The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD - Hour 2 -Dabo Swinney ignoring the portal, Caleb Williams might be benched, the start of the CFB season, Yogi Roth

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

Even though Dabo Swinney has ignored the transfer portal, will he win another title?  There is a report coming out that says Caleb Williams could be benched some time this season Jason talks to CFB analyst Yogi Roth about the start of the college season, including the big match up between Texas and Ohio State  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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More action-packed sports news happening seemingly every 15 minutes. I don't know. Maybe it's just the luck of Rachel Nichols and I, fill again for Colin. There's just a lot happening. It's happening. It's all happening. Now, Rachel, you know, during the show, I can't. You can't be on Twitter because it gets in your brain and messes you up and I've got this flow.

Yes, yes. I mean, what would argue Twitter messes with your brain at all times? Awesome. Less is more when it comes to social media. Anyways, we'll have that shortly. Yogi Roth, really good dude. Knows college football as well as anybody. He's coming up in like five minutes.

But first, I wanted to go on a little riff about Dabo Sweeney. Now, listen, him and Colin have a checkered history. Remember after he won a national championship? he was kneeling him. Listen, there was a moment where Davo was the man in college football. Has he taken over for Nick Saban. Obviously, they had Taj Boyd, and then they had Deshaun Watson, and they went toe-to-to-toe with Bama. It was an awesome era. Enter, what's to say, Trevor Lawrence. Like, they had a great run. But then the game done changed. And this thing called the transfer portal came out of COVID, and all of a sudden, boom. Everybody's,

building their team in different ways. Now, as I've said multiple times here on my podcast, I'm obsessed with team building. You guys know I coach my kids in youth sports. So knowing the kids and the parents through school and stuff, I know who to avoid. I know that kid's really good. He's a nightmare at practice.

And oh, by the way, his parents are going to be texting me about playing tough. I don't need that headache. So I'm going to pass on that. The transfer portal does not totally allow you to dive deep the way you can. can with recruiting. You can track a kid for, I don't know, two, three, four, five years, right? Through middle school and high school, you could get to another family. Like, the recruiting

process is slow and can bear a lot of fruit. The transfer portal is fast, expensive, and buyer beware. What, caveat emptor? You don't know what you're getting. Why is that guy leaving the team? You could try to get info, right? He had a good year at wherever school. Why is he looking to leave? is he does he want a ton of money? Did he beef with teammates? You guys know I own a minority owner in a Mexican soccer team at the top league there

and I went to see them against Leo Messi in Miami and I'm yucking it up with the GM in the front office and I'm asking oh so what happened with this guy and then you start to find out the internal stuff that's not in the media and like my daughter currently plays volleyball so we've been playing for a few years

and you know the local coaches you start talking to them And they start to identify, yeah, that kid's good, but the parents, the kid, toxic. We want the good people. And you can't really find out who's good in the transfer portal. Now, there are some success stories, right? TCU, SMU, Indiana. Some of these guys, pop, dabbo has been staunchly against it for the longest time.

And everybody's mocking him. And he's like, well, I'm going to zig when everybody's zagging. Okay, okay, fair enough. Well, he changed his tune just a little. little this year, just a little. And you're wondering, well, wonder what that's about. And by many accounts, all those guys he drafted and rode with. He didn't say, oh, that guy's struggling, I'm going to bring in a ringer from USC or whatever to take his spot. No, you play through your struggles, you grow as a player in person, and you ride it out as a team. You don't have any toxic

issues in the locker room, which is, you get a lot of that in the portal. So Dabo got a couple guys and all of a sudden you start looking at mock drafts and you're like, what, we, how loaded is Clemson? What? What? Four of the top 15 players in an athletic mock draft are from Clemson? Are they that good? And then you look at Cape Clubnick and you're like,

well, this guy, I don't know. You know, I saw him against Texas. I didn't totally see it. Dabo knows something. And I think he knows he's got a loaded team. And there was a really interesting article that he, dove into about his thought process and essentially the article was asking what if he was right saying no to the portal building it his way and he wins a national championship this year that's a

fascinating topic that i had not really thought of until you start seeing just how stat clinson is so we're going to bring in yogi roth a long time uh college football pundit um he was with the uh he's currently with the big ten network i know yogi personally we had a dinner i don't four months ago. He's a really sharp guy. And, Yogi, I'm curious, where do you stand heading into the season on this Clemson-Dabos-weeney situation? Well, I think everybody who's in college football kind of was curious, they're not going to

play in that space. If you go back in the history of when the portal began, and it's not like this vast history, who struggled in it? Stanford wasn't going to take a bunch of players in it. Vanderbilt, like these high academic institutions, like you couldn't just get anybody in. But you saw that Blue Bloods in college football, they threw down on this thing. Look at Lincoln Riley in year two after Caleb Williamson wins the Heism. They rebuilt their entire offensive front and the trench world didn't necessarily work out.

So you had some where it worked and some were it didn't. You rarely, if ever, have seen teams go to the mountain top strictly through the portal. Now, you can supplement Ohio State. It was a beautiful example like that. Look at the way there is Will Howard, Quintan Junk. It's like there's some key players on their team last year that came, at the portal. But no team, especially up front can get to the mountain top. In fact, I believe the final four teams last year in the CFP, I think there was only one offensive lineman among the four

that came via the portal. So I think there's something to sitting, developing in the trenches. I think it was going to be fascinating to see this thing playout. If Clemson is able to live up to preseason expectations, find their way back to the playoff, but make noise this time in the college football playoff is, well, other high school players. And I, and you know, we had this dinner because it was the elite 11. I'm around the top high school players in the country every summer. Are they willing to come and accept that I've got to sit and wait and learn? They did it back in the day when I was coaching at SC. They clearly have done it here at Clemson.

I don't know if that's a rinse and repeat every year. Once you get it going, it doesn't slow down, but I think that's a really hard thing to navigate in this era. So we'll see. Like, did they roll this year with a veteran-laden team, much like the last two national championship teams did, veteran-laden because guys came down. back in NIL because they could be paid like NFL players or you could argue even better than certain NFL players. So I think it's a nuanced argument is kind of my point. I know that you can

say as a head coach, we're going to do it, we're not going to do it, we're just going to supplement like you've got to navigate this thing because you're also navigating financial chemistry in a locker room that is real. You're also going to navigate 105 scholarships now, which is real. There's a lot of, I think, things that they go into it. And what I respect most about the coach of Clemson and Coach Sweeney is that he threw down and he committed to what mattered most to him. He had clarity around what mattered most. He was confident in it and then he was disciplined in how he played it out. And now we'll see this roster play this coming season, of course, this weekend against LSU.

So, I mean, it's a phenomenal discussion to have. And you said something smart. Players now don't want to sit anymore. What do you think changed? Was it social media? Was it NIL, a combination of both something else? So why all of a sudden does nobody want to sit? I mean, I remember Quinn Ewers went to Ohio State early, remember?

Got a bunch of NIO money, and then he was like, yeah, I'm out of here. I'm leaving. And it's like nobody wants to take any time anymore. Everybody wants to be either a famous or a star or play instantly. When did that change? Can you pinpoint like an arrow or a time? Well, I don't think anybody ever wanted to sit. I think back when I was playing, you remember Tyler Palco from way back of the day.

Like, he came in as a five-star player. They didn't want to sit at Pitt. You think about big-time recruits, these little 11 quarterbacks never wanted to. I just think that now what has happened in the sport that we all love, and I get to thankfully call it day job every day of my life, is you can dip. You can leave. You can leave easily. You can leave without penalty.

You can leave without sitting. And you can leave knowing there's opportunity. And to me, I think the biggest challenge is just stay on the quarterback thing for a minute. In high school, it's being developed at the greatest rates in the history of the game. I think in college it's a challenge now to your point of, all right, I'm going to come in and I'm the guy. Okay, what do I need to do if I'm the head coach and I need to win? Let's just be very vanilla right now. I'm going to give you 12 concepts, half field reads, read one defender, and you're going one to two or you're running.

Like that's really how it starts because you want to get these guys on the field. You're paying high legit quarterbacks. You're making over $2 million. Like 1.5 to me is the floor. 16, 17, 1-18 with a house and a Lambo is reality. Like, that's just what it is. So what matters most? I love that phrase.

The best leaders to me, and you reference leadership and coaching, I've done those studies too. The best ones have clarity around the things that matter most. So to a quarterback, you've got to give him that clarity. Let's just look at Dante Moore. I think Dante Moore is going to take the college football world by storm, starting this weekend for the Oregon Ducks. He went to UCLA, played, struggled, transferred,

and he sat across from me when he transferred and he said, I want to go sit and learn. It takes a discipline to say like, when I play a la Archmanning, when I play a la Julianne, these guys making their first legit starts as season opener dudes, they said, I want to rip.

That was us back in the day when I was at SC. Liner didn't play off the jump. Nope, he sat, waited, and crushed it. John David Booty, he was the first guy to ever leave high school early. We see this all the time now. He sat, waited, cut it loose, went to two Rosewolds. Mark Sanchez sat, waited three years, started one season, and was a first round pick. Like, that thought process is few and far between.

And I get it. Because now, even if you do sit, the coach can be saying, ah, Jason hasn't played it for a couple years. Like, he hasn't been in competitive environments. Is he rusty? Because this guy out of Tulane looks pretty sweet. Let me go get him. He's a through for 5,000 yards. So the advice to recruits is across the board.

You might say to your child, if they were a big-time recruit, hey, go play at Southern Miss and go kill it as a freshman, as a sophomore, get tape at South Dakota State, wherever it might be, and then take your jump for big money versus take big money as a freshman, maybe get thrown into it, not ready for it, maybe not, and now you have to transfer, and your value has decreased. So, again, I just say it's so nuanced, which is why it's a fun conversation.

Like, I don't think it's one way or the other when it comes to this, man. And that's what makes elite 11 fun, because we get to talk to these families openly and confidentially about this is reality. I wrote the book, Five Star QB, man, out of all the 138 quarterbacks who've been ranked five-star quarterbacks in the history of the game, only one has ever won a Super Bowl. And it was Stafford on Team 2 and Year 13. So it's never going to go as you envision. Let me ask, let's dovetail that into Arch Manning, who has famously sat for a few years,

a couple years. And Steve Spurrier came out this summer and was. like, well, how good is this guy? I mean, he couldn't beat out Quinn Ewers. Quinn Ewers fell to the seventh round. How good is Arch Manning? I'll ask you, do we know how good Arch Manning is? No. I mean, you just have to be blunt about it. Like, that's just the reality. We don't know how good anybody is who hasn't played. Right. And we don't know how good these teams are that aren't ranked. Like, I'm calling USC's opener this week and on Big Ten Network. They are not ranked in the top 25. But what does an AP voter even know? They're not going to practice. They didn't have a spring game.

Do you know what I'm saying? So I think for Arch, do we know, know that he's incredibly talented. Yeah, he had a really high ceiling. His pedigree is as good as you'll ever find in the history of the quarterback position, at least in our lifetimes. I go to what I trust the most, which is Steve Sarko. I learned football from him in my four years, learning under him at USC. And all those guys I just referenced that sat, waited, and let it rip, they were all under his toolage. So I think there's something really powerful to quarterbacks who are able to just take a beat. I can remember a huge recruit in LA. He went and started as a true freshman, killed it as a freshman, sophomore. He finally, he gets hurt. And he says to me, I think it was

his sophomore season as he gets injured midseason. He pulls me aside after practice and he goes, God, it's so nice to just take a breather. Because these guys, think of the NFL, right? You finish your season, you go combine, pro day, interviews. Are we surprised when rookie quarterbacks hit a wall in week eight? You should it be. right because they just haven't slowed down high school recruiting the same deal you're the man you're the man you're the and all of a sudden you get to college and you should be playing you should be playing early you're getting money you're going to class like all these things are happening you're losing your ID all things happen for the first time and you've got to live up to like a texas blue blood ohio state a USC expectation like we're kidding ourselves and we think anybody can maximize their potential they need to take a beat so i just love what the manning family did arch clearly was down with and see if sarkisian of you're going to come here, you're going to compete, we're going to sprinkle you in to some games, you're going to get your opportunity he did in his limited starts when Quinn was injured.

And then when you get the keys to this thing, you're going to know not just how to make a half-field read like I referenced earlier and read one weekside flat defender. No, you're going to have all the keys. You're going to know all of the adjustments. And that's why it's going to be fun to watch because he and Julian St. I think are very similar in that regard in this game this weekend, which have we ever had a better week one game and like the history of our time around the sport. It's going to be great.

I mean, the hype for Arch obviously is massive. I am curious for Ohio State, you know, Smith, probably the best player in the country. I think few would argue that. But they got like a new coaching staff, offense and defensive coordinator. I like the Buckeyes in this game. Do you have like an edge for either team? Obviously, Ohio State's playing at home small favorite. I can convince myself either way.

Like you go back and I was at the semi-final game and I think a peak could cover. the defensive coordinator for Texas. Jeremiah Smith didn't do much in the game because he wasn't going to let him. He just wasn't going to let him. Now, I get it. He was 24 players drafted off of those two rosters on that field that evening in Dallas. Over 30 made it to an NFL training camp. So there are differences in terms of what we'll see this coming Saturday.

So I go back and forth of the coordinator match. Matt Patricia, to your point, he's a defensive coordinator. He's not everything you could do in football. He's a GM. He's a head coach. He's an OC. He's a D.C. Now he's at Ohio State. I called their spring game on Big.

to network and it looked the part is kind of my point like Ohio State. Last year the pressure was crazy. It was kind of like Penn State pressure of so many returners. But the talent, they didn't stop. It was the first time I would say, Jason, that I ever felt like somebody, a team reminded me of USC when I was coaching it. Because I walked out to practice and I watched them compete and I was like, oh, nothing is given.

Everything is earned because the competitive depth is so real at every position. So I think we'll just get a classic game. And I think you've heard both coaches say it throughout this week of just go play the game. Because thankfully, that's like the winner-loser of this is not going to end a season. So I want to see how guys play free. And then to nerd out, like in the situations, what do these play callers decide to do on both sides? Whether it's Sark, going against Patricia. You go back and forth, Ohio State, obviously a new offensive coordinator as well in Brian Hartline,

going against the aforementioned Pete Kutkowski. And then like what do coaches decide to do in four-down situations? Are they going to go for it? Are they going to punt? Those will be the fun parts of this game. You just said something that let me, uh-oh, it was about Brian Kelly and,

uh, and LSU. Hey, the loser of Ohio State, Texas is going to be fine. But I do wonder if LSU loses to Clemson, right? Brian Kelly's had a rough go here in openers.

Uh, they have Florida in two weeks. It seems like this could get a little squirrelly for Brian Kelly. Um, you hear a lot of negative stories about his personality. I don't know. personally, but I was with a guy recently who was being recruited heavily by him at, let's just say, previous to Notre Dame, and not a lot of nice things about Brian Kelly.

And he's starting to get beat up a little bit. Your thoughts on if he's in trouble. Forget about the buyout, just in trouble in general. I don't think so. I think this roster is pretty stacked. And again, I think the good thing in college football, I think all the college football fans now are saying, thankfully we've got these great games. Let's keep that up.

Let's not get to, you know, games. non-conference play that don't necessarily have major stakes. So I don't I don't think he's in trouble in that regard. Now granted in the southeast and in that conference you lose a game and don't read anything until you play another one and hopefully get a win. Like it's always ridiculous. It's always absurd in terms of the expectation of the fanfare or the fandom around it. And of course the dialogue flows with that. I heard you Rachel talking about Twitter. Like that'll be not a place to go to for well-sourced content or news if you're an LSU fan and they happen to lose this coming weekend.

But I think their roster is talented. I'm a big fan of Garrett Nussmeyer. I can remember babysitting him when he was a kid, and I'd go see Doug and his family up at Washington when he was the offensive coordinator up there. So to watch his path against Cade Clubnick, another guy, both of these guys really threw down on themselves. So we want to come on back and lead a program

to a place where we're accustomed to being it, which is playing for big-time trophies. So I love this for both. I think they're great examples for all the young quarterbacks out. there. And yeah, the losing coach will get a ton of smoke, just like he did last year when they lost to USC in Las Vegas in the opener. But that's what you signed up for. No one's got Woodward, like the athletic director at LSU. They're steady there. I'm not too worried about that. Okay. We can wrap up with Notre Dame Miami. So you know, the media loves this buildup,

tear down. Carson Beck, this time last year, oh, he's going to win the Heism. He's going to be the number one pick in 2025. And didn't quite go his way, kind of Spencer Rattler style. And then he gets injured transfers to Miami. I think he got the Lambo and the bag from the hurricanes. But I am curious. Miami, Notre Dame. I like Notre Dame going on the road here. Your thoughts on the game.

Can't wait. You know, knowing Mario Cristobal watching him build this thing, right? Who doesn't remember if you're our age, the Cains? And then you look at this game and, you know, we've all seen the 30 for 30. It's going to be awesome to watch the environment in the game. Like the buildup for these games might be better than, games in the three games that we just referenced man to be honest because it's the it's so big and and it's going to be a great game but i think notre dame to me is tracking i think under marcus freeman of how

he's adjusted this program to whether it's accepting more guys in the transfer portal whether it's just recruiting at a higher clip uh you saw that they played with a sense of freedom last year i mean a couple snaps away uh you could argue from i don't know they were ever the better team than ohio state but what a valiant that they had in that game to make it a four-quarter ball game. I think Notre Dame is tracking, but I think Miami's going to be off the hook. The only thing it would better if this was at the old Orange Bowl in a place that very few of us who probably remember,

but it would just go absolutely bonkers every time the old school early 2000s games would play. I hope it's that energy. And I think for Carson, to your point, that's the world that we're in. That's the nuanced part of the portal and NIL of you are catching, like, legitimately targeted, negativity at you. You're not just kind of catching strays on the back of a radio show.

Like you're getting it all day long. And I get it. Like sometimes you got to wear it. That's part of being a pseudo professional athlete, especially the quarterback position. But I don't know, man. I think I'll have a big season. I think this offense, what they did last year at Miami was really impressive, of course, with Cam Ward and all the success he had in that program under Coach Crystal. So I think we'll get another classic. And I think we should. Like the more of these every week in a non-conference play, the better for the game. Yeah. Amazing. All right. Yogi Roth, author, filmmaker, Big Ten Network.

He does it all. Yogi, great stuff as always. Thanks a lot, buddy. You got it, man. Lots of love. Talk to you soon. All right. Yogi Roth really knows college football.

Has me geeked for the weekend. Oh, my gosh. Three really good games. You know what else has me geeked? Apparently there's another record-breaking NFL extension. Just breaking right now. We'll talk about that next. One more herd?

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Back here on the herd, great stuff from Yogi Roth. Listen, college football has been very excited, guys. This weekend has three amazing games. Cannot wait. But let's go to Rachel Nichols with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

Jason, some breaking news. This is what we promised earlier in the hour in Baltimore. Kyle Hamilton and the Ravens have just agreed to a four-year, year, $100.4 million extension. Get this, 82 million of it is guaranteed. The previous mark in guaranteed money for his safety, 45 million to Antoine Winfield Jr. in Tampa. So we are talking about a nearly $40 million leap in guaranteed money over the previous standard. It's just insane. Why would they do that? Well, he's so valuable, right? Because he's kind of a chess piece that, I mean, he can't play defensive line, but pretty much any other position on the field they can slot him into if they need to.

I mean, you already had these guys as a Super Bowl contender. Yeah. What do you think it does to lock a guy like this down? So what do you think they're doing? Paying him like a hybrid linebacker slash safety? Because 40 million more than the previous record is insane. That just resets the market for, I mean, that screws a lot of teams. Right?

I mean, it's 40 more million guaranteed total for the package. It's not 40 million more year. But still, it's a huge number. it's about four and a half million more a year overall than any other safety. So they are resetting the market that way a little bit. Well, I mean, I'm looking at a pro football focus. So as a rookie, he was the top graded safety in the league. Then he was sixth. Then he was second. So he's a superstar. And like he has that chess piece who can guard Travis Kelsey and tackle CMAQ in space. And then if he has to match up with a receiver, so be it, you know. Yeah. And look, this is a team that

had the best injury luck of any defense in the NFL last year. So you can't count on that again. Yeah. Right? So you might need him to plug some of those holes. And they went out and who did they? Oh, they drafted Malachi Stark, the kid out of Georgia. So they're, they got two safeties.

They're doing it differently. Yeah. Like people don't really invest in safety. They do the edge rushers in the corners. Yeah. They're going linebacker in safety. It's an interesting experiment. Smart stuff, right?

Look, it's like buying a house, right? It doesn't have to be the price that anyone else in the world wants. to pay. It's what is one buyer want to pay for it? Well, the Ravens want to buy on Kyle. So there you go. I like it. I mean... Yeah. There you go. All right, let's talk about the 49ers. You know, they traded for Brian Robinson, Jr. earlier

in the week. That added him to the backfield with the course, a right now, healthy Christian McCaffrey. Those two guys have had some reps together, and Robinson has made a bold claim about their future together in Kyle Shanahan's office. My job right now is just to compliment him the best way I can. And we're going to be the best duo in the league. I see opportunities for myself,

regardless. I know CMA going to do his thing, you know, and I'm going to be ready to do my thing for sure. You know, like I told, you know, Mr. Lynch, before I got here, I'm like, look, you know, I respect. You know, everybody, I respect the room. I respect CMAQ, but I'm a competitor. I come here to compete.

Best backfield duo in the game. Hmm, I have to give that some thought. But listen, this guy was big time. Do you remember him in Alabama? As a senior? Thirteen hundred yards, rushing, 14 touchdowns. I thought he was good in Washington. I was surprised they moved off.

And I guess it's because he wants the bag. And then like, we're not doing that. Yeah. No, I mean, last year, if you look, he had a career high, eight rushing touchdowns, 4.3 yards of carry. Overall, in his first three NFL seasons, 2,319 rush yards, 15 rushing touchdowns. So he's got the numbers built up.

I mean, I would say that Detroit. Detroit, yes, that's the team. Tampa. Tampa. These all have strong. running back duos, but I love that he's putting himself out there. Yeah, I mean, Sequin's backup is what, Will Shipley? Yeah, no.

Detroit, I think you're right. Detroit has probably the best backfield with Montgomery and Gibbs. Yeah. But this is a really good one. Yeah? I like how you're wedging a lot of former Washington or current Washington player. I'm just saying. I do that with the Jess side.

I'm just saying. Although, let's not bring up the Washington defense again. You've already done that once a show. It's the fight club rule of being a commander's fan. We don't talk about defense. Thank you. Just offense. Just offense.

It's very happy around here. All right, college football. You just had a great interview there, and let's talk about Bill Belichick, said to play his first game since taking over the program. The Tar Hills host TCU Monday night, and Jason, as we know, Colin is off this week, but his presence never far away. He was just on the Joel Platt Show, making an interesting comparison for North Carolina. Take a listen. 40 transfers. I mean, come on.

I mean, I mean, I mean, Bill was hard on his first and second round draft picks to start. Like, he liked to draft guys, sit them, learn the system, and then play them year two. And those were like 24-year-old guys. And, you know, like Bill rarely went and spent big money in free agency until like that one of those final years. I don't know. It's got a Colorado feel to it. That's why it's so ironic they're opening with TCU, which, who Dion opened with at Colorado.

I mean, look, Dion did some amazing things his first year, right, at Colorado. In terms of off the field or around the program, got so much more excitement there, television, presence, merch, ticket sales, I think enrollment for the entire university system went up, you know, but he was

only four and eight. So when we look at... It's about the pomp and circumstance. Forget the record. Right, yeah, whatever. Well, for Belichick, I got to think the standards a little bit higher. I mean, they were six and seven without him last year. Where do you think they've got a hit in his first season for him not to get any further? I mean, if they win the opener, the schedule is favorable, they have Clemson,

but I don't see why they can't win nine games. Like, other than the Clemson game, where are they going to be, you know, maybe going to Cal? Well, now they got a week off before that trip. But it's not like there's even any brutal road trips there. Syracuse lost their quarterback. I don't know. I don't see why they can't. If they go nine and three or ten and two, that's a huge success.

Huge. Absolutely. What would be a failure? Five, 500? Yeah, I mean, Collins obviously talking about such a huge number of transfers. Can you integrate them into the team? And then there's the off-field distractions too. This is my favorite news item of the day, non-football division.

Belichick and Jordan Hudson, his lovely white young girlfriend, have filed for a trademark for the phrase gold digger. What? Specifically, for a new line of jewelry and gold-related products. Wait, come on. Is this real? For other young women, it's real. For other young women who might want a bag of NFL coach 50 years older than them, she's got the jewelry for you.

So wait, it's a joint? They filed it jointly? Well, so he now has a company that she is, I believe, the president of, or some, you know, the management of. And that company under her has filed for the trademark. gold digger and you have to file sort of what you want that expression for right you can't just trademark gold digger in general right that word's been around for right exactly um but they are the first people to trade get to and trademark for a jewelry line and you know it would appeal to the young

woman who might want to be a gold digger I guess I don't know wait so you're choosing your words careful I am I'm a deep breath and just I want to hear your real thoughts because I feel like you're about to unload up listen so how many how many houses did he buy you this woman? I think it was three so far. Interesting. Yeah. And now he's helping her get gold jewelry. I mean, there's been a whole bunch of sort of side projects that she's financially benefiting

from here. Her argument would be that she is leading the charge business wise for him. Since he's focused. Well, again, she would argue. Yeah. So what's actually happening might be a different story. That's all I'm saying. I don't

I don't know anybody who knows anybody in a similar situation with a 50-year age gap. There can't be a lot of that. But at what point do the Belichick family have to be like, we need to call what's it called when you call like the family in and surprise the person? Intervention. How could I not remember? I had Dylan

McKay from 902-00 in my head for some reason the 902O interview from 30 years ago. Anyway. Donna Martin graduates. Yes, yes. Classic. I just, at some point do they have to get him in and be like, yo Bill? The warning, I know you're, what is it?

They're saying, you can't read the in, you can't read the bottle label from inside the bottle. He's like inside this thing and he doesn't really see what's going on. And Julian Edelman pops in here sometimes. And I'm not going to say his stuff, but you know, off air, he's definitely talked about this story. I'll just leave it at that. And this is a tough one, man. There's certainly been reporting without specific quotes coming from family and friends,

but there has been reporting with people with well-placed sources who have known these either high-ranking Patriots players or family members for a long time, saying that there is concern. I mean, look, even when she just first came on the scene, there's the huge age difference, as you said, nearly 50 years. Her mom is a sex shop owner, right? The dad is a retired fisherman. It's just the whole, you know, she, as you pointed out the other day,

graduated from cosmetology school as her qualification to run this business. So to say there's some concern is an understatement. but look, Belichick, he clearly seems very happy. Yeah. Listen, if they get smashed by, what, T.C., let's say they lose 3810. Oh, boy. That's going to get tough for Bill. Yeah.

Because the obvious, where is his focus? He's always filing trademarks and buying your houses. Where's the football? Yeah. Monday night, you said? Monday 8 o'clock. Oh, boy. I need to check the calendar, make sure I put that in, so I'm not anywhere.

No basketball on Monday night. I don't like to quote Kanye these days, but, you know, the line holds. Kanye West, I forgot about that. I'm not saying she's a gold digger. Oh, we're still live on air, Rachel. Oh, my gosh. I didn't finish. Oh, damn.

Okay, Rachel with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd line news. Wow. Wow. All right. Coming up next.

Wait to hear what one bear's reporter is saying about Caleb William Satis as the starter. This guy covers the team that's next year on The Herd. What does feeling safe at home really mean to you? For a long time, I thought it was enough to have good locks, maybe an alarm that would, you know, make a lot of noise if somebody actually broke in. But after people close to me were broken into, I've realized that true security takes more,

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I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what should be. we should call it. We were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. 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,

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Jason, you're excited. I'm excited. Honestly, the moment this matchup was announced, everyone has had this circled. The Arch Manning era kicking off with a playoff rematch for the ages as number one Texas takes on defending national champion number three, Ohio State, on Big Noon Saturday. Coverage, of course, begins with Big Noon kickoff live from Columbus,

9 a.m. Eastern, Saturday on Fox. All right. I got to be careful with Caleb Wood. I don't want to say he's fragile at the moment, but the guys had a lot going on. Rough rookie year, there were reports that he was watching film by himself. Like, it was not a good introduction to the NFL. He took 68 sacks last year with tracks with what happened to him at USC. His final year, he's just trying to play backyard football, you know, just run around and try to make a play.

like that doesn't work in the NFL. It just doesn't. You need to be, sorry, Brock Purdy, drop back, process, and fire away. Like, you got to do that. Now you could say, Jay, Purdy had Shanahan. This guy had a clown car of coaches. Okay, fine. Enter Ben Johnson.

Well, I mean, I'm going to be real with you guys. I know Ben Johnson was one of the most highly acclaimed offensive coordinators in the last 15 years. He's certainly up there in rarefied air. He was amazing in Detroit. We don't know what he's like as a head coach. And, I mean, listen, he's doing these radio interviews. He's going to the podium, and I don't see a lot of positivity. So here's Ben Johnson on 670 The Score in Chicago this week,

talking about the development of Caleb Williams. The standard has been set, the bar has been set high. He has said that he wants to be not just one of the best top five quarterbacks in this league, but he wants to have a legacy that lasts for a long time. And so we're coaching him that way. We're approaching it that way. That's not going to change. Is he going to be a finished product here year two?

No, he's going to continue to get better year in and year out, and it's a process. And so we're very clear on that. You know, there is a little bit of grace here as we go through it. We know he's learning. He's going to take his bumps. But at the same time, as long as we're not making the same mistake twice, we're going to be right on track and we'll be just fine. I don't know.

As long as we're not making the same mistake twice. That sounds like a message to Caleb. Like, dude, you keep making the same mistake over and over. And again, maybe I'm becoming body language guy or parsing words because we're now going on nine months without football. That kind of thing happened, not nine, but close to nine months. And I want Caleb to succeed, but guys, look at like the last six years. Look at how many elite top ten picks.

I've just totally flopped. I mean, Trey Lance has been on how many teams. Zach Wilson, these guys were top five picks. Bryce Young is, I don't want to say borrowed time, but like, if he doesn't deliver, he's going to be done. Baker Mayfield, bounce around the league after a few years in Cleveland. Like, a lot of the top picks don't pan out. Maybe it's not going to be until stop two. Then you add on this Seth Wickersham book, Seth Wickersham close to Caleb Williams, did a book on quarterbacks.

And none of that stuff sounds good at all. Caleb and his family clearly had wanted nothing to do with Chicago. though. They don't know how to deal with quarterbacks there. They've never had a great quarterback. Who's the best quarterback in Chicago Bears recent history? Rex Grossman. You have to go back to Jim McMahon in the 80s. So, like, I mean, I get it.

But you add all this stuff up, the pressure of Chicago. Listen, if he was in Jacksonville, nobody cares. There's no media there. No media crush descending. And now you've got a reporter, like an actual guy who covers the team, saying Caleb is. in danger of being benched early in the season. That doesn't happen.

Here's Steve Weiss' last hour on our show talking about tough love, maybe, between Caleb and Ben Johnson. I didn't see Bill Belichick ever very happy. I know Andy Reid's a nice guy, but he's not the most jovial dude up there. So, you know, in terms of how guys appear at the press conference, I don't really know.

Having been in these situations, it's like the meeting rooms and stuff. If a coach is like glazing you up or are beating you down in front of the team in the meeting rooms and really humiliating you in front of your peers, that's where things really tend to ruffle feathers. Now, some guys, you know, get bent out of heat by what said in the media. But I don't know Ben Johnson. I've been around him. But he's just an intense guy. There are intense coach.

You've been around Sean McVeigh. That dude never relaxes. Now, he is kind of captain positive. But, you know, there's just different. coaches with different styles. I think there's a quote, praise publicly, criticized privately,

or something like that. Damn it, I wish I'd memorize that. But I don't hear a lot of praise from Ben Johnson. He doesn't seem happy. And again, Jay, you're over exaggerating.

But to Steve's point about Belichick, I mean, we've read stories for years about how in the film room with the quarterbacks, he would say, look at Tom, botched this throw. I can get the local quarterback from Foxborough High School to come out and make that throw. He would say that about Brady. Now, Brady ate it up and it drove him to be better, right, and thrive as a superstar.

But remember, Jazeel, the ex-wife, she was getting ticked off and there's reports, you know, hey, Bill's got to lay off Tom. I mean, that's public. So there's a lot of different ways. When I hear this relationship about Caleb and Ben, I think to my kids and Rachel, obviously, you know, you have kids and we're both, you know, dealing with the kids that are growing up and it's tough. I don't want to call Caleb Williams a kid, but he's a young guy. Yeah.

I mean, look, also, Ben Johnson, I have faith in him of how he's going to do as a head coach. I think there's just a lot of crossover with being an OC, but he is very precise. The reason we call him the mad scientist is because he concocks these very specific plays and very specific offensive sets. So the idea that someone like Caleb, who right now is much more improvisational, probably drives him crazy a little bit in a way that isn't necessarily Caleb Williams' fault, but it's just a clash of styles that is probably adding to the fact that, as he himself pointed out, Caleb is far from a finished product. And I thought it was very interesting.

I don't know what you thought, that he held Caleb Williams out of the first week preseason game. And it almost seemed like, from reading between the lines of what he said, He said a version of, a nicer version of, it'd be more embarrassing for him to go out there and fail than to be benched, even though there was a lot of fervor around the fact that he wasn't playing. And a lot of people accusing saying, oh, he must be terrible. Oh, you know, clearly Ben Johnson thought that level of criticism was better than the level of criticism he would have got if he had actually gone on and played. So this is all kind of swirling together. And we saw that one video of Caleb unable to throw it into a. net from like what five feet away yeah that goes viral people are crushing the kid can you imagine if

in week one of the preseason he vomits all over himself and it's like oh but you know and we talked about it this morning um if memory serves jared goff yeah started out horribly with the rams now he had jeff fisher um who was the other oh eli manning with the giants had tough terrible go look at his stats in his first year yeah he was like booed off the field in new york and they were like oh you've ruined Deli Manning. These guys are tough and mentally. They can bounce back. Yeah.

I mean, Williams has plenty of talent. There's a reason he went where he did in the draft, right? And so much in professional sports, it's about that matchup of fit, right? Are you with the right coach at the right time in your career? Are they the right players around you? Talked about Jaden Daniels getting those vets around him and why Washington thought that was so important. So with a guy like Caleb Williams, I think a big part of it is, is this fit right with Ben Johnson? We're going to find out probably sooner than later.

Coming up, final hour, breaking news out of Kansas City and Brock Purdy. Rules. 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 us. We get to ask other 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.

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