The Kevin Sheehan Show - Penix: From Washington To Washington?

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

Kevin and Thom today with a menu of excellence featuring a buffet of conversation delicacies including but not limited to: 1) Michael Penix Jr.'s performance last night in Washington's win over Texas. 2) Left-handed quarterbacks 3) Should Josh Harris be held accountable for this week's starting lineup? 4) Thom's road trip to Destin and his satellite radio introduction. 5) Commanders-49ers follow up 6) Christmas decorations take-down 7) Terps-Purdue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy is with me today. I am here. It is a new year.

I did do a shortened podcast yesterday on New Year's Day, recapping a little bit of the game on Sunday and talking about the draft position and the draft position likelihood after the final weekend of the year. but we've got a lot to do on the show today, including finding out how Tommy's doing down in Florida, which we will do right after I tell you that the show, as always, is presented by Windo Nation. Call them at 86690 Nation or go towindonation.com.

Mention my name. You'll get a great deal. You'll get a free estimate, so you've got nothing to lose. 866N90 Nation or Windonation.com. So did you make it to your deal? Destination, which, of course, is Destin, Florida. Are you there? Yes.

Yes, so we made it to our destination. Technically, I always use Destin, but it's Miramar Beach. Okay. I mean, Destin is much more recognized as the location, and Miramar Beach is right next door, and we're like right over the border. So technically it's Mirrameh. But, yeah, we made it here. We spent the night in Chattanooga in some Chattanooga,

in some cheap Hilton Honors Hotel. Went to our annual New Year's, well, yeah, New Year's Eve dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Right. Because I got lots of recommendations to eat in Chattanooga from people who listened to the podcast, and I appreciated that.

But we're just here on business. We're just passing through, eating food, and then moving on. So that's what we do. do. And we arrived in Miramar Beach yesterday afternoon. I headed straight for Pompano Joe's. Beautiful afternoon, 65 degrees and sunny.

Drinking a beer, eating a burger out on the deck and looking at the Gulf of Mexico. Man, yesterday here was just one of those nasty days, cloudy, drizzly, snow flurries,

just raw, ugly. days, you know, where it seems like, it's almost like we are in Alaska, where it's like dark, you know, for the majority of the day this time of year. And, and you got, I think you got out of town maybe just in time because there is a big, a big storm for the upcoming weekend. Now, the weather forecasters are kind of in between right now based on the models as to whether or not it'll be a big snowstorm here or a big rainstorm or kind of a mix. But you got out, I think, maybe just in time. So, you know, I've told you this before, that one of my very best friends, oldest, closest friends, was after college. He was ROTC at Villanova and then went into the Marine Corps and was in flight school in

Pensacola. So during those years when he was in flight school, we went down to Pensacola several times. and I loved Pensacola. And I love that whole panhandle of Florida. The beaches are so beautiful. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they really are. Yeah, so Destin. So did you get to watch?

Well, you didn't get to watch the game because you were driving. Did you take my suggestion about Sirius XM, some sort of short-term trial period, and listen to the game on the way down? You know what? You have some value sometimes. You offer some good information. Well, thank you.

I was able to sign up for Sirius XM. I got a three-month trial offer. There you go. And I may keep it for all I know because I really enjoyed listening to something of music and stuff. And we listened to the game on the radio, clears the bell all the way down, driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains. I told you. in southwest Virginia and then Tennessee. So the three-month trial at the end of three months,

you can give it back and it'll cost you nothing, right? Yes. Yeah, but I was right. It was good advice. You were going to find some channels that you were going to find some channels that you liked so you might keep it. Yes. All right.

That may wind up being the case as well. So I listened to the radio broadcast, a full radio broadcast. Did you listen to Washington? call or the San Francisco call? I listen to Brown. Okay. If I can say a couple of things about that, I don't know. Look, I know the radio broadcast is not as important probably as it used to be.

Am I right in saying that? I think so. I think that the base, I think radio broadcasts of sporting events that I think that this is true. I don't have any. football, I think. I think in baseball, it still has a grip, but in football, I mean, it's not the days of sunny Sam and Frank. Well, I'm not even talking about that. I'm just talking about in general, young people don't listen to games on radio. Right. They watch their games on their phone or their tablet or whatever they have. Now, if you're in the car driving, it's hard to watch, although some people do it, and you will listen.

But whenever, I mean, this is for many years now, if I'm in the car and I put a game on in the car to listen to it and I have any one of my three boys in the car with me, they're like, what are you doing? Like, young people really don't. And I think that just speaks to probably the future of play by play. Here's one thing. It's funny. I was asked about this recently by somebody that you'll see a lot of the long, iconic broadcasters.

Take Maryland as an example. Johnny Holiday's been doing games now since 1978, 79, whatever. It's 40 plus years that Johnny Holiday has become, you know, an institution at the University of Maryland calling football and basketball games. And there are many

announcers around the country, especially with college sports, even more than pro sports, I think. Although baseball play-by-play guys, there's so many legendary boys. as well. But what you've seen is as they have either retired or died off, you've seen them replaced by super young, you know, less expensive broadcasters in radio. And that seems to be kind of a trend in a lot of places. I don't know if it's something that'll hold up. I hope it doesn't.

But anyway, I think I don't listen to the games on radio other than occasionally, you know, I'll turn it on, you know, towards the end of a game or something. And, you know, CJ broadcasts those games. So, you know, CJ's always done a phenomenal job producing and doing anything in radio. And Bram's a friend of mine. And one of the things I remember, I know that Bram, that first year, he really hadn't done play-by-play. before. And I listened every once in a while, sometimes at the suggestion of CJ or somebody else. And I think Bram really got better and better. And I think does a pretty good job. And I think London does a pretty good job too. Is Julie still on the broadcast or not?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me just say this. Okay. Yeah. Here we go. No, I'm not going to be, I'm not going to be mean. Okay. I agree with you that Bram does a great job. actually on the play-by-play. And he has an institutional knowledge of the organization. So I think that's very helpful in that sense. But other than that, there's not a lot of personality in that broadcast. I don't know how much Josh Harris is going to pay attention to that, but that's another way to present your franchise.

And other than to play-by-play, that could use a whole makeover. Well, Bram's a pro. Bram is a professional radio broadcaster. Professional broadcaster. I mean, he was, you know, he did television for many years at ESPN. And he works at it. I mean, here's a little bit of a secret about these jobs, just like your jobs out there. The harder you work, the better you get at it.

And Bram works at it and always has worked at it. And I had no doubt that he would, you know, become a solid play-by-party. play voice. But again, the future that I don't know. And in terms of what the new ownership will want, I mean, look, you know this. When Larry moved on or was asked to move on, which is actually a more accurate description, I thought there was a chance the new booth was going to be me, Cooley, and Doc. There were a few people, a couple of key people in the organization at the time who certainly suggested that that was what they would love to. to see. But that changed because within a few days of Larry's departure, Dan and Tanya hired

new people, including some new people in their communications area. And those new people decided to go in a different direction with it. So that was that. But when Bram did get the gig, I was happy for Bram. I was. I've worked with Bram for a long time. And he's always been a friend. And I knew he would become solid at it because he works at it. Like I said, he's good. I know he'd be good at this part. It's missing some personality. And again, it's one area that Josh Harris could, again, present his franchise in a different way. Yeah. That's all. Okay. So you listen to the game all the way down. And you didn't watch the game, but what was your

impression after listening to the game? Did you have one? Well, my impression was that I don't know how the 49ers took this game seriously because I refused to believe that the diminished Washington offensive line had all of a sudden become, you know, the hogs and were able to protect young Sam Hal as well as they did. You know, I'm sitting there and listen to the radio on the way down. I'm thinking, why aren't they going after this guy? I mean, haven't they watched any film since week one? So I guess, you know, you could put it in two ways.

If you're a Washington fan, you could be very impressed at least in the first half with the way they protected how. From what we thought would be, I think my impression was there'd be a defensive onslaught. I mean, I thought, you know, Boza would have like a record. setting day. I thought Chase Young would have a great homecoming event, and that really didn't happen.

So I was surprised at that. But then, you know, I knew as time went on, this team gets exposed, and the second half did just that, exposing them, and it was, what, 27 to 10, it could have been a lot

worse, and it was just, it was just business as usual. Unlike somebody, other games, so many other losses. There wasn't anything particularly dramatic about this loss. It was just an expected loss. And it unfolded as expected pretty much. Well, the drama happened, you know, basically after we were done with the podcast on Friday.

Well, no, after I recorded the whole podcast with Jay Gruden. Once we got, once you got to the game and we knew that Sam Howell was going to start, nothing in that game and was particularly shameful, dramatic, embarrassing, which has pretty much been the M.O. Which is a win. And by the way, in the win was a loss, a true loss, which also was a win. No, it's funny because I thought the first half, keep a couple of things in mind. They only ran 21 plays in the first half because the 49ers had the ball for pretty much

the entirety of the first half. I mean, it was like a 19 to 11 time of possession advantage. Overall, in the game, it was significantly one-sided. So they only had three possessions in the first half. They went three and out. Then they went on a drive in which they had a field goal. And then they went on the most impressive drive they've had in weeks in which they scored a touchdown.

And I gave Eric B. Enemy a lot of credit for what they did. and I tweeted this out before the game, Tommy, on Sunday, if Sam's going to start, which was kind of my slight preference anyway going into the game, I think this is the game where it's really incumbent, given that they basically told us this is a shattered broken quarterback, that the development thing is off the table, that this is a game in which you've got to make it easy for your quarterback. And I thought he did.

They ran the football. everything they threw was quick game, screens, bubbles, tunnels, shovels, you know, the whole thing. And even the big play that he hit on the third and two to Terry, that was quick game, press man coverage, three step, let it fly. And it was really well done. The touchdown pass was quick game back shoulder. So everything I thought Bienomi did in the first half was, I. It was responsible and caring, actually. Given what they essentially told us, which is this guy really needs, as they said, a breath, a break.

You know, no longer should this have been, we're going to just keep dropping them back. We're going to keep doing these things. We're going to pretend like, you know, we got Tari Kill and we've got Patrick Mahomes and we got Kelsey and, you know, and that's not what he did all year long. But at times, you know, I think he forgot who his young quarterback really was. And I thought on Sunday it was more responsible. And what you saw was you saw a guy that with a dialed back kind of existence can play a little bit. He can throw the football. There's no doubt.

But then, you know, the interceptions in the second half, and he had a couple of interceptions in the game as well. And the final result was what it was. They couldn't stop the Niners. And the only reason the Niners didn't score a lot more is they actually did. didn't execute well and Washington did in the red zone. And the truth is it was just one of those weird games in which there were very few possessions overall in the game. It was a very fast-moving game. I think before that Christian Holmes injury, which was actually kind of scary,

before that, the game was basically on pace to finish in like two and a half hours overall. Wow. So, yeah. But they lost, which was the most. important thing. Yeah, they lost. Most important thing. They didn't screw up their draft scenario. Right. And just let it be, well, it's just as a warning.

Tomorrow and tomorrow's Washington Times, I take a two-by-four to Eric B. enemy and this notion that he's some kind of, you know. I thought you already did that. Basically. No, no, no. I've never written a whole column about him. Oh, okay. No.

Did you point out that? I've done that. day was a decent day for Eric Bianami or not? Or did you not really... I'm not giving him credit for the 16th game of the year, suddenly recognizing his hand. My God. All right.

No, no, no, no. I just say the idea that anyone would hire him as a head coach, let alone as your offensive coordinator. Now, do you realize that his offense is 23rd in the league? and Scott Turner's was 24th in the league when they finished playing. That as of now, if the commanders don't score more than a field goal on Sunday against Dallas, they'll have scored the same amount of points that Scott Turner's offensive scored last year. Look, there's no doubt.

I mean, I've mentioned it a few times. I mean, if you start, you know, looking at last year's offense compared to this year's offense, there isn't going to be much different. Once you got done playing better defensive teams and you went through that stretch, there isn't that much of a difference. And in fact, I mean, the real difference is that Scott Turner's offense had more opportunities because they had a better defense. That would be the one thing that you could say is that the defense carried that team last year to contention. It wasn't the offense that carried the team into contention. It was the defense that really carried the team. And this year, the offense actually kept them more competitive in games that they lost and even won a few

early in the year, with the exception of the Arizona game. But yeah, no, DVOA right now, 24th ranked offense in the league, 24th. And last year they finished, here I'll tell you what, they finished last year in DVOA. Last year on offense, they were third. So DVOA last year, they were actually, you know, significantly worse than they were this year. And I think kind of the eye test says that to a certain degree, but you're right. The actual traditional numbers aren't that much different. Yeah. So I just to let you know that, I mean, I had my say on Eric B. Eni and tomorrow's Washington Times.

So do you want to do that today or should we wait until Thursday to recap that when I've got? We can wait because we have enough to talk. talk about. Yeah, we have a full menu today, don't we? We have a full menu today, which starts with this. Just a request to rate us and review us on Apple and Spotify, if you get a chance. Apple, five stars, if you think we're worth it with a quick one to two sentence review, it's much appreciated, especially this time of year.

It takes 30 to 60 seconds to do it. Follow us on Apple and Spotify as well. That's easy to do. The plus button is in the upper right-hand corner on Apple Podcasts. It's down the left-hand side on Spotify. And wherever you can subscribe to the podcast, it doesn't cost you a thing. That helps us as well. I wanted to read this from Corey.

Corey actually emailed me this. Kevin, I think it's interesting that people always say how impatient teams are with quarterbacks, but it's really not true. The only recent example of hardly any patience was when the Cardinals took Kyler Murray the year after taking Josh Rosen. I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't look at a quarterback, but it wouldn't surprise me if the new GM gives Sam more time. So I read this. And I just said, Corey, Corey, you're missing. Your overall take.

By the way, I think in general, I think the lack of patience on the position probably is a bit exaggerated. But here's the big problem with your overall take, Corey. Josh Rosen was a first-round pick. Kyler Murray was a first-round pick. Yeah, that is rare. Like, that never happens where you go first-round pick one year and the next year you take a quarterback with a first-rounder as well. Very rare. Sam, how?

This is apples and oranges. Sam Howell was a fifth round pick. It doesn't matter that football fans recognized his name or where he was projected to go the year before, even before that senior season. He was a fifth round pick. Patience isn't something that teams even think about with day three picks unless, unless that player gives them a reason to believe in them and to believe in their upside. The investment, and I talked about this all off season, of course, when you get to playing, it's about your performance, of course. But the player that is heavily invested in is always going to get more rope. Sam was a fifth round pick.

It's like some of you don't even remember that part of the whole equation. He fell to the fifth round for everything that we watched this year, all the reasons that we saw this year. He's short. He holds on to the ball too long. doesn't process quickly. He takes a shitload of sacks. He bails from the pocket when he doesn't see it. All of those things are why he fell to the fifth round. They are absolutely going to be looking at quarterback as priority number one. And by the way, after last night watching Michael Pennix Jr., you know, and I have not been, I've been more in the top three as projected from

like Caleb, Drake May, I think most of you know at this point that I'm in love with Jaden Daniels. There have been games this year where I've watched Pennix and I'm like, nah, and then there are other games I've watched and I'm like, yeah. And then last night, wow, what a football game he played. Wow, it was right. Now, he's got pro receivers all over the place and Texas has given up, you know, some yards and some big performances. But still, I think the real test for Pennix Jr. comes, and we're going to. to get into the two games in the next segment, but I think the real test will come against that Michigan defense on Monday night. I'm looking forward to that matchup for sure. But

anyway, Corey, come on, man. They're going to be looking for a quarterback. It's not just picking another quarterback. You have the rare opportunity to pick a player within the first three rounds, within the first three picks of the draft. Yeah. I don't. I mean, you have to take advantage of that and go for a quarterback, especially in this draft, but there's a number of different choices at quarterback. I mean, that would be malpractice to basically not pick a quarterback with the second or third pick, whatever they come up with in the draft. The comparison, Corey, and I just looked this up because I thought Gardner Minchu was drafted by Jacksonville. And I keep saying that he is Colt McCoy, sort of Gardner Minchew.

And I think that's probably the fair comp right now. It's not what I was hoping, which would be more like Andy Dalton before the year started or early in the season. In 2019, Jacksonville picked Gardner Minchew on day three. Gardner Minshu in his first season started 12 games, excuse me, started 12 games, had 21 touchdown passes, six interceptions. and by the way, had a pretty low sack rate for a rookie quarterback. So he had a much better rookie season or first year starting than Sam did in his first year starting. What did they do two years later? They selected Trevor Lawrence number one overall.

Why? Because Trevor Lawrence has big time ceiling and big time franchise potential, and Gardner Minchu is six feet tall. and is a really, really nice backup and part-time starter. And I say part-time. He's been starting pretty much the whole season for Indy this year, and he's done a really good job, and they're on the verge of potentially making the playoffs. So, yeah.

And then there was one other one that I was looking at real quickly. Before the Bills drafted Josh Allen, the year before, fifth rounder, Nathan Peterman, who, gee, from the show. mentioned to me the other day that he was hoping that we would see Nathan Peterman-like quarterback performances against the 49ers and the Cowboys to ensure losing. Yeah, no, we can't look at Sam in the same way that you would look at Josh Rosen. And Josh Rosen required a significant investment.

So moving on from Josh Rosen that quickly took more balls. By the way, I think they did the right thing. And I think you should be drafting a quarterback every single year until you have one. I agree. And they don't have one. So, but thank you for the email. And again, rate us, review us.

And if you want to send kind of an email in the form of a review, do it via Apple. And then we get the benefit of the review as well. By the way, Tommy, so after the game on Sunday, very much kind of tongue-in-cheek. I put out a poll because on Friday, I had a caller essentially go off on. I don't want to lose to the 49ers, but I'll take that one. But there's no way if Dallas has something to play for, can I possibly root for the Cowboys to win that game? I'm sorry, Kevin, it just won't happen.

So after the game, tongue-in-cheek, I put out a poll, and I said, pick one. Lose to Dallas and you end up with a top two pick. It's possible it could be top three if they lose. Or beat Dallas and you cost them the division. and you send them on the road for the postseason. Tommy, there was a day, and it wasn't that long ago that I absolutely would have had a hard time, especially knowing how devastating it would be

to the Cowboys and to Cowboy fans losing Sunday. It would be hard for me to root for a loss against them. But those days are in the rearview mirror. Like I have no I mean on one hand The cowboy fans I mean Cowboy Clay is obviously You know a friend and he listens a lot

And he's probably listening today On some level I would take some joy And how painful it would be for cowboy fans To go from division title Two seed playing the first two playoff games at home Potentially to fifth seed having to go on the road Like that would be that'd be an all-time rivalry win, but no, they have to lose this game.

There are more important priorities to take care of. Yes. Okay. Other than your hatred, your hatred cannot take the place of your desire to improve. I would prefer to have Caleb Williams or Jaden Daniels leading my team. two or three years from now into a season-ender against the Cowboys for the division title and the one-seed overall. And you're not going to get there at the quarterback position beating the Cowboys Sunday. This would be organizational malpractice if they have the mantra from ownership down to win this game.

Now, the players and the coaches, as we've said the last couple of weeks, they're not going out to lose the game. but I really believe Tommy really believe that Jake Fromm should be starting the game Sunday. And who knows, by the time you listen to this podcast today, people, maybe there's a report about Jake Fromm, but I think practice squad players should be getting a real look. Backup players should be getting starts in these games in this game on Sunday. Dallas has everything to play for, which is a good scenario if you're a Washington fan. And that's why last week I was encouraging all of you to root for Dallas to win the game Saturday night. Now, by the way, what's funny is if they had lost the game because Philly lost, they still would have had something to play for on Sunday.

But I would ensure that we have the least chance of being competitive with the players on the field. And I would get a lot of practice squad and backup players into significant roles Sunday against the Cowboys, including starting Jake Fromm at quarterback. I would. That's just me. Jake Fromm, by the way, was also a fifth round pick, just like Sam Hal was. I would agree with that assessment. 100%.

I mean, you've got to recognize your priorities at this point. But, okay, so if they go out and win on Sunday against Dallas, who's to blame? Well, it depends on how they do it. What's false is it? Well, it depends on how they do it. If they go out there with, let's just say, Jacoby Brissette and all of their starters, and they play a really solid football game and a couple of things bounce their way. And by the way, the weather could be nasty Sunday, although it looks like this storm will be over

by the time the game kicks off at 425. But, you know, and they somehow pulled off a miracle, that would be, practice. That would be sports negligence at the highest level. But if they go out there with Jake Fromm and sitting John Allen, because John's been banged up for a while, anyway,

it's time for him to take a seat, sitting Duran Payne, sitting Terry McCorn, let's see Mitch Tinsley, let's see some of these guys that we haven't seen. If they go out and they win with those guys, there's nothing you can do about it. Because those guys are playing for jobs. I know that. Okay. Okay. I can

ask you that. Okay. But But if they put their best foot forward to try to win this game, who's the blame for that? At this point, like we talked about last week, when we brought up this potential Dallas has nothing to play for scenario, I would be upset with ownership for the first time this year. I'm giving them a long-term honeymoon, you know, et cetera. But no, I think that we did this on Thursday show. I would be telling Ron right now, I would like you to bring up players from the practice squad. I would like our new general manager, we're going to be changing some faces here in a few days.

And I'm sure they've had some of these conversations maybe already. I want some of these guys to have some real football on tape for the new regime to review. Yeah. Okay. So you and I are in agreement. Default would squarely fall on the owner who could stop the head coach from trying to win this game. Yeah, again, you can't tell the head coach not to try to win the game. I know that.

But you can tell them who to play. Yeah. I definitely think that that's something where this is actually. the responsibility of ownership and high-level management and an organization. I do. This is an important statement to make now, and they mean nothing if they lose the game under any circumstances, and people will forget about it. But right now, this is an important statement to make because we have not really held

the owners feet to the fire with anything this season. and this would be one of those times where, you know, they needed to show that they had a good understanding of the future. Yeah, I mean, you know, I hope they're not sitting back there saying, it doesn't matter what Ron does. We're not beating the Cowboys. I mean, we're just not a good team. And Dallas has everything to play for. Dallas is a 13 and a half point favorite. By the way, Aaron sent this to me yesterday, and I wanted to read it.

I mentioned yesterday that the skins had never in the Super Bowl era, never in the Super Bowl era, had they been back-to-back home games as big of an underdog as they've been the last two games. There were a 14-point underdog to the 49ers at home on Sunday, and as of now, they're a 13-5-point underdog to Dallas. Aaron, our producer, Aaron Oster, sent me this. He said, I did some research today. The last time a team was home underdogs of 13 or more points in back-to-back weeks, the 2000 Browns. So it's been 24 years since an NFL team in back-to-back weeks has been a 13-point dog or more.

I know it's San Francisco and Dallas to end the season, two really good teams, okay? Or, you know, one great team and one good team. But this just speaks to what we've been talking about for about a month now, and that is, we just witnessed one of the worst on-the-field season performances in franchise history this year. It's not just that they're going to lose 13 games and win four. You know, the 13 games will match the most that they've done. ever lost in a season. It's that they haven't had a chance for almost two months now. Seattle was the last game that was, well, that's not true. Of course, the jet game was winnable, my fault.

They came back with Jacoby Brissette and took the lead against the jets. But they have had some, it's the Buffalo game, the Chicago game, the two giant games, the Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game, the Dolphins game. And really, with the Buffalo game, the Chicago game, and really, with the Chicago game, Without Jacoby Berset, they would have lost by three or more touchdowns to the Rams and the Jets back to back. I mean, so if Sam had finished up the Rams game and had finished up the Jets game, they would be on a run right now of one, two, three, four, five, six straight losses by double digits. And four of them would have been five of them potentially would have been by three touchdowns or more. That is in a league that's designed for parity and designed for teams to be close, this team's been nothing but distant from most of their opponents all year long.

Quite the legacy. I didn't mention the results of the poll, the poll that I put out. Fortunately, it wasn't 100% to 0%, but 5,000 votes roughly, 88.5% said, lose to Dallas, get the top two pick. 11.5%, there are still some diehards out there that don't want to lose to the Cowboys. It doesn't matter what the draft position is. 11.5% said, nope, beat Dallas so that they lose the division. Anyway, anything else on our football team?

Oh, I want to mention... Yeah, go ahead. I just want to remind everybody, as you mentioned, how far on the bottom, how scraping the bottom of the barrel this team has gone through as the 20-23 came to a close. The quote from Jason Wright before the season, quote, We have righted the ship, and now that ship is ready to go on a change. championship voyage. Well, he didn't tell you how long the voyage would take.

He didn't tell you how choppy the seas would be. He didn't say it was a three-hour tour. I mean, he forgot to remind you that the first leg of this journey, this voyage is pretty damn choppy. I wanted, you mentioned something, and I just wrote this down when you were talking about the game. So, because you talked about the offensive line, like, wide in the 40. And I said, well, you know, Washington only ran 21 plays.

they only had three drives. They actually ran the ball a little bit and ran it effectively and everything was quick game. And when everything's quick game, which a lot of teams employ a lot of quick game, that's why, you know, the sack number, you know, is a number that basically has gone down most years, year by year. But anyway, I digress. I did think, and I said yesterday that there were a couple of things that were impressive about the day. And I thought Brian Robinson Jr. was impressive.

I thought Gibson was impressive. I still think Gibson was way underutilized during his time here. Yes, 100%. And part of that was on the fumbles in the first couple of seasons. And I thought that Eric B. Anami did a very nice job, a very careful and responsible and carrying job with the game plan, especially given Sam's fragile state. but one of the reasons that they, you know, that they looked better, Sam Cosmy was outstanding again in the game on Sunday.

He has, he's become the absolute keeper of that offensive line. I think going into last week, there was a five-week run where pro football focus had him rated as the number two guard in the NFL. Cal. Cosmi is a really good player. He's a keeper. You know, the rest will see what happens. Obviously, there needs to be a makeover, and they've got a lot of cap space, and they've got a lot of picks, et cetera. But I think I barely mentioned Cosmy, but when you brought that up, it just reminded me that this guy has really, really been playing some outstanding football over the last month, month and a half, two months. And is one of those guys that

when the new regime comes in, you can't get rid of everybody. You're not an expansion team with an expansion draft. You're, you know, and a lot of these players are under contract. So a lot of these players are going to be back. There's going to be a big overhaul, I think, in a lot of spots. But, man, Cosmy,

he is one of those picks from this group that I think has turned out pretty well. All right. You talked about Brian Robinson and Antonio Gibson and how they they both average over four yards to carry this year

for the season in running the ball. The commanders have run the ball less than any team in the league a hundred times less than the Cowboys have. A hundred less carries. Yep. Yeah, and let me just check real quickly

because they had fallen to second overall in pass attempts behind. I think it was Kansas City. Nope, guess what? Total pass attempts now for the season, Washington three ahead of the Chiefs. So they lead the league in pass attempts. Passing yards, which people were drooling over for much of the season, they're now 18th in the league, despite leading the league in pass attempts. So there you go. rough season for this football team, pretty much across the board. But you're right on the running backs. I love Chris Rodriguez, too.

I think he shows a lot of promise as well. I agree. I want to get to these two semifinal games from last night, Michigan, Bama and Washington and Texas. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. It's Williams in motion, low stand. Melrose stopped. Michigan makes a stand and comes up with a milestone.

Playoff victory. quarterback draw on the final play of the game in overtime. And Jalen Milro got absolutely nailed. Wasn't a great snap again. Man, that center had issues with the snap all game long. The Bama Center did. Bama's out. Michigan moves on to the championship game next week.

They will face Washington who beat Texas in the Sugar Bowl last night, 37 to 31. unbelievably entertaining games back to back on New Year's evening and New Year's night. This segment of the show is brought to you by our good friends at Surfside, D.C. Surfside's got a Surfside fajita box that makes dinners easy. You can get it on the go or on your way home. They're the best way to feed your crew, especially this time of year, with a meal everybody will love. Fahita chicken, steak, veggies, all the fixings in a convenient grab-and-go box.

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dot com. So, I love Texas going into the game last night. I was wrong about that. I also had Michigan. It was a big smell test weekend success, Tommy. 7, 2, and 1 on Saturday and

Sunday with college bowls, semifinals, and NFL games. So a really productive weekend. Let's start with the Bama game first. So this was a game in which special teams, my God, just so sloppy. I mean, Bama scores its first touchdown on a botched punt.

Michigan's got a bad snap that rolls back. They missed an extra point. And then the final play of, or not the final play, but almost the final play of regulation, you get that guy who's not fielded punts back to field the Bama punt, and he botches it and did an incredible deal. job to pick it up and barely stay in the field of play. Can you imagine if that game ended on a safety that way or a botched fumble? What he was doing fielding that, I have no idea.

In fact, there was a lot that was very confusing about how the game was coached in that final minute by Harbaugh and even Sabin in particular. But the game goes to overtime. Alabama had snap issues with their center all night long and the shotgun snaps. It wasn't a clean game, but man, I thought this game was, it had so much to it. And Tommy, it was really strange because early on in the game and Herb Street and Fowler, you know, basically said the same thing that I was watching, at least. I don't know how many of you were feeling it. Harbaugh had said pregame, this is going to be one of those games that just flat out is decided at the line of scrimmage.

And Big Boy College football, you still get back to the line of scrimmage. And a lot of football in college, it's not about the line of scrimmage. They mask the line of scrimmage with scheme, with spread, with quick, and all these other offensive innovations over the years. but last night was a big boy game at the line of scrimmage. And I thought watching the game in the first half that Michigan just dominated the line of scrimmage. And the fact that they were only up 1310 was really disappointing. Now, I bet Michigan and I was rooting for Michigan,

but I said to a friend of mine via text during the game, I said, if this weren't Alabama, I would just think that Michigan was playing Minnesota and this game was going to end 45 to 10 because that's how they that's how much they dominated the line of scrimmage. But the game turned in the second half

and Bama started to dominate the line of scrimmage, especially with their defense. So it was really this incredible I thought Michigan looked like clearly the better team but they're only up three and then Bama looks like they're clearly the better team but they only

lead by four and then by seven you know late and then give J.J. McCarthy credit, man. I'm not a big J.J. McCarthy guy in terms of a first round pick. I don't see it. I know a lot of people swear by him, but give him credit because this is not a team that's played many competitive games this year, or even during his time there. And they needed that long drive and they got a little bit of a break on that tip ball that went up in the end of the air and landed in the hands of a receiver. Yes. You know, that was a big break, although I thought he got nailed that. of bounds and they didn't flag that play. They actually let them, they really let those two teams play in that game. There were five penalties in total called in a game that was chippy at times,

etc. I kind of like that personally. But then when they had to have it, it was J.J. McCarthy making some big plays and then, you know, Blake Quorum is just such, such a great runner. He's just got such great vision and that touchdown run in overtime was incredible. And as far as the QB draw on that last play, I would hope that Milro had other options and just picked the wrong one. But if that was just the play without a check as an option against that defensive front, he's your best player. I understand that. He's your best player.

And you've got to put the ball in his hands. But, man, it wasn't even close. And Michigan moves on. Terrific game. Terrific football game. What did you think? It was a terrific game. Look, I don't watch that much college football.

Blake Corm is a very special player, isn't he? He was hurt and missed the playoff game last year against TCU. And, you know, he's from, so he played high school football in Baltimore, but he grew up in rural Virginia, 50, 60 miles from D.C. Yeah. On a farm. But, yeah, no, he is, he's an NFL back for sure. You know, he's not a running back that's going to be taken in the first round.

But he's a, I think he's a day two selection in the NFL. and he's just one of those guys that has just incredible vision and then incredible power for a smaller running back. Yeah, he really does. He really impresses me as a special player. I saw Michigan play twice this year. I saw them play Ohio State and this game as well and was very impressed with him.

And I was head scratching the final call, the final play call by Nick Saban as well. It was not the way you want to live with going out. on a play like that. I mean, not only do you lose, but you lose, what was I thinking, kind of thing.

Yeah. I mean, that's who you want to have the football in that spot. But it's, you know, it's at the fore. I would have hoped that they had some sort of check that allowed him to get to something else if he didn't like the QB drawn.

It certainly looked like up front. The box was full enough for them to check to something else. But they didn't get it. I'm glad they didn't get it because I had Michigan for size, although I had Texas for much healthier size, which didn't work out. I wanted to mention because there were end-of-game situations in both of these playoff games that were interesting. I have no idea for those of you that tweeted me or asked me. I have no idea why Michigan called the time out in that final sequence of having the ball at their own one.

yard line, their own two yard line. I have no idea why they lined up in shotgun and handed the ball off to Blake Quorum. Once that ball was fumbled or muffed and then picked up and saved the game by the returner who made the mistake in the first place, you were going to overtime. You weren't going to get in field goal range. You take a knee and run the clock out of Bama uses their last time out. Then you take a second knee or you just quarterback snap it. I can't believe they risked a shotgun snap and a handoff to the running back in the end zone. Now, he got it out to the two-yard line. I can't believe they did that.

But then Alabama did use their timeout, which I would have too. Let's see him snap it again. Let's see if they hand the ball off again instead of take a knee. But they took a knee and then Michigan called a timeout. Now, it looked like Harbaugh was complaining. Like, I didn't call that timeout. So I'm not sure exactly what happened there. But it forced them to take a third, you know,

another snap to need a game out to get it to overtime. But Michigan's really been a team all year long that you really weren't sure until they played Penn State and then they played Ohio State. And then you saw how dominant they could be defensively. The Ohio State game was a great football game in Ann Arbor. And look, Maryland had a legitimate chance against Michigan. You know, they had the ball. multiple times in the second half down one score.

And Leah threw a backbreaking pick when they were down 29, 24 in the fourth quarter. Then they had another chance down 3,1, 24. Maryland actually probably played Michigan other than Ohio State better than anybody this year. I mentioned this on yesterday's podcast. Maryland destroyed Auburn in the Music City Bowl. And I know these bowl games, you know, are different players. And Maryland had a different quarterback, et cetera. but I just, I hope Loxley gets more credit from some of the Maryland fans.

They've won three bowl games in a row. They've had two back-to-back eight win seasons. And I want more too, but, you know, they have played in the Big Ten East here in recent years with Michigan and Ohio State in Penn State. I agree with you on Loxley. It was a great win for them. But everyone looks at this Maryland season and figures they should have been 10 and three. Yep. not eight, you know, not eight and five.

Yeah, I mean, one of the games they lost was, as it turned out, to a pretty, you know, decent competitive team in Northwestern. But whatever. So the first game was great. The second game was the game that I, and I had mentioned this, you know, in the smell test, that Texas was the game that I liked personally, not from a smell test criteria, because that all sort of matches and sinks up. But I really like the matchup for Texas.

But I really like the matchup for Oregon against Washington and the PAC-12. championship game. So I was wrong and big time wrong twice because I thought Texas was a totally deserving team, was playing their best football at the end of the year. They were at times against various teams vulnerable on their back end in particular. And so I was a little bit concerned about that. I just thought that they would be able to name their number. Like I saw 4838, you know, as a final, something like that. And the two turnovers in the second half really, really hurt Texas because, you know, it's not like Washington was stopping them repeatedly. The turnovers were going to be difference makers in the game,

and the two turnovers in the second half were really devastating towards Texas in the game. But man, Michael Pennix, Jr. I've watched him a lot, Tommy, this year, a lot, because Washington's been in games that I've been involved in. They've been in so many big games this year. And there have been games, they had a late night game against Arizona State off of their win against Oregon, where he looked terrible. Really? Terrible. He had a game against Utah that was solid, but took a bunch of sacks in that game and didn't see the field and missed a lot of receivers. They won that. game, but they didn't win by the same margin. Other teams had beaten Utah by this year.

Utah was not, they were banged up with their quarterback this year. Good team, but not the typical Utah team that we see. Like as an example, Utah lost to Oregon 35 to 6, and Washington beat him by a touchdown with a comeback win. They were down in that game. But then there were other games where he was brilliant. He was fantastic in the Oregon game. That was the biggest game of the early season in college football in general. And he had some really good games. Last night, though, that was the game for Michael Pennix Jr. And his potential, the perception of him going into the draft. Now, he's got to play one more against a much better defense in Michigan. At one point, he couldn't miss.

And not only couldn't he miss, there were some of those throws that were tight window throws. They were pressured throws where he had to maneuver in the pocket and he did it so brilliantly. He threw for 432 touchdowns and actually missed some late, but for three and four-fifths of that game, he was brilliant. Now, Tommy, you know, some of our listeners, and maybe you don't even know this, he's got NFL wide receipts. He's got two to three NFL wide receivers. He's got an NFL running back in Dylan Johnson who got hurt late. More on that coming up in a moment. But man, Pennix Jr., for those of you that have been fans of Pennix Jr.,

and have said, no, trade back and take Pennix Jr. You know, he's better than Daniels. He's better than May. He's less of an issue perhaps on the, you know, on all the other stuff side, Caleb Williams. Here's why Michael Pennix Jr., though, I think in part has been viewed as late first, second round, and as maybe the fourth or fifth quarterback in this draft, or maybe even the fifth or sixth quarterback. J.J. McCarthy on most boards has been higher than Pennix Jr. I would not make that mistake. I'm saying mistake. We have no idea how these quarterbacks will end up

being. But in terms of a college player, Penix Jr. has much more pro potential watching him college. To me, than McCarthy does. But Pennix juniors had multiple knee surgeries, and I don't know why people get worked up about his age, 23 going on 24. I couldn't give a shit about that at the quarterback position. Most of these quarterbacks don't hit their prime until their early 30s anyway. But he did a lot last night to make people say, maybe this guy's not a second round pick or the fifth or sixth quarterback in the upcoming draft. What about you? Jaden Daniels is still my favorite quarterback in this draft.

And, you know, Michael Pennix Jr. throws the best deep ball, but Jaden Daniels is a close second deep ball. Penix has, he's got a weird kind of delivery time. He flicks the ball. It's like a real quick flick of the ball. I don't have a problem with it. It's a quick release. What's really impressed me more in this Oregon game and then last night is he really sees the field. I mean, this is a guy that sees everything.

He is great at seeing things and maneuvering in the pocket under pressure. There's a lot to like about Pennix Jr. A lot to like about him. But Jaden Daniels with 10, 15 more pounds on a slightly thicker frame, he's been my favorite player of the last couple of years in college football to watch. I just thought he was that sensational to watch. And he just does everything, not to mention he's a four-three guy. It's like Lamar Jackson is a runner.

And then one of the best throwers and deep ball throwers in college football in the last couple of years other than maybe Joe Burrow. But man, Pennix Jr. was really impressive, really impressive. And I think Monday night against Michigan will be big for him. Big for him because that's the best defense he will face all year long. In the Pac-12, you're just not facing a Michigan type of defense. Oregon was pretty good defensively this year. I understand that. He shredded them in the Pac-12 championship game, understood.

If he can do that to Michigan, I think he's going to really, soar up the draft rankings. I really do. I know there's concern about the knee surgeries, the multiple, you know, ACLs, but man, he was great last night. It's so much fun to watch him play football last night. And I didn't think Quinn Ewers, who's not coming out this year, I thought he really, it was rough for him last night at times. I thought Washington did a really good job defensively at times last night, and certainly the forcing of two turnover. was huge. Yeah.

So there was an end-of-game situation that I want to talk about real quickly, all right? Texas was done in this game, Tommy. They fell behind by two scores with the turnovers. It went from 28, 21 to 31, 21, to 34 to 21. Then they scored, and it was 34-28, but then Washington went down and kicked a field goal, and they were up by nine. Texas comes down and they kick a field goal because it's a two-score game with a minute nine left, and it's 3731.

So with Washington holding two timeouts in the game, they had to go on sidekick, and they didn't get it. It wasn't even close to getting it. And so Washington's got the ball at the Texas 44-yard line with a minute nine left in the game. Texas has two timeouts. So the right thing to do is to... have your quarterback, take the snap, shotgun if you feel comfortable with that, roll right, roll left, burn four or five seconds left, slide down, lose a couple of yards.

Time out. Do the same thing on second down. Time out. Let's say you can only, you know, doing that, you can only burn three, you know, I'll be really conservative here and say you can only burn three seconds per play. What you would end up with is you'd end up having a punt with 20 seconds to go, which means Texas would have gotten a ball back with 15 seconds to go roughly, needing to go 80 plus yards with no timeouts for a touchdown. Instead, Washington ran the ball three times. And what happened was, is Texas took their timeouts on the first two. And on the third down, the running back got injured, and the clock stopped. And in the final two minutes, two minutes. When there's an injury in which a player cannot get off the field on his own,

the clock stops until the snap of the next play, which meant that Texas essentially got a third time out, which is why they got the ball back last night with a chance and almost won the game. They got it all the way down to the Washington 12-yard line with 15 seconds left and had four downs to score, to get it in the end zone, to win the game. And there's the difference between going for the win and not giving them the ball back. And that happens when you're up by, you're only up by three or less, and all they need is field goal range. Then you're more aggressive.

But when they need a touchdown and you're going to give it to them 15 seconds left needing a touchdown with no timeouts left and 80 plus yards, that's the solution and the right way to go. Not to mention the fact on the play in which they essentially gave Texas a third time out with the injury, they may have lost. Now, he was banged up during the night. I understand Dylan Johnson was. But they probably lost for the championship game their best back.

And they almost lost the game. Kaelin DeBore is phenomenal. But I thought he made a big mistake. And that is a, to me, that is not a knee down, but it is a snap it to the quarter. roll, burn some clock, slide down, three, four, five seconds per play, and then, you know, potentially it's even less than 15 seconds when they get the ball back. And remember this too in college football. Pass interference isn't a spot foul. It's a 15-yard penalty. So if for whatever reason there's somebody about to get deep behind you, you tackle him and you

take the 15-yard penalty. It's not a spot foul. So why, Washington, they almost blew it with what I thought was the wrong call on how they managed that post-on-sidekick possession. But, man, Pennix Jr. was impressive. And so I'll ask you, and I know you only watched half the game, but what did you think of Pennix Jr? I mean, the way he dropped that ball, those deep dimes that he dropped, was impressive. And, you know, we talked about this before. There's something about left-handed quarterback. Yeah.

That is just, it's so great to watch their ball. You know, remember Kenny Stave. You know, it's just, I mean, the left-hand. Boomer. Yeah, the left-handed pass, the left-handed swing and baseball, even the left-handed jump shot in basketball. It's just a prettier action. You know who complied with a really good left-handed throw?

Jim Zorn. Jim Zorn. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. So it was really enjoyable and impressive. I knew he was highly regarded. I knew he was one of the top quarterbacks they were talking about in the draft. But to watch the way he dropped those balls into those receivers' hands last night,

it was very impressive. And made me think, this is the guy I would want. Then I found out about his injury, history, and stuff. And I certainly understand why there be some caution. moving forward. How many, is two of the only left-handed quarterback in the NFL? I'm looking that up right now. I can't think of any others off the top of my head.

Yeah, he's the only left-handed starter in the league right now. Yeah. Uh-huh. There's something not magical about watching left-handed quarterbacks when they throw the ball. Well, you and I loved the snake. I mean, Stabler, when I was a kid, was just, and he was such a, He was such a, you know, it wasn't that he was a gunslinger, but he had this style to him, and he was a great clutch quarterback with the Raiders.

And, you know, he was perfect for the 70s. I mean, he was straight out of, you know, what's your McCallet, the cowboy movie. Central casting. Yeah. He was awesome. I'm trying to think of other left-handers. Steve Young is the greatest, I guess Steve Young would be the greatest left-handed quarterback of all time, right?

He's in the Hall of Fame. Stabler would be there. Stabler's in... We finally got Stabler in the Hall of Fame recently, right? Yes, he did. Yes, he's in. Boomer is not a Hall of Famer,

but he was an MVP. Yeah. Vic had maybe the strongest arm of any left-handers. Just a gun for an arm. He never.

see a duck out of a left-handed quarterback. You really don't. No. You know, Boomer, what's funny about Boomer, and I did this last week, Tommy, or right before Christmas, on the heels of Tua Tua, having played his last game at Maryland. He may actually play somewhere else next year. But anyway, that, you know, Boomer, people, you know, he owns every record in the record book for Maryland football.

But Boomer, and you ask any long-time Maryland football fan, Boomer's the greatest quarterback ever in the history of Maryland football. Boomer did not have a rifle for an arm as a left-hander. He was really a touchthrower. And by the way, played the game at such a high cerebral level, always in college. And was, you know, he was coached by Bobby Ross and Ralph Regan and that whole group who just, those guys knew how. to prepare quarterbacks in college for the NFL. Yes, they did. All right.

We'll finish up with a few other things, including, by the way, speaking of the Terps, they play number one Purdue tonight at home. We'll get to all of that more after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Well, there's nothing I like better than the see on social media.

A happy, satisfied customer. of Shelly's backroom who went there because of my urging and because they heard about how great Shelly's backroom is from listening to the Kevin Sheean show podcast. There we go. And Lions Worldwide on Twitter, on X, I keep calling it Twitter. It's called X. The tag is Lions Worldwide wrote Tom Laverill, Kevin Sheen, D.C., enjoying the smokes, drinks and food with the love of my life at Shelley's back room, watching the Beach Bowl,

staff and food is as promised. Awesome. Let's go D.C. That warms my heart. That's like a Christmas present. And it happens often. Right. We hear that often from people who the first time they go to Shelly's, they say, wow, it really is as good as Tommy says it is.

Right. You know, maybe even better. So you need to go and find out, too. find out for yourself. Experience what Lions worldwide experience. Go to Shelley's Backroom at 1331 F Street, Northwest, in the district, and find out more about it at shelley's backroom.com. Great spot and probably still somewhat decorated for holiday time, right?

I would bet that, you know, Bob keeps the lights on and it decorated, you know, into January, which always makes people feel happy this time of year. Because there is, as I asked you last week, there is a depression that comes with the post holidays, especially on January 2nd. I guess December 26th and January 2nd are very high depression days around the world, I would guess. You were so into Christmas this year, so I was a little bit concerned about you last week. But, you know, it's kind of nice for the first part of, like my wife wants to get rid of the Christmas tree today. she's like we're going to get rid of the tree and I'm like no let's keep it up for a little while longer it gets happy when you see a tree and it's lit at night and and no she wants it we are minimalists

I mean if you walked into our house we just don't save things there's just not a lot of stuff ever in our house we're both that same way but I want to keep the tree up I think when you keep Christmas and tree lights and stuff up for a little more than you know January 2nd I think it's probably a good thing for your overall psyche. Well, if you pay $1,000 for a tree, you want to get the most out of it, right? Yes. We paid a lot for that tree. Yes, we did.

Yeah, you don't want to let it off the hook. You want it there until the last needle falls off. No doubt. No doubt. All right. Speaking of Christmas decorations up all year, my dad, when he put Christmas lights up around our house, he kept him up all year. He just unplugged him. Really? He didn't want to take him down and put him back up again.

I don't blame him. He didn't want to take him down. He just kept him up and unsplugged the whole year. It is hard, no doubt. You know, in that Thanksgiving, the first week of December to get those lights out and start, you know, unraveling them and trying to put everything together. It is a pain in the ass. It can be very stressful. We talked about that. We did that show already. But I think I'm going to, now I'm going to the Maryland game tonight against Purdue, and I'm taking my wife. I'm taking my middle son. It's his birthday. And his girlfriend, by the way, he and his girlfriend, I've told you before, they have, you know, they have a pop duo. They were voted the number one band in D.C.

How about that? Wow. Yeah. That is fabulous. Yeah, it was a big deal. I mean, I'm proud of them. It's music that is described. It's a genre called Dream Pop, which if you guys are familiar with Lana Del Rey or this group, Beach House, it's very similar to that.

You know, Phoebe Bridgers, which I don't even think she's necessarily Dream Pop. But yeah, that's kind of what they do. But they play all around town, and there was this local blogger who follows the local music scene. He's actually a big fan of theirs, but he did a poll. and they were one of the participants, and they won. That's excellent. They actually won. I'm happy to hear that.

But anyway, it's his birthday. Happy birthday. Yeah, happy birthday, Corbyn. What were you going to say? Speaking of musical careers, I posted a picture yesterday of me at Pompinot Joe's, drinking a beer, where am I Godzilla T-shirt, wishing everybody a happy New Year? Uh-huh. And one of the things I kept hearing from people is when's the karaoke start?

Right. When are we going to see Tommy Purify? And I just want to let people know that the studio at Kennedy's is undergoing some renovations right now. So my return engagement is going to be delayed a little bit, but I'll let everybody know when Tommy Purify hits the stage. Please, because, you know, speaking of musical careers, you certainly have one. That's for sure. I got one other thing for you Okay, go

Before you go off Okay? Yeah, I'm listening Did you feel the earthquake? I didn't, but I heard about it I did not feel it No And I was in one of the areas

The earthquake for you It's a legendary moment In radio history, right? It is You know, now you're going to make me go find it again So I can play it on the way out Of the show today But yeah, no August of 2011

I was on the air you were on vacation. Stephen Spector was in because Stern was on vacation, and it was just Stephen and yours truly. And the whole, remember how our mics hung down from the ceiling, and they started to sway, and the building started to sway. And I just said, I think Stephen, that was an earthquake.

And then our fearless leader, Rick Carmean, Rick Carmean, opens up the studio door and screams, get out! And so I said, we got to go. And that's the, I may have to call Sally to get that. I should have that because we played, we did something on that on the 10-year anniversary. But you're talking about a 2.3, I think, this morning. Yeah, that happened about 1251 this morning. Yeah.

Centered two miles west of Rockville. Exactly. And felt in Montgomery County and Upper Northwest D.C. primarily, which is where I live, I did not feel it. I was awake, too. Oh. No, I wasn't awake. I was asleep at that point after the game.

I was asleep at that point, I think. Yeah. I didn't feel it. Okay, so I was just curious if you felt it. You didn't feel it because you're down there in beautiful weather, no earthquake territory. There are no faults down there. It's, right? Although, God, the real earthquake was in Japan over the weekend.

Oh my God, yes. Yeah, and then that awful plane crash, too, on the runway yesterday. All right, so I wanted to mention real quickly that I am going to go to the Maryland game tonight. They play number one ranked Purdue. Last year's Maryland-Purdue game was just incredible. Maryland was down by eight in the early second half, and they went on a 28 or 29-4 run, and the place was just nuts. You were not at that game, right?

You were still in Florida for that? Yes. Okay, because I remember you went to a game recently that it was really good. But they get a number one in their building. You know, Maryland is 10 and 31 all time against number one teams. But I believe this to be true, and I was looking for this, as you know, and I couldn't find it. I believe that Maryland, well, I know one thing is true,

that Maryland has been ranked number two, without being ranked number one in the Associated Press, more than any college basketball program. Purdue was the second longest until they became number one recently for the first time. But Maryland's been ranked number two so many different times. Their national championship year, they never made it to number one. They were ranked number two several times during that season. But the final AP poll is the poll before the tournament starts.

so they've never been ranked number one, and they're not close to being ranked number one right now either. I just wanted to mention that. But they have played number one 41 times during the course of their basketball program. Now, I don't know if that's a record or not, but I am pretty sure that their 10 wins over a top ranked team are more than any other program. I think that's true. If I'm wrong, somebody let me know that I'm wrong. I know that Lefty at one point owned the record for personal wins over number one. Gary was super close on that as well.

And one of the reasons Maryland's had a chance to play all of these number one teams is because Duke and North Carolina were in their league all those years. And nobody beat those teams more often than Maryland did. It wasn't often enough, but they did it. And so they get number one in their building tonight. And let me just give you, you know, a bit of a heads up. So the line opened at eight, seven and a half eight. It's now down to five and a half. That is a lot of sharp action on Maryland tonight.

And the reason there's a lot of sharp action is the bookmakers and betters know what Maryland's building can be like on a night like tonight and how tough it is to beat them. no matter how good their team is, and we're unsure as to what they are. Matt Painter, one of my favorite coaches in the country, just said, we know what it's like to go into that beehive, and it will be very, very difficult tonight. They've got the player of the year right now in Zach Eadie, and the favorite to be the player of the year in college basketball. He's averaging 23 and 10, and what seems like is his ninth year in college basketball, And Maryland has struggled this year, but not at home, where they own the fourth longest home winning streak in the nation.

They've won 19 straight at home. I think people think they should be bigger than a five and a half point underdog, and they're not. So I think Marilyn plays Purdue tight tonight. I don't know how it doesn't seem like the best of matchups for them, but it would not surprise me if they play well tonight. college basketball changes completely post-Jan 1 when it's just conference play. Coach Thompson used to emphasize that all the time, that November and December, college basketball is meaningless. It's not meaningless if you're a bubble team and you're trying to accumulate some wins

that look good resume-wise. But the way that the league play goes and the teams are so familiar with one another and how they, you know, what they run and how they run. and how they run it in the scouting reports year and year out. I'm interested to see. No students, which always makes for a slightly different home environment for the Maryland games when the students aren't back, but it still will be a decent crowd tonight.

And it's tough to win in college park for anybody, even the number one team in the country, typically. So we'll see what happens. But that's where I will be tonight. Say hello if you're out there. often run into a lot of you at Maryland games, which is fun. And most of the time, you're fond of the podcast, even more so than the radio show. And it's probably because of Tommy.

You got anything else? I got nothing else for you, boss. I got nothing else either. I've got some beautiful Florida weather to get to. We'll have Tommy's column on Eric B. Enemy to discuss when he's back on Thursday. Tim Murray is going to be on this show with me. tomorrow. We will talk, I am sure, a lot about the two playoff games, the national championship matchup between Michigan and Washington. Michigan is a four and a half point favorite in that

game, and we'll talk a lot of NFL final weekend, but we'll probably talk a lot about the quarterbacks. Tim is, you know, a college guy more than anything else, and he'll have a lot of strong thoughts on the quarterbacks and how they should be drafted coming out in 2024. And look, we are less than a week away, Tommy, from major change. You know, next week's shows and the weeks that follow, we will be, you know, here. I'll be here five days a week. Tommy will be with me from Florida twice a week talking about all of the changes that are forthcoming. So tell all your friends to tune in to this podcast.

All right, back tomorrow. I think under Spurrier, the skins were four and O. Now, I won't compare Spurier to Shannon, but what I'm going to be. I will prepare. Folks, I got to interrupt. I got to interrupt you. I don't know if we just had an earthquake here or we're in the midst of an earthquake here, but the studio is shaking.

Stephen, what's going on here? I have no idea. Our alarms going off. We're not sure what it is in this building. Could have been the building, but it felt like an earthquake. Stephen, am I right? That was freaky. I have to say that was really creepy.

We got to see if anybody's reporting this right now. Now, if you're in Montgomery County, we're in Rockville, that's where our studios are, there was some significant shaking and rattling. We've got to go.