for the Chargers (17:00). Colin argues the Steelers win over the Vikings was one of their best in years (18:00) and explains why he’s incredibly high on the Broncos & Bo Nix after their dominating performance on Monday Night Football (29:00). Then, Colin’s joined by college football guru Josh Pate, host of “Josh Pate’s College Football Show”. They start with Penn State’s loss to Oregon and the unfair criticism of James Franklin and Colin argues that he’s still a top ten coach, and Josh explains why the loss was the beginning of a brand new timeline for Franklin and Penn State because their best still wasn’t good enough (36:30).  Finally, they discuss the huge lift for Kalen DeBoer following in Nick Saban’s footsteps, and why Alabama’s win over Georgia was one of their biggest of the past decade (47:00).  All lines provided by hardrock.bet (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Download the GameTime app today. All right, John Middilkoff and I, we got a lot to talk about. We may slip in some Oregon, Penn State, and Ryder Cup in about an hour. Oh, yeah. Let's start with the big game of the day. Let's break down six or seven big games. Chiefs 37, Ravens 20. They tacked on a late touchdown.

Lamar's now one and six against Kansas City. they had a lot of defensive injuries, but that's not the story. The story is Lamar, I mean, to me, John, Kansas City is in his head. You know, obviously, when you're missing six defensive starters, I mean, Mahomes, four drives, four scores to start, like four touchdown passes. He broke the all-time record, fastest quarterback to 250 touchdowns, which we all knew you was going to do. So the defense, it doesn't help.

But I feel that Kansas City is in Lamar's head. You? Definitely. I mean, the Steelers have been over the years, and now Kansas City, it's undebatable. I also think this. And listen, he's a fantastic player. He's an incredible talent. But these last two weeks, he's led a pretty, you talk a lot about privileged lives at quarterback on offense. Like the real sport starts when your tight end shatters his leg, your right guard gets a DUI, he gets suspended, and then a wide receiver goes down in the first series of the game. It's like, then what do you do? Yeah. And we've seen Mahomes. now for two years. But I'd say also, look at Josh Allen. His defense has been average at best over the years. Lamar, I would imagine his worst defense was last year. And by the end of the year, it was really good. Two years ago, they had the number one defense in the league. Most of his career, because of the team he got drafted by, right? It's basically like defense you in football, the Baltimore Ravens. Well, what's going on right now? A bunch of injuries. They're two best defensive linemen. Van always kind of a hybrid. Gone. Roquan gets her today. I mean,

their defense is just a shell of itself. It's like, okay. And listen, the Ravens, how many times did they win games? I bet if we looked over the last three or four years, like 45-13. Yeah. So they roll you when they get up. But it's like, okay, you got to have to win this game. The Lions are used to that. 35-32. Let's go. The Ravens, you know, that's just, he doesn't have to do that a lot over the years. And all of a sudden, he's looking. It's like, you're back on the field. You know, they just scored another point. It's just, it's a different, they don't feel like, the purple team we're used to watching because defensively, and that has to throw him off, and it puts more pressure on him, and they've kind of cracked, I would say, the last couple weeks.

Well, yeah, yeah, two first half turnovers. I mean, they got themselves into a hole. And I, let me throw this at you. I've always said the reason he dominates the NFC, and he's, it's like 25 and two. It's unnebatable, yeah. Yeah, they don't see him. Spags has now seen him seven times. So in my take on Lamar, remember the first year he started playing? He, I think he beat the Chargers the first time he played him, that first rookie year. Then in the second time he played the Chargers, in the playoffs, if I recall, they had a little bit better beat on him. And it's all fuzzy to me, but I was told very early on, you do get a little bit of a beat on him.

He's just so dynamic, you can't get your arms around him. Well, Spags has seen him now so many times. It's a very good and very healthy and a fast defense. And then all of a sudden you jump out to a lead. And I mean, I think some of this is, not that there's a secret sauce, but Spags is great. His defense is great. And they kind of mostly contained him tonight. Well, because the last two weeks, you know, Dan Campbell set the blueprint.

And you went, well, you know Spags, who already had a blueprint is going to utilize that throughout the week of basically corraling him. Now, again, he might juke you out and make a move every once. a while. But if you don't just run up aimlessly and let him just get an easy 10 yards with his eyes close, it's harder for him to operate. And remember, for a long time, you know, Dax team now stinks, but it was like when he didn't, when he got to pass the ball less than they ran it, he was really, really effective. Lamar had that stat going forever. When the Ravens have more rushing attempts than pass attempts, they're going to be really dangerous. Why is that? They open the second half, handing the ball off, and they just kind of roll you. They lean on you.

Well, today, 17 rush attempts, 20 pass attempts. Like, that is not their formula, the way they're playing. And obviously, you know, the turnovers. I mean, when he's turning the ball over now, we have, and he's not the only culprit. Derek Henry, he's been a major problem for him this year. They're out of sync, and they have these injuries, like, you know, the Chiefs, you can tell. It's like, okay, they beat the Giants. They win this game.

They get right back into the mix. I'm sure we'll talk about the Chargers. They got a million injuries right now. Like, it's open again. for the Chiefs. You look at the Ravens and you go, could this kind of be their year from hell? Like the 49ers last year, where you just lose a million players and all of a sudden you're 7 and 10?

Yeah, and to your point, I joke with J-Mack all week. I'm like, people don't understand. It's not like Xavier Worthy's a 1. But when you don't have a 1-2 or a 3, he's a damn good 2. So he had a ton of targets, nice catches. A couple of, man, he was wide open

on a couple of them. So to me, when you watch Xavier Worthy, they still don't have a run game, but Checo, that's the not going to work, big picture. But not every team that gets to the playoffs, it's Philadelphia. Not everybody's a great run team. What the run team does, it picks up first downs and it helps your defense. So I think they're going to have to establish that. But when I watched them today with Thornton, Juju Smith, Xavier Worthy, my take was, and I'm not sure if yours was, well, if they get Rishi Rice back, okay, now Thornton, now Worthy, now Rice,

Juju Smith, Travis Kelsey. Okay, that's more than good enough with Patrick Mahomes if they can just be average running the ball. But worthy today, it was pretty clear that he has a relationship with Mahomes, and it's pretty good. Well, one thing I wrote down is, you know, Tyquon Thornton was once a second round pick. You know, that was a late second round pick by the Patriots, but he has a touchdown in each of the last three weeks. So you get worthy back. You get this guy who could fly. get him some confidence.

You get Rice back. Hollywood Brown is just a solid contributing member. He can get you five, six catches every game. Juju can just do some dirty work over the middle of the field. Their passing game looks a little bit better, big picture. This is why they win a day. They're two and two. You look at the rest of the AFC, some of the injuries,

in their own division, the Chargers. I mean, you can't just start overcoming missing elite players, especially at the offensive line. You go, God, I like their offense. Now, again, we talked about this last week with the Bears. I just said, let's pump the brakes on the, you know, against the Cowboys defense. You saw today. I was like, the Bears offense is going to be up and down.

And I will say the same thing with this Chiefs against this Baltimore defense, which has major issues. But they also have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and one of the greatest coaches of all time and coaches the offense. Yeah. So I would be bullish on the unit moving forward for sure from an explosive standpoint. And you add worthy to go with Thornton's speed, you can just stretch the field. than those possession receivers in Brown and Juju, and even Travis, who clearly gets up for bigger games.

Clearly. Can add. And you just keep him healthy toward, you know, a playoff game. I mean, everybody's got a hole outside of Philadelphia. So their defense is good. They have the best head coach coordinator combo in the league. Once they get Rice back, more than adequate, probably above average receiving core, superstar head coach quarterback.

I thought the O line was good. Andy Reed has rebuilt it three times since Mahomes. arrived. Like if they've been patchworking it, you know, they lose tuny, it's going to take a while. They don't have a great run game. I'm not even sure how serviceable it will be. But as I watched them today, I'm like, okay, they're a game back of the Chargers. And the Chargers now, I mean, I don't know what's happening with Joe Alt, but you're not one in a division if you don't have Joe Alt or Rashon Slater, not even Harbaugh can pull that rabbit out. So, I mean, I looked at them today and maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I've said it all week.

I said, worthy, we'll get 10 targets, six, seven catches, and then Travis Kelsey, and it's just like anything else. When you've been in any industry 15 years, you and I, you know, our Sunday pod feels different than one in May. Right? Like, it's like Travis Kelsey's been around, multiple surgeries. I watch him in these spots, and I'm like, okay, it's different. He's fine. I don't know.

I came out of it. And again, the injuries are part of it. But I have defended Lamar forever, but he had two turnovers. It's pretty clear. There's an anxiety that he, I don't know if it's a therapy thing. He just say what you want about Josh Allen. He's been highly effective against Belichick, against the Chiefs. Josh Allen loses.

It's usually on the defense. I think it's totally in Lamar's head. Well, I mean, if you gave the Chiefs, Andy and Spags, the opportunity, who would you rather play at quarterback, they wouldn't even hesitate and say Lamar. The data is in. Check Josh's data versus them in the regular season and in the playoffs. He has been excellent against Kansas City. But, yeah, I mean, I think Kansas City has to be.

I thought the whole time, I know his numbers haven't looked good, but watching Patrick Mahomes last week in the second half, early in the season in a couple of the losses, the one against Philadelphia. I think he's played really well. Same here. He's just completely under control. I bet if you went to it. He was sitting in Andy's office tomorrow.

He's like, I was not worried at all over the losses without our quarterback. I felt good. Yeah. I thought it was on the other guys. You know, so I actually think, you know, Patrick has been a little up and down in the previous years. Remember, he had awful interception streaks. Yeah. I think for the most part, he's been playing at a really, really high level.

His numbers just don't look like 50 touchdowns anymore. But I just go, that's one of the best players in the league. Yeah, the numbers don't reflect his quality of play. I thought he had two throws today and a scramble. The one where he ran over the line and came back, didn't count, but it was like, it was really a clever play to set up time. I also thought he had a sidearm to throw to Juju Smith-Schuster. It was so quick and so fast with such velocity, and I'm like, nobody else can do that. Stafford does it.

It doesn't look like that. So I'm with you. I think Kansas City now is, again, a top six team and maybe five. The Giants beat the Chargers, 2118. So Malik neighbors could be out for the year. But the story, which I thought was pretty substantial, is if you look at the numbers and you didn't watch the game, you wouldn't be impressed with Jackson Dart. But the giants between Dart and Scataboo rush for over 160 yards.

He had seven rushes. They were excellent on third down. I thought Jackson Dart was pretty damn good. Neighbors hurt early, so you don't have that. He had 10 scrambles for 55 years. yards. I thought he was clever, kind of work between the tackles. We know he has a decent arm. I don't know. Again, the Chargers had, Herbert was hit 14 times. So this is like a problem. Last week he was hit 14 times. But I thought Jackson Dart, I mean, I'm watching all these college

quarterbacks. Dante Moore looks like a great quarterback. CJ Carr at Notre Dame. The rest of them, I would sell some stock. I thought Jackson Dart looked pretty good. Yeah, he definitely gave him an energy to start the game. I mean, they get up 7-0. He has that, you know, the quarterback draw, made some throws. Obviously, throughout the game, he keeps plays alive with his legs that Russell no longer was doing. There was also like a youthful, I don't know, craziness to him. I mean, he's trying to run guys over.

He had the one play that got called back on the hold where he's got to be, I mean, he could have broke his hand. He could have broke his finger. his throwing hand. But I think he's so amped up. He's playing like he would be against Mississippi State or Tennessee. It's like you've got to be a little more careful in the NFL, especially against this team. But he definitely – I mean, you – Scataboo, the moment he's gotten in the games the last couple weeks, you can feel his energy and his physicality.

He just adds something right. He is looking to hit someone hard. And I think the team feeds off it. And today, you know, their passing game – now with neighbors, I would assume his niece done. the passing game's going to be a struggle. The numbers are not going to look pretty good, or good at all. But definitely Dark gives it something that Russell no longer does. So I also think when you look at the Chargers,

the defensive line for the Giants is excellent. I mean, Burns is a fantastic player. Dexter Lawrence. Kvon's even better, I think, that he's played earlier in his career. And obviously, they just, they fly around. So you start losing, the Chargers have a domino. effect problem. Because Alt is there because the left tackles down. He's supposed to play right tackle. So the backup right tackle is at right tackle. Well, then he goes down. You know, you start

shuffling all of a sudden you got backups and third stringers in different spots against, I mean, I don't know how much they make combined, but the Giants defense, they're paying a lot of money. And they've invested a lot of resources. So he is, I thought Herbert made some throws a day where it looked like he was going to lose knees and limbs. He's just getting cut off. He's getting destroyed. That's not as sustainable. Now, I like the Giants today because I went, well, you go 13 and 4, East Coast game, early morning, the juice of the new quarterback. So I thought they were going to lose, or at least this game was going to be close. But then now when you look big picture, you go all high

ankle sprained for a big guy. That could be a month. So it's like you got problems, you know, and it feels like Herbert's going to have to be running for his life. He can do that. Yeah. But man, I don't feel as good as I did about them a week ago. Now Hampton, O'Mario Hampton had a couple of big runs. He looked, it was funny, I wrote this down. He had a 54-yard touchdown run, and I wrote, okay, he's worth the number one pick. They need a horse. Naji Harris is done for the year.

So I thought Amario Hampton, like Ashton Genty, who will get to in a minute, Ashton looked apart today. He had a very good day. His best day is a pro. I thought Hampton had his best day. And again, the Chargers had 340 yards. The Giants only had 250. So they're passing game this year to me.

One, Greg Romas is calling passes nonstop. Two, because, you know, Keenan Allen, ads with McConkey, and then Johnston, the TCU kid, is been fantastic this year, relative to the bar. All right. Pittsburgh. I thought it was one of the shocking performances of the day, but in hindsight, it's sort of explainable. Pittsburgh 24, Minnesota 21 started for me 8.30 in the morning. I thought it was my favorite bet of the week.

but then all of a sudden, they had three backup offensive linemen, and the Steelers, I felt Kevin O'Connell came into the game of the game plan, and so did Brian Flores, and they didn't adjust, but I think Kevin O'Connell couldn't adjust. Listen, Aaron played the best game. I think Aaron's played in a couple years. I really did. He and D.K. Metcalfe have a clear connection. I thought the Steelers' offensive line today, John.

The Steelers have not developed a consistent run game in six years. I thought they ran the ball today effectively. I don't know. I looked at Pittsburgh and I'm like, Jesus, this is the best Steeler performance. And again, they were missing. Three linemen, Vikings were a mess on the O line. But we can't make excuses. Baltimore's defense, you got to make plays.

I thought Pittsburgh, that was a great performance by them. If you would have told me at the beginning of the day, and I know some of this was a little bit garbage time, but went through for 350 yards. I'd be like, I would have had a lot more money on the Vikings. You know, I'm with you. I thought for the first time in four games, a little bit last week,

but they looked like a physical team starting to finish. Yes. You know, Gainwell ran for 99 yards. If you just gave the Steelers every week a hundred yard rusher, they're going to have a chance because, you know, the days of Aaron thrown for 375 yards are done. They're done. But what he can do,

is a little bit like today, 20 to 24, 220 yards. And part of giving D.K. a lot of money, which was pretty risky, every once in a while he's going to take it 80 yards and cut across the field and run by everybody. So over the course of the season, D.K. gives you 10 touchdowns, and three or four of them are like that today. Yes, they usually are. That's a huge, but you've got to play good defense. They had six sacks. They were all over wents and, you know, they were hit really hard. Now, they did lose Ramsey at the end of the game. But to me, there was a physicality to their team start to finish that had

kind of been lacking. And I do wonder, you know, if Tomlin, I mean, part of him is that rah, what is going on here? And I think the defense's kind of been getting called out. Yep. And came to play today. And I would say the same thing for their offensive line, because part of the reason every single human alive loved Minnesota, it's like, well, Flores against this offense, what's going to happen? Steelers O-line and run game has been a six-year disappointment. I mean, I'm watching today, and I'm like this, now, again, have I watched every Steeler drive and every Steeler game? But over the last six years, I honestly felt watching that game, that was the most hopeful

Steeler win. I'm like, well, that thing looks like that. Totally. I agree. They could go on the road and win a playoff game. Like, I was, I mean, so much of this league in a passing league is, can you consistently run the ball? First, like, first, you don't want your quarterback throwing 40 times, especially an old

quarterback. Secondly, it keeps your defense off the field. And I think Pittsburgh's defense, you have some older players. JJ Watt was great today, but you have some older players and new players. So you don't want your guys on the field for 66 plays. I mean, I wrote down four or five different times. Wow, impressed. Steeler O-line, dot, dot, dot, dot, really great today. Yeah, I mean, at one point, the game was 21 to six. Yeah, to me, they were creating turnovers. They had a bunch of sacks. I can imagine, and listen, I know the Vikings won 100 or nothing last week against Jake Browning and the Bengals, but every single person with the Steelers said, we're not flying to Dublin, Ireland, to lose to Carson Wentz. Like, that is not

happening on our watch. Hell, I woke up. The game started at 6.30 for me, and it was 14 to 3, and D.K. had just had that play. And then you just watched the rest of the game. And again, it was, they got some late touchdowns. You know, Rogers is screaming to go forward at the end. they get denied at like the one yard line, right, when he wanted to basically ice the game. And a couple of plays later, they score. So all of a sudden, I think it was like 24 to 14. And then all of a sudden it's 24, 21. And they still got a couple, a minute or two before the two-minute warning.

You're like, whoa. And I think, you know, Rogers, I think is trying to make the Tomlin a little unconservative. I think their nature would never have been to do that. But he kind of got to overrule him there, which I didn't mind. they had to go 99 yards with Carson Wentz, and then all of a sudden they, I think they blew a coverage to Jordan Addison. They got lucky that he didn't score.

Yep. You know, the guy made a great play to kind of beeline him down at the end. But I'm with you. Besides a couple of freak plays, the Steelers, they leaned on Minnesota, who I think we all agree, pretty tough physical team. It's not like they are soft by any means.

Especially, you could look, they kept showing Flores. Flores had to look like, what is going on? And listen, sometimes you fly across these international games. Minnesota is playing back-to-back international games in two different countries. You know, that could really throw you off. And I heard you talking about it last week on TV.

Like, you draft this guy really high. He misses all season last year and now he's out for six or seven games on an ankle. Like, let's call it what it is. Sam Darnold's leading game-winning drives. Kind of a disastrous situation. You'd be like, well, John, it's early. We've talked a lot about you don't get much time anymore. Nope.

And you just let a quarterback go. It's a problem. And Carson Wentz is actually more impressive than I thought. I mean, that guy was just on his couch. He's actually pretty, got some talent in his body still. But, like, you drafted this guy in the top 15 to be your quarterback of a 14-win team, and he's just sitting there eating sunflower seeds. Like, it's kind of a big problem.

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We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts.

Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey, Jonas, guys. I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking, I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was...

This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, for people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey, Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for... remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. Help an Acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source.

The athlete. themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sportslice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok. podcast network on TikTok.

The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jen she won. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French, me.

And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina. is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. First of all, you know, I'm a huge fan of Sean Payton and Bo Nicks, the combination. But, I mean, tonight, 28 to 3 over Cincinnati, there's a couple of minutes left when I'm doing this. I just think when you watch Bo Nix play with Sean Payton, Bo Nix does so many little things well that nobody pays attention to. Have you noticed when you watch Bo Nix tonight?

When his receivers or his backs are out in the flat, that ball 100 for 100 times is right out in front. They catch it moving forward. It is accurate. It is on a line. It's not a loopy pass where they have to wait for it. That's NFL quarterback play. That's Tom Brady, the ability to get the ball out quickly.

The receiver has the ball running. And I mean, between Mims and Franklin and Harvey and Cortland Sutton, they just have a lot of guys who can run and catch. And Bo Nicks is athletic. And he had a bad pick tonight. But, you know, people forget this. Go look at Drew Brees. second ear was Sean Peyton. His interceptions went up. Sean Peyton puts a ton on his quarterbacks.

Tonight, they had motion on 35% of their plays. There is no handholding. There is no babysitting. You got to be smart. You got to be focused. If it's important for you to be cool, if it's important for you to look this way or that way, it's not going to work. This is an adult offense for a smart, intense, laser-focused quarterback. Drew Brees is intense. He still is. Bo Nix.

You don't see a lot of smiles during the game. It's all business. And that's what Sean Peyton's offense demands. I really like what they've done. He and the GM, I like what they've done with the offense. You know, J.K. Dobbins was a late ad. J.K. is excellent. Troy Aikman talked about it tonight.

When J.K. is healthy. And, you know, there's guys in the this league that can't make it through a 17-game schedule. But J.K. Dobbins is an excellent running back. He's got great instincts, really nice vision. His instincts, I always feel J.K. Dobbins is one of those running backs that's looking like eight to ten yards ahead. He sets everything up really well. But I really like watching Denver play. The Colts game, you know, on that final kick penalty, they should have won that game. I think the roster is one of the four or five best rosters in the league. And I think it goes, it may not be Philadelphia, but I think it's in the

Detroit, Kansas City, Buffalo, Green Bay class. I think it's that good. The pass rush doesn't feel quite as dominant. Now, Cincinnati, you know, bad offensive line. The Colts shut down the Broncos pass rush, but that's a really good Colts offensive line. I think the Colts are going to win that division. I think they may want it going away. It's no shame in losing to Indianapolis. That's a good team. But I like everything they do. I just think Sean Payton, you know what I find a lot of times. And the media does this a lot. Fans do it all the time, but I don't hold the fans to a high standard. I hold the media to a higher standard. A lot of times the media, it's really pervasive. If they don't like a guy, then they'll criticize him, that they let their bias get in the way.

Sean Payton is better than 99% of the coaches in this league, and he's got a great eye for personnel. And a lot of coaches don't. Andy Reid doesn't want to do personnel. Jimmy Johnson was legendary at it. Sean Payton's great with personnel. Jim Harbaugh's very good with personnel. Sean's excellent.

I mean, look at these skill guys. Troy Franklin out of Oregon. Bowdox's teammate feels like a number three to me. There were four drop passes tonight. He had one of them, but Bo Necks still went 29 to 42 for 326 yards. So in that last touchdown out in the flat, they just are always prepared. And again, Bo Nix throws the ball down the field. It's not Justin Fields dink and dunk.

You know, it's a big boy offense. They're throwing that ball down the field aggressively. And you get some interceptions. Elway threw him, Nema threw him. Brady threw him, Peyton Manning threw him, Josh Allen threw him. I like my quarterbacks throwing the ball aggressively down the field. And I think Bo Nix is not only a better athlete than his draft preview.

I think he's got a better arm. I thought he had kind of a Derek car arm in college. I think it's gotten stronger. But I just like his temperament. There's just no bullshit with Bo Nix. He is just laser-focused. He can take to coaching. He'll bark right back.

It's all ball all the time. So I like Denver a lot. I think they cleaned up some things tonight. Cincinnati's a mess. But again, if Joe Burrell played, they'd be a borderline playoff team, but not a great team. Zach Taylor's fine. I don't think he's necessarily special. I think he's fine as a coach.

I think the owner is the cheapest in the league. I think the front office is mediocre. They don't have a big scouting department. I feel like Denver's got, now I think, the richest owner in the sport. first or second. They're totally committed to Sean Payton in the front office and the roster. So I think Denver is on a short list of teams. I don't know. I look at their personnel. I think if you look at their schedule now, you look at their schedule, they got a lot of Ws coming. And I talked about this last week, Sean Payton's record in September and his career

is 30 and 30. Now think about that. Think how good Sean Payton, all the success he's had, his worst month easily, easily. October on, he wins like 75% of his games. It's September. Why? He comes in, massive playbook, a lot of motion, a lot of sets, and he is demanding on his quarterbacks. And what did you get in the first couple of weeks?

Mistakes, penalties, they just quite didn't have it all buttoned up. Love what I see from Denver. Just love it. I mean, J.K. Dobbins and Harvey, Cortland Sutton, who I think Cortland Sutton's really good. I think he's a number one. God, Franklin, Mims, and Bonex, great athlete. So a nice win for Denver, a team I really, really like.

And, you know, Sean Payton can be Kurt and glib for some people, but, you know, I mean, that's the reality. Some people are smart and they've got strong opinions. People I found in my career, people love strong opinions only when they agree with them. And Sean Payton called out Nathaniel Hackett. He was right. and he called out Russell Wilson. He was right. He called out the previous regime.

He was right. He was right across the board. You don't have to like how it sounds. But you can't watch that offense and not see the play design, the play calling. Bow Nix is a hit. He just, that kid just fires. You know him from the Josh. Hey, college football show.

He's great. Comes on the herd volume as many times as we can get him on. we're going to. I don't know if you've been on the herd yet. We'll get you on. I promise. So I defended James Franklin for years. I was like, listen, he's losing to Ohio State and Michigan. You know, he's losing to the right people. I thought, you're a favorite. You've got a lot of high-end first-round draft guys. You got to win that game. But it was funny because I'm, you know, I was watching, I don't go online very much, especially to like fan boards. But I did. I went to Penn State fan boards just to see their reaction.

And we want him out of here. He's a bum. And my take is James Franklin is kind of what I think most college football coaches are. There's Kirby.

There's Pete Carroll. There's Nick Saban. There's Urban Meyer. I think Chris Peterson's one of those. There's dabble. There's like, in any industry as like 1%. And then there's a bunch of guys that are almost as good, but may not recruit as well, or they're not schematically as good. And I think James Franklin's in that.

And I think if you gave James Franklin Dante Moore and Dan Lending Drew Aller, they would have won the game. So I still think Franklin is a top of the class, not a top six, but somewhere seven to in a sport with 140, you know, FBS schools, or have you lost faith in him after a game in which you're a favorite at home, probably the better backfield, an NFL quarterback prospect, where do you land on him today? I don't think any differently of him, but I treated the Oregon game way, way bigger than I've ever treated a football game. And so I got to tell you a little backstory.

You and I have apparently been singing out of the same hymnal, as Mee-Maw would say, about James Franklin because he is very, very good, never used the word elite, never used the word great, just very, very good, an eighth runger, what we would call him an eighth runger on a 10-rung ladder. So I remember even in the spring, I've been up there a couple of times over the past few months. They never shied away from this concept that this year we're all in. Kind of what Ohio State sounded like last year when I visited them in spring. We're all in. We're making no excuses or apologies about it. We're all in. All right. So every external edge imaginable. You have on that Oregon game. They got a travel cross-country. You got the

buy. You got the experienced roster. They got newness everywhere. You got a way more experienced than veteran coaching staff. So all of that wide out, you finally got it in prime time. I just felt like it was such a referendum moment. It's such an inflection point in time in the James Franklin Penn State era. And I know coming out of it, if you really want to just, you know, shred the arguments, you could say, it's just one game. It's just one conference game. they went to overtime. It's so much more than that. Anyone pretending otherwise is just ignorant of Penn State football and ignorant of the situation.

So I think a whole new timeline started the other night. I said this on the following night show. It may sound hyperbolic, but I'm dead serious about it. I think a whole new timeline got started. Now, here's what we cannot know yet. We can't know which flavor of timeline it is because you can sell me on either of these things being the case in 2029 and I could believe you. You could sell me number one. Franklin's no longer at Penn State because that Oregon game precipitated this really ugly slip down this slope where eventually neither wanted anything to do with the other.

Maybe they just cut ties. Maybe it got really contentious, but he's not there in a couple of years. I could see that. I could also see him believing everything that I'm saying and you're saying about that game. That was the referendum game. This is where it's going to be the ultimate test of my way of doing things, the way I've built Penn State. state. And I think it was such a reminder that your best, given your current modus operandi, is not going to be good enough. All right, that's the absolute peak of this version of,

of Penn State football. And it got taken down by probably Oregon, not even close to ascending to what they will become. So I could see him driving home that night. I could see him waking up the next morning. It's just you and you in the bathroom mirror and saying to yourself, this, This is it. Several degrees of change are needed here, here, there. Just rigid principles you've never bent on. You're willing to bend on. Now, there's a third rail where he doesn't know to do any of that, and it just is what it is. I don't know where we're going with it, but I sense the same thing you did. Even the portion of the fan base, like I've got some Penn State folks on my staff, who were the last holdouts, who always sort of shouted down the radical portion of the fan

base when they would criticize him, fire James Franklin after a loss. And they, they didn't get overly emotional, which is what I noticed. They were almost, I don't know, they were apathetic afterwards. And it was kind of a shrug. And well, we know he's never going to be bad enough to fire, but we're also resigned to the fact that this is confirmation. We're never going to see the mountain top. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was...

This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letter help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends

on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happens. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer-beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jen she won.

I mean, she went down to three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts. or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of I Heart Women's Sports. When Kalin DeBoer got hired, Greg Byrne text me after a tweet I sent, kind of to thank me, I think a little bit for the perspective I had, because after Kalin beat, Georgia, I said, you know, the media, myself included in fans, success is hard, and it doesn't come as fast as we want. And so it's difficult. And it gets, people get worked up.

and I'm like, Kaelin DeBoer was a hard hire. Dan Lanning's from the South. Dabo Sweeney was popular. I mean, they're Lane Kiffin. There were a lot of potential hires post-Sabin. You could have argued, they weren't going to get Sark, his Texas money, but you could have gone after a lane, a dabble, a Dan Lanning. And he didn't.

He went and got a Midwest guy that was at Washington, 3,000 miles away. And it's easy to go, oh, he's got a great resume. The South is different. The intensity's different. Midwest Western people like Chip Kelly one time when they were, I think he was offered Florida. He's like, that's too much. I thought Philadelphia was rough. It's too much for me. And Jim McElwain, who I knew from college, it's like, yeah, it's just different. I'm more West, Midwest guy. And but I don't, people tend to think, Josh, everybody knows that if you're Jim Harbaugh and you go to the Chargers to replace Brandon Staley, you have to change the culture. It's a disaster.

But people think it's easy when you go to Alabama and you replace Sabin. Well, you don't have to change the culture. Well, yes, you do. You have to be authentic to yourself. You have to be authentic. It doesn't matter what, I replaced Tony Kornizer. He was great. I still didn't do the same show Tony did.

Right. I did a different show. So I had to, there were elements of the show you have to change. You have to change certain things. And that's not a knock. It's just, that's the reality. Is I think Alabama was a tougher job than you think. The pressure is enormous.

They were struggling in the NIL to play, to go to the top run. with some Ohio states and Georgia's. And when they won that game, I found myself rooting for Alabama in that first half. I was like, God, this is good coaching. Jesus, this is good play calling. This is as big a regular season win, including Sabin in like five years.

I thought it was so significant. And they beat Georgia plenty of times. Did you feel it felt more like that? More of a beyond just a win at Georgia, it felt like, okay, this is the moment. I think it's one of the biggest games for the program this decade. That goes back to what Saban was still there. I could not, you cannot overstate the impact.

I mean, think about where we are. We were talking about inflection point with James Franklin. Okay, different standard at Alabama. They've won their championships, but it was under the previous guy. New guy, you don't know, really? And go into the alternate universe where they lose that game. And they're coming out of Athens already a two-loss team, and you've still got the rest of your conference schedule to go.

you probably have four minimum losses staring you in the face. And what do you do? You mentioned Greg Byrne. Buddy, the only, I wish you could have seen his face walking off that field Saturday night. Greg Byrne was the most relieved person in the entire building. That's the athletic director at Alabama for those unfamiliar. Because he, his reputations on the line with this higher as well. And the thing is, Greg Burns never doubted for a second that Kaylon Daboard's made of the right stuff.

but you don't play 162 college football games. So it just comes down to these moments, like these key third downs and, you know, a sequence here and there that's going to determine whether you're a success or a failure that season. I got to tell you about DeBoer when he got there. I used the word ignorant. Ignorant is not lack of intelligence. Ignorance is sometimes you haven't experienced something. And I think he was maybe a little bit ignorant to what you're talking about, the true Southern football dynamic. Like, I think he looked at it, and I know this because I talked to him about it.

I mean, he just talked about winning principles. And he's right. The same stuff wins everywhere. It's just the surroundings, the externals are way different in the South than they are anywhere not named Ohio State basically outside of the South. I've said that for years. Ohio States and SEC Team North. That's the only one.

Yeah. So he got thrown into that. And I just, as much as you try and wall yourself off from it, it's really impossible. You cannot wall yourself off. from it. So I got to tell you now, people who have observed him from the outside may not see this. If you've been around Kalin or even if you're just like a fan of the program, you follow him closer. He, since that Florida State game earlier this year, has been like the third verse of lose yourself. The part where it's just, it's no more games. I've been cut. I'm bleeding all over the place, but I kind of get it now.

I kind of understand, like, you get thrown into the pot and it starts to boil and it either consumes you, Or you adjust and then you thrive in that environment. That's what I wondered about him because I knew this time was coming. It doesn't. Sabin didn't avoid it at Alabama. And he may be the greatest of all time. Urban didn't avoid it at Florida. No one avoids it.

It's do you adapt to it and thrive in it? Because that's the one or two percent that are cut out to coach in the SEC in major college football. And I'm telling you it's like putting new keys in the ignition and it's kind of turned in him. and there's a lot of what we would call de-gaffness, D-G-A-F-ness, that he kind of has about himself that is very indicative of someone who is now adjusted and who has acclimated to their surroundings and basically look back and said, all right, game on. If this is how it works down here, game on.

You mentioned the coaching job they did the other night. Buddy, that's an NFL coaching staff on that offensive side of the ball. I mean, Ryan Grubb literally came there when it didn't work out in Seattle, but they worked Georgia's defensive staff pretty thoroughly. And think about the sentence that just came out of my mouth because you don't really say that about anyone. And so now, you know, their reward is they get to play Vandy this week and what stood out to me the most. And I can't believe this is a sentence coming out of my mouth either to just give you an idea of how that program's wired right now. They're walking off the field in Athens.

Huge whim. And they're no more headed into the locker room than half the locker room. then half the locker room is talking about the Vandy game. Half of them are in the locker room. They're in Sanford Stadium. They're already looking ahead to the Vandy game. Because that was the cattle prod to their neck last year that they never fully recovered from.

So as much as the public circle at Georgia game, they were already well aware before they left the building of what's next week. Diego Pavia coming in there next week, their Super Bowl last year. All right, they come into our building. College game day is going to be there. So it was an eye opener to me.

because I hadn't been to a Bama game this year in person. So I hadn't been around them in person. Yeah, I think that FSU game did something to him. And it may end up being the biggest blessing they could ever suffer from, if that makes any sense. Yeah, when I worked in Tampa for two years, I really learned, because I love college football, but I'd grown up around Oregon. Washington was a great program. And I, Kevin O'Connell was a photographer.

He's still employee at WTVT. I think it is, Channel 13. And we went to do a story on like Tuesday or Wednesday. Spurrier was the coach of Florida. And we went down there and there were already fans parked in the parking lot, tailgating. It was Wednesday. And I'm like, I go to Husky games like Friday night, maybe late Friday afternoon. You'd show up to Husky Stadium.

They were there Wednesday. And they'd been there. I mean, they had the, they had their, you know, they're cooking utensils out. They were sitting in the chairs playing, you know, poker. And I'm like, well, this is different. And then the funny thing is, I remember listening to Southern Smaller Market Radio. And I'm like, bro, it is March. And that's all they're talking about.

Like, yeah. You got to live it. You have to have experienced it. Because the first job I ever got on air was 1580. It's WIOL in Columbus, Georgia. And it's it's in the heart. It's right there, Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, FSU, Florida, Clemson, South Carolina. The most underrated market in the South.

It's like market 130 something in the country. But in the South, if you want to talk college football, it's great. And you could take a random Wednesday in June. NBA finals could be going on. It doesn't matter. We're talking about the right side of the offensive line. Not the one deep, Colin. We're talking about rotational pieces over there.

And we're talking about, do we really think this Juko kid? from Pearl River, Mississippi is really going to be able to shine there. And it's just so intense. You can back off. You can just shut up and let guys go for 10 minutes. And they're as worst on it as they would be their own children and their own family and their own financial situation. It's really amazing. The volume.

Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest,

SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, reader Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Winning on Clay is an art.

The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches. surface players and the moments set to find Roland Garris. Jenchie win.

She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Leonard Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, in every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast.

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