The Kevin Sheehan Show - Rounding Out Staff

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

Kevin today on Dan Quinn rounding out his coaching staff which included the hiring of Anthony Lynn. Doc Walker jumped to talk Commanders and Super Bowl. Kevin finished up with his state of Terps' hoops. 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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. The presenting sponsor of this podcast, as always, is Windonation. Call them at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. Mention my name.

You'll get a free in-home estimate. Full disclosure as we open this podcast. This is a re-recording of the opening segment of the podcast. Not because there was big time breaking news and I had to ditch. the whole show and start over. No, I'm not doing that for Lance Newmark, the new GM that Adam Peters hired. There was between the original recording of the opening segment and this one, some, you know, awful breaking news out of Kansas City, the victory parade shooting, as of now, 15 injured, one dead, just horrific news there. No, we had some post-production issues, my fault, and so I've got to

re-record this. I don't think you're going to miss much in my re-recording because I am going to shorten it up so we can get it out. But anything that I didn't mention in this re-recording that I mentioned in the original recording, I will try to get to tomorrow. Anyway, Doc Walker was not impacted by the post-production issues. He will join me in the next segment. Third segment for you, Maryland Hoop fans, kind of a state of Maryland basketball as I see it. Washington busy. Dan Quinn busy, Adam Peters, busy. All right, let's go through all of the changes. So Washington's new general manager, Adam Peters, announced the hiring of Lance Newmark as his assistant GM. Newmark worked with Martin Mayhew in Detroit, worked recently with Brad Holmes in Detroit,

has been in Detroit for 26 seasons. Most recently, hold on. the role of senior director of player personnel, and he oversaw the college and pro scouting operations. But he reported directly to Brad Holmes, and before that, Martin Mayhew, they knew each other when Mayhew, remember, was the GM in Detroit before Brad Holmes became the GM in Detroit. So you've got, you know, Peters, you've got now Lance Newmark, tons of experience. By the way, Peter's statement today, I am thrilled to welcome Lance Newmark to the Washington commanders. Lance is someone that I've known and respected in the scouting community my entire career. He is a highly respected talent evaluator and a great leader who will fit perfectly into what we're building here in Washington.

I want to thank Brad Holmes and the Lions organization for being first class in working with us on the process of bringing Lance to the DMV. Lance is a phenomenal person, and he will immediately elevate our overall personnel function here at the commanders. It's my absolute pleasure to welcome Lance and his family to Washington. So it sounds like they had to, you know, talk Detroit into letting him go because it's sort of a lateral move. Remember, Brad Holmes did the right thing, and the Detroit organization did the right thing with Matt Stafford when they traded him to the Rams. Now, it turned out pretty well. They have drafted well. They got Jared Gough.

And by the way, just thinking about Newmark, you know, you've got Peters coming from San Francisco, an NFC championship winner. You've got Newmark coming from Detroit, an NFC championship participant. And, man, we have talked about that Detroit roster and the job they've done. The 49ers roster is obvious. The Detroit roster a little less obvious, but they've done a phenomenal job. there. Brad Holmes, Lance Newmark and Company with the players

they have added. That is a talented team on offense in particular. You know, Amon Ross, St. Brown, they got in the fourth round. Penae Sewell was a phenomenal pick. He's the best right tackle in the game. La Porta this year, Jemir Gibbs this year.

You know, they've just done, they've done a phenomenal, Frank Ragnall, the center, they've done a phenomenal job drafting. Defensively, you know, Aiden Hutchinson is one of the best pass rushers in the game. Brian Branch in the second round of last year's draft was a significant contributor for them this year. So look, they got the number one GM prospect and they got an assistant GM from a team that's really done it well here recently. You know, will it work here? Who

knows? But it's not, all due respect, Vinnie Serrado and Company or Bruce Allen in group here in Washington right now. The other news is that Dan Quinn essentially has the coaching staff filled out to completion now. And let's go through it. By the way, one quick thing too. Martin Mayhew was senior personnel executive advisor to GM given that title today. Marty Herney is going to stay on as an advisor. That doesn't surprise me. I know he has been a voice for Josh Harris to lean on, certainly before they put together the search committee, et cetera,

and hired Adam Peters and company. Anyway, Dan Quinn, busy the last several days, and he now has a completed coaching staff. And the big news today is they hired Anthony Lynn to be their run, game coordinator. So they have two former head coaches now on their coaching staff in Cliff Kingsbury and Anthony Lynn. Look, Anthony Lynn has been a respected guy in the league for a long, long time. You know, he was part of Mike Shanahan's Denver teams. He early on in his career. Why? Well, because he played for Denver and Mike Shanahan in the late 90s, where he was a champion. He was a champion.

a two-time Super Bowl champion is a member of those Bronco teams. But most of you remember him most recently as the head coach in San Diego with the Chargers and I guess one year in L.A., right? And then was the OC in Detroit in 2021, was the assistant head coach and running backs coach in San Francisco the last two years? So pretty good ad, I would say in Lynn. They also added since the podcast yesterday, Ed Donatel's son to be the D.Bs coach, Ken Norton, Jr. to be the linebackers coach, Darrell Tap to be the D-Line coach, Bobby Angram to be the wide receivers coach. And yeah, those are all of the ads since the podcast yesterday. So the staff is Quinn, coordinators Kingsbury, Joe Whit Jr., special teams coordinator, Izzo. O-line coach Bobby Johnson.

Tevita Pritchard stays as the quarterback's coach. Angram's the wide receivers coach. Lynn comes in as the run game coordinator. Raise the tight ends coach, taps the D-line coach, Norton Jr. The linebacker's coach. Donatelle, along with Simmons, part of the D-Bs and the defensive passing game coaching group. Sharif Floyd, who was just in the NFL last year, year before, is coming in as a D-line edition.

In Kerrigan stays, Pagano is part of the staff, and Brian Johnson, of course, the Eagles offensive coordinator part of the staff. I think, you know, overall, you're seeing one of the reasons, one of the many reasons, that Dan Quinn is the head coach. You know, reason number one is he blew him away as a leader, and then everybody came in as references, and everybody was recommending Quinn from all over the league, and they liked him, you know. And part of the presentation to the search committee and then one-on-one with Peters was I'm going to be able to put together a first-rate staff.

You know, I've got a lot of people in the league that respect what I've done as a head coach, respect what I've done as a coordinator. I've built up a lot of relationships. And I'm going to be able to put together a staff that on paper is going to look really good. I'm not saying he said on paper is going to look really good. I'm saying that. You know, we'll see how it plays out, as they say. But, you know, again, if we turn the clock back three weeks or so, and I told you, you know, three and a half weeks at this point, four weeks has it been since they hired Adam Peters, if I told you they're going to get the number one GM candidate that everybody wants, they're going to get a guy at head coach that is one of their top choices, if not their top choice. Yes, that's true. and oh, by the way, it's going to be a veteran coach,

and he's going to hire a staff that includes Kingsbury and Anthony Lynn and, you know, Ken Norton Jr., and Brian Johnson, et cetera, et cetera, I think we'd all take that. Again, it wasn't like this was the most attractive looking place, more attractive than it's been in recent years, but still not overly attractive. So offseason so far, GM coach, coaching staff, front office additions.

Some of you have a problem with the Marty Stang. I don't because it's Adam Peters running it. But I, you know, I'm not going to sit here and grate it, but I am going to tell you that I think they've done a pretty good job. I don't know how it will play out. There's no guarantee. But in terms of hiring people. There was no guarantee they were going to get Adam Peters or one of the top GM candidates. There was no guarantee they were going to get one of their top choices to be the head coach.

And if they got that person that that guy was going to be able to hire Anthony Lynn and Cliff Kingsbury. Kingsbury was going to leave the Raiders interview basically and say, no, I'm going to Washington. So good job there. So I did want to include this in the re-recording of the opening segment because Tommy and I talked on the podcast, and I actually did a bunch yesterday on the radio show on the whole, you know, Ted moving the Wizards and the caps to Northern Virginia, whether or not it happens or not, you know, post the recording of the podcast yesterday. They passed it in the house in Virginia, but there's still a ways to go. But I got several notes, emails, tweets, et cetera, that I wanted to read because I thought they were interesting. and I think I agreed with a lot of what was said here.

This was from Jonah. Jonah wrote, your guest from Channel 9, who was Eric Flack from Channel 9, was on radio yesterday with me, was tremendous. I enjoyed the interview, but to be brutally honest, you're lucky that I stuck around to listen. I don't care about the move of the Wizards and the Caps to Virginia.

I would rather they stay in D.C., but the whole subject is boring and really irrelevant in the big picture. You've said it before. The commander's moving to D.C. moves the needle. Ted's team staying, going. Are that many people really interested or invested in this? But again, I enjoyed your guest despite my lack of enthusiasm for the subject. So that was from Jonah.

This was from Mike. Ted can move the Wizards to St. Louis for all I care. This is a nothing topic. From Denny. Kevin, I don't want to tell you how to produce your show. And then Denny tells me how to produce the show. But the move of the Caps and Wizards to Virginia has turned into a he said, she said, between blowhard Ted and late to the party, Bowser. And it's just going to go on and on and on with fewer and fewer interested.

And that's because Ted's teams stink. And then this one from Andrew, here it is. Andrew writes, Kevin, if the Wizards and Caps moving to Northern Virginia means it's more likely that the skins end up back at RFK, tell Mr. Leonis, I'll pay for the moving vans. Thank you, Andrew, and thank you everybody. God, there was a lot of correspondents with respect to it's not top of mind in part because who cares about those teams. Well, let me just say, it's top of mind for me,

and I think it's a big story, because of, from my standpoint, I don't want to see the city hurt. I don't want to see the city damaged, and them leaving, Chinatown will hurt the city. And I think this entire process has been one that's been, as I've said, going back to that press conference, has been a little bit off-putting. I thought Ted came off as very distant from what the reaction was going to be for many about leaving D.C. I think he has stayed somewhat distant, even though some of his recent interviews, he's tried to make the case as to why this is good for the DMV. I said it, you know, during the press conference,

the day after, I'll say it now, he should have been more aware of the fact that many people in D.C. in particular would feel like he was abandoning the city. But I do agree that there's probably more apathy towards this topic than maybe I think there is for a lot of people, because the thing that does matter most is winning teams. And he hasn't been producing winning teams, you know, not enough of them with the two teams that matter. The wizards under his watch have been a bottom feeder, you know, and there is plenty of top-down criticism as to why the wizards have been a bottom feeder. They have been irrelevant as an NBA team to NBA fans, and they've been irrelevant to this city as well. And you know what I think about this city.

Most of you do. I think this is a basketball town at its core, at its roots. It's a basketball City. We're in love with basketball. The basketball people in this area have very little passion for the NBA team. And that's as the NBA's grown in popularity and thrived in so many other markets in recent years. I think this could be, and maybe this is me wishing it into existence, I think this could be an incredible NBA city, but it's not because the team hasn't been good in nearly a half century. And the last decade and a half, with Ted at the helm, it hasn't been good. The hockey team won a Stanley Cup, all right?

Yay! But for the most part, every spring has been a disappointment because they exit the playoffs earlier than expected. And by the way, they haven't been to the playoffs. They're not going to the playoffs more likely than not for two straight years, and they haven't won a playoff series in six years. I just think that sometimes in listening to Ted and the people at Monumental, I always have the same reaction, which is, man, a little more self-awareness would really serve you well.

And look, you know, as it relates to this situation, I said this the day they held the press conference. If I were in Ted's shoes and had all the information he has, I might be just as pissed off and be moving to Northern Virginia. because DC's as culpable, if not more, for the current situation. But it's more about, you know, these moments where he's going on and on about the championship brands that he's built, the behemoth monumental sports network and the incredible brand that it's become from Delaware to Richmond. It just sounds so overdone and really out of touch. I just think sometimes if I were, you know, advising them directly, I'd say a little humility, a little, you know, kind of understanding of the marketplace,

of also your position in the marketplace. Like right now, if anybody's close to him, like his opinion poll numbers would not be very high. especially with Dan Snyder gone. We did a poll, a Twitter poll, I don't know, a month and a half ago, maybe right after that press conference in Northern Virginia, on him buying the Nats. Do you want Ted Leonis to buy the Nats?

90% said no. Anyway, I hear all of you. I hear all of you. It's a story to me. I'm a massive Wizards fan. Always have been. always been one of those things that when I thought about, what would be a great day in D.C.

sports? Well, the football team obviously being relevant again. For me, Maryland basketball being great. But also, I just would love to see the Wizards be a legitimate NBA franchise that's contending for something every spring. I think it would be a big deal. I think it would be a much bigger deal than the Caps. I think it'd be a bigger deal potentially than the Nats if they were legitimately in championship contention. And I've, you know, I've kind of hoped for that for years, but it's been a poorly run situation for a long period of time. And that's why it's hard for people like me who are more Wizards fans than Caps fans

to hear him talk about these championship brands that he's built and this monumental sports brand that's so far reaching. Really? I mean, your basketball team stinks. it really is not good. I have more hope now that they have approached it differently, but we're still waiting on that, and we will be waiting for a while. Anyway, enough on that.

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Call them at 86690 Nation, head towindonation.com for a free in-home estimate if you mention my name. Doc is with us where it is time for X's and O's. Burgundy and gold. I miss those days. I miss those days so much. We'll get it back. It ain't over.

It ain't over. No, it's never over. It's never over till it's over. That's right. So on your big board at this point, we're still two and a half months away from the draft. Tell me which quarterback you like the most. It would be unprofessional for me to speak on it because my people, we have. met yet. The Super Bowl just ended.

So I am, we meet next week. Is there somebody you like, though? You know, I'm kidding with you. I like the kid out of LSU. Yeah, right. Because what I'm looking for is I want guys that have been coached hard. With NIL,

coaching changes, I need a mature guy coming into a tough situation here, desperate fan base, and we need immediate results. But yet, I think the best results that I've seen for guys that come in, like my home, that had Smitty there, they don't necessarily have to play immediately. So as you bridge your team, that first year is really important. if you're not so desperate, you have to get a guy beaten to death in his first year. So now I don't know what the strategy is going to be because we're still putting the staff together.

And as today, I think they made some other moves. But I'm going to trust Peters. I'm not going to micromanage his deal. Based on what I heard today, they seem like they're putting together a hell of a front office and evaluators. They got the guy from Detroit who, probably should be executive of a decade in terms of the talent

that they assembled at Detroit. They did a hell of a job. So it's going to be interesting. But if you go after a quarterback, I mean, that's going to be it. I don't think you can actually pass on a quarterback at the number two spot. It is so important if that talent is there,

and they evaluated and think that you can't get that guy next year, and you can't get him later, then you go for him, but you don't reach. If you're not 100% certain that he's the guy, then you try to go back a few picks, if possible. By the way, when Doc was talking about Mahomes and he said, Smitty, he was referring to Alex Smith, for those that don't know. And if they listen to your show, they know exactly what I'm talking about. I know.

We just, we haven't referred to Alex Smith as Smitty in a long time. Well, no, but your people are so astute. That's why I love being on your show. Right. Because all your listeners are veterans. They're all veterans. Doc, of course, has his podcast, which you can listen to. At Rick Doc Walker on X on Twitter.

The podcast is patreon.com slash doc Walker. He does it with our very good friend, Sally, and it's an excellent. podcast, so tune in for that. Who's still not been on your podcast, I might say. He makes that point to me every time I'm interested. Who does? Sully? Sully. Well, I mean, I've only been on your podcast one time.

So... I don't try to bug you because you are such a man. I'm embarrassed. They ask you to come about anything I do. You know that's not true. So, real quickly on this Super Bowl. I mean, you've... We've both watched football.

forever. You played it for a long time. Where's Mahomes on the list of the best you've ever watched? He's in every conversation in terms of how he's accelerated his greatness. I look at it and go, Joe Montana, I had a good chat with the rooster yesterday about this. It's so easy to look at the latest and think it's the greatest. But I said the beauty about being 68 is that, I still am so enamored with Joe Montana, John Unites. I remember Elway, and when Shannon, your guy, got his first chip, and the guy he got it with, I keep remembering what those ones really end up being, how hard it was for Manning to break through that ice. you know, when a goat beats a goat

and when he really breaks through that, the struggle of climbing up through what we hope will happen in Buffalo, but we don't know it will happen. It may not happen in Baltimore. Why I love the kid in Cincinnati so much because he's beating baby goat.

He beat him in Kansas City. I mean, he went to a Super Bowl. He's the only guy to deny this prodigy. Joe Burrow is just amazing to me. But he didn't win it. He didn't win it. He didn't. No, but he didn't. Nobody still got food on the plate. He's got unfinished business.

But you attribute his failures to injury, not performance. So, I mean, that's why I think we're so lucky. We don't have depth and greatness at the quarterback position. There's only a dozen to me, and it falls off the map, which is incredible in pro sports. There's a one in every other sport. Pitchers, net minders, catchers, every other sport. All the way through it, there's an ace at every position except quarterback in the NFL. And that, to me, is amazing.

With all the technology and coaches, Division I, SEC, blah, blah, blah, can't produce it. We've got all these different systems going. So that, to me, it's fascinating. And now the running back, they've tried to dismiss that. Now that's coming back. It's still not going to get away from the big ugly. The big uglies are making a comeback.

So I'm excited about They tried to trash the run game Ain't going to happen, brother. The two-point stand, shotgun, all that is coming back. It's coming back. I mean, Lombardi, all those boys that they're looking down and they're smiling now

because it's coming back because you've got to be able to get a yard on demand. And so I really like what the game is coming now. And Patrick isn't amazing. didn't get the MVP, but when you need a read option, you don't ever mention him, but he gets it every stinking time.

He can put them legs at work. And, you know, Purdy, I just love the way people are going after this kid, and he went on demand, his legs went to work. He had a hell of a season. He had a hell of a season. But he'll be scrutinized to death. And here's a kid, Mr. Relevant. and got as close as you could get with him.

And I just love how this off season they'll be beating him to death. And, you know, in Shanahan, he can't talk himself out of this. He did a miserable job. But sometimes you just got to say, you know what? Didn't work for me. But this whole analytic thing is amazing to me. I can't wait to hear you break this down over the next few weeks as to how this thing goes.

But I just go, you know what? It's math, man. It's not football. I was going to ask you about, you said, unfinished business with Burrow, what do you, you knew Mike and Kyle when they were here. Yeah. And you remember the conversation. You and I talked about this stuff on the air all the time,

about the people that were saying nepotism with Kyle. I'm like, the dude, coach Matt Schaub into a top 15, top 10 quarterback there for a couple of years. What do you make, though, of Kyle getting close, which is better than we can say we've done for 30-something years. But not, you know, having now as a coordinator and as a head coach, three times a 10-point lead or more in the Super Bowl and not getting it done. What do you think of Kyle? Is something missing or not?

I know. Well, he got it done as a coordinator with Steve Young. With the 49ers. Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did. And again, it was Roger Craig. It was that run. always been physically gifted, and they blend that run game in, and they also, they're just

always so talented that, but by not finishing, and I look at Andy, and I look at Andy's struggles how close he got with the Eagles, and then I look at his youth, and we're hard on him, and he deserves it, because he definitely overtalked himself in this one. and by not knowing the rules and not being clear on that, you know, that's a say, that's just a brain fart. Because when you're trusting the math, not man, it's not trigonometry, it's football. You've got to know who you're going against and field the game.

Well, the third I knew that you're not going to get the ball back. You've got to know who you're dealing with. So I go back to basketball now, your game, Portland. I keep thinking about the trailblazers for the rest of my life about Clyde the Glyde, great, but he had deal with Jordan. There's certain things, certain guys,

they just chew up all the numbers. You've got to beat that dude. So you've got to think to yourself, it's about Patrick, not about math. I got to deal with Mahomi. Not Mahomi. You got to deal with Mahomi.

I've got to deal with Mahomi. That's funny. So deal with your analytics and all your math keys. Because they don't understand the game. and that stuff's fine on a blackboard. Now you've got to deal with this dude, and he does it every stinking time.

Then he puts his legs to work. And it's just amazing. And Andy, man. But then it's Spaggola. Spags, man. The start a whole deal with Spags. And the youth of that defense, you know how young they are?

They flip the script. They got to re-sign Chris Jones, though. They've got to re-sign him. Oh, my God. man, the Hunt family should say, you need a room, you can move in with us. If they don't keep this dude, they're smart. They'll get it done.

But just remember week one against the Lions, he was up in the, looking at the game. I couldn't believe that. So they'll get it fixed. It's like the Cheetah. It's amazing in life. He got the beach. He got Miami.

He got the sun. He's minus two Super Bowl rings, and God knows how many commercials. All right. Let's talk about... You don't leave, my homie. Let's talk about our team. Because I haven't had you on since the Quinn hiring, what did you think of the hiring of Dan Quinn?

Very comfortable with it. I like a guy that has been there. I don't have to worry about the stage fright. I don't have to worry about anything. I got a guy who's hungry. I love his enthusiasm. I go from a mortician to a guy that's just effervescent. and I just think that, you know, you've got to, the people take on the life of the head coach.

You think we're going to, I mean, we can talk about Ron, your guy all we want. But do you really think that he had the personality of a mortician? Body language, the things that, I mean, you know what happened. You saw, you saw what I saw, to come to a guy and ask you, what you said to your team at halftime? Nothing. Okay. And you know what? And you got nothing from them.

Right. That's one of the worst. The undertaker will start referring to him as. Yeah, I mean, it's just absolutely ridiculous. He's a breath of fresh air. Yeah. The whole, it really is one of the, and to have the audacity to put your name in the hat,

to go out and go on job interviews. And I'm surprised he didn't get it. Because this sport recycles trash more than any other sport I've ever seen. and so I was hoping Dallas to sign him, but they didn't. That would be great. Can you imagine if the Cowboys had hired him as the defensive coordinator of the conversations would play? I mean, already the last time our coach was on the sideline for him, he led up about 1,000 points in 800 yards against the Packers, and then they'd get Rivera.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't think. I think if Ron wants to work again, I think if the Undertaker wants to work again, it's going to have to be as like a linebacker's coach. He'd get some sort of assistant head coach title. Nobody's going to hire him as a coordinator. But you know who got fired today with Steve Wilkes? Kyle Shanahan let him go. I think Steve Wilkes does a good job. I thought he did a good job for a half against the Chiefs. But the Lions, and Packers carved them up in the playoffs. I'm surprised. I knew in the Super Bowl, when he changed call the time out and got him out of a defense,

I knew that Wilkes was done. And I thought then when you're running your offense, now you're changing the defense's deal, then you put your team in a bad situation. You were all over the place. And, you know, I thought Wilkes really had earned a right to remain with the Panthers as a head coach. You got a rotten job when he went with Arizona and he got in.

But, you know, he'll be okay. He'll be okay. But when the guy leaves you and goes down, they lost their other D.C. Goes down and coach's year with Houston. And, you know, lights it on fire. So we'll see what happens. Man, this is a tough sport. It really is.

But the expectations, wouldn't you trade with the Niners? You know, it's almost like Harbaugh. Who's got a better than we do? damn to nobody because their failures, everybody all damned in the league with the exception of two or three teams will trade with them. Yeah. They're already the favorites next year. They are.

Nobody's got it better than them, but Dallas. Okay. So you like Dan Quinn. He's going to be certainly up to the occasion. There's going to be no stage fright. What do you think about Cliff Kingsbury as a hire? I'm waiting to see what it's all about. You've got to be something I think he's unique.

You've got to find something he impresses people. He gets jobs. He gets, I mean, the guy went from Texas Tech, USC to Arizona. I mean, he gets, he obviously, and he impressed Quinn. He said he was hard out. Everybody raves about he's got a high IQ. He's got that magic, that intellect. And they just got to get, I think Lynn.

They got Linda today, too, who I like a lot of garage field with chargers. I thought, so you get a lot of guys together, and it's really like putting the gumbo together. Somebody's got to assemble it and make it work. You obviously got something about him that's unique, but they haven't been able to make it work. and I always think about Coriel, who had that magic. And then Joe, who's a stabilizer, and to me, Joe's work ethic,

he outworked everybody. So what I look for with one of these guys is who's going to be there all night? Is somebody going to sleep there three days a week? If somebody, who's going to put the guts on the line and say, I'm putting this above everything. You know, and so then it becomes that you get these individuals like Dan Riley, who did the same thing. I saw guys like Google, Riley, Pettibone.

These guys were lifers. It was oxygen to them. So I'm really waiting to see, oh, we're going to get these kind of people in the building that rally everybody. Now, we had one guy that was in there, and they turned against them. that was the Bienemy. When you get these champions, these A personalities that are fanatics, well, that didn't work well with this group because they were so accustomed to the

country club lifestyle and being in the last place. And it's hard to get out that rut. That's why most teams that lose continue to lose. So lose like the Wizards. I know. But, Doc, there's something more with Biener. It's not just, it can't be just that he coached him too hard. You can put it in any term that you're comfortable with.

I'm just telling you, when you're in a workout, in the middle of a workout, when you're going from mediocre to good to great, there's some really uncomfortable moments, and you've got to have people that grind through it. And having lived it, I'm just telling you it's ugly. I mean, you've got to get people to power through it. Well, when the guy I saw sleep there, anybody sleep there through these administrations, through this hellhole of 20 years? Anybody do that?

I doubt it. No. I'm just saying that with respect to him, it couldn't have just been about coaching hard because nobody else for all these years except for Andy. And then Andy's friend Ron Rivera wanted to give him a job. Something's missing there. Right? Could be, could very, well, I'll tell you what you got.

You got Chad, you got your strength coach. I'm just saying the lunatics that we had, Wayne Severe, Bill Buegel, all these guys were all type A personality. I've seen projectors thrown against walls, holes, punching walls. holes punched in walls all these things are erratic behavior none of that's happened over there 20 years right okay

well the owner the owner's behavior was erratic but yes other than his nobody else's child that's child's play yeah I know approaching teenage women that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about how you go from losing the winning there's a lot of things there's a manhood issues

that go beyond and the one guy over there tried to start a drink, they tried to get him blackballed. And it started from the head guy. Yeah, that was crazy. So I'm telling you, you had no chance. It's very possible that there was more to it and that he's a hard coach. I mean, he coaches him hard, but it might be, there might be at this point more to it. Greg Williams.

Right. Same kind of guy. Yeah, but his players loved him. For whatever reason, the group. peer didn't love him. Group in Kansas City loved him. Yep, and we'll see if he ends up back there. You know what? I bet you Andy Reid does.

I think Andy Reid's going to have to rehire him because nobody else in the league is going to rehire. I'm not trying to sell him. I'm happy for him. I'm happy he got out of this. Yeah, these are losers. I'm just telling you, you ask me the question. I'm answering it for you. That's what happens. The Colt or the Colt won.

because these people didn't want to be reformed. They enjoyed picking up their checks. We got new people now, and you said you're going to let them do their job. You're going to give them some... Let them do the job. That's right. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Right.

On this staff, you just mentioned that today, and I talked about it in the open, they hired Anthony Lynn. They've got two former head coaches on the staff, and Kingsbury and Lynn. Lynn's been really good, and an incredible guy when it comes to players really enjoying him and liking him and every stop he's been. Ken Norton, Jr.'s on the staff. The staff hiring, if you don't have a reaction to anybody's, you know, right up to bat, it's fine. But does anybody stick out that, you know, you're excited that he's going to be a part of it?

No, I hear people giving grades. Everything to see to me until you prove otherwise. Right. they got to get together. Obviously, it's relationships. People are comfortable with these guys. The thing is that they were willing to come.

Right. They came here. And so that shows you, Peters, his reach, because you're coming to the Intercy East when you're in last place, and I don't know what other offers people might have had, but that's impressive.

So you've got a guy that attracts people who obviously, you had to have had better offers or better situations because you don't have a talented roster. They know they've got to go to work. This is a workout deal. There's nothing really here that you can hang your hat on and say, well, look, here's what we got? Well, what do you have?

So this is a workout. And so that was impressive. That's why the GM, that was, was a huge get. And then also your head coach, that was a huge get because look what they were able to attract. You got people that left the 49ers, the cowboys. I mean, people left organizations. They didn't get run out.

They walked away. And you got people trying to fight to keep people. So that's impressive to hell to me. We love it because we're addicts. But league-wide, we're like... old Detroit was. Washington. Yeah.

You kidding me? No, it's true. Yeah, you got rotten facilities, you got a shitty stadium, you just go on and on and on about it. And so that impressed me. If you still have enough luster that you were able to attract professionals,

highly impressed with that. Well, one of the people that created the luster is one Richard Doc Walker, who you can follow on X on Twitter at Rick Doc Walker, and you can listen to the podcast that he does with Sali by going to patreon.com slash doc Walker. This has been a pleasure.

It's always an honor to have you on the show. I appreciate when you've got time to do it. I'm happy to be on with Denton Day. I love that segment when you let Denton do his notes. Right. When you let Didn't do his notes. News, yeah. It's one of the best segments.

I could just throw it in there. I would love to have that on at least twice a show. Twice a show. If you didn't mind. Okay. Yeah, I just think it should be expanded. Just, you know, just a suggestion from a loyal fan. I appreciate it.

I think it's a good suggestion. It will be taken up in the next meeting and in the next production meeting. And congratulations, too, on your success on the game. I heard you won big again. Again. I did win on the game Sunday, but it's not again. It was not. It was a very average year overall, but the smell test one, so that's all I care.

I've gotten to the point where I care more about the picks that I make on the show than I do my own picks, which actually have real money riding on them. So, anyway. Congratulations on Sunday Red, too. I understand you're an investor, minor investor in that with Tiger Woods and the whole thing. So I can't wait to get. hopefully I'll get some swag gear from, uh, what are you talking about? Is that true?

Why do you just make things up? I just, I tell you, I heard it was a rumor. You didn't hear anything. You just made that up. You just wanted to add something. So there's no truth to it. Truth to what? I'm an investor in Tigers' tailor-made clothing line.

Sunday red. No. Um, you're not. Okay. No, no, no. As you, as you know, I'm not. No, I don't. No, I don't.

Yeah. I just thought I could get a shirt. How are the old owners doing? How are the new owners doing? I mean, you get to spend time with all of them, so just give everybody a sense of what you think of our new ownership group. Have you been hanging out with Magic? Mitch Rails, Josh Harris? I know that you've had a lot of conversations with all those people.

I don't know who you're talking to. I'm not a part of that group. Right. Well, you know what? I'm very supportive of them. Any group you're a part of is a group I want to be a part of, and I kind of feel like I am. Well, again, if you get 2X Sunday Red. All right.

I'd love one. See you. Thanks for doing this as always. Thank you. I will talk to you later. All right, bye. See you. Richard Doc Walker, everybody.

My homie. That was funny when he was talking about Mahomes and said Mahomi. All right. A few more things right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, DC, and you'll get a cash bonus on your initial deposit. That's a given with MyBooky.

You use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and they put extra cash into your account. But my bookie's been with me for pretty much the entirety of this podcast's run so far. It's five and a half years old, which is crazy to me to think that I've been doing this podcast for five and a half years. They've been with me for four and a half to five of those years. And the reason for that is it's worked for them, but it's worked for me and the listeners to this podcast. My bookie is an old school sports book. You know, the newer school sports books are gouging customers with, you know, high pricing on losses to overcome a lot of their customer acquisition and marketing costs. You're not going to pay minus 128 on a loss at my bookie.

It's minus 110 or better, pretty much across the board. Occasionally, it'll be, you know, a tick higher, you know, on a key number if you're buying a half point, let's just say, or on teasers, et cetera. but no, this is a fair place. You want fair numbers, but you want fair pricing, too. MyBooky, by the way, has everything you need for March Madness. Every year they've got such a great offering on March college basketball, the NCAA tournament. They've got contests galore, and then they'll have everything. They'll have the games, you know, the sides, the totals, money lines, and prop bets galore.

MyBooky.ag I trust in my bookie always have. I know it's a great shop. You can trust it too. Go to my bookie.orgie.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. So if I had a smell test for college hoops, which I don't, although I do it for March Madness, and I think it's turned out pretty well, the first couple of years that I've done it for March Madness. But if I were doing it for college hoops regular season, there would be a play tonight, and the play would be Detroit Mercy. Detroit Mercy is 0 and 26 on the season. They are favored tonight by five points over IUPUI. That's Indiana Purdue at Indianapolis. Now, IUPUI is not a good team either. They're 6 and 20, but a 0 and 26 team is favored by 5. Don't run to the window with this one.

And I'm just telling you not to run to the window with this one because, I mean, I'd play it. I'm going to play it not for a lot. These non-power league games, there's not a lot of action on them. So it's not like the books will need Detroit Mercy for a ton. There's just not a lot of action typically in some of these games, especially when they're bad teams. Look, it's certainly not beneath me to have an Atlantic Sun, Missouri Valley, Horizon League three-team parlay on a given night. But it is a weird point spread, that's for sure.

I wanted to finish up with this. Maryland plays Iowa tonight. They're actually favored by five and a half over the Hawkeyes. They beat Iowa two weeks ago on a buzzer-beater by Jemir Young, who's just having a ridiculous season for Maryland. But this is a big stretch for Maryland basketball here. And I'm not about to go in the direction that some of you have gone in, which is Kevin Willard's in trouble. No, he isn't.

He's not in trouble. He's in year two of a seven-year deal. You think they're going to pay him $20 million? Sorry, that's not happening. Kevin will be fine. You know, I told you guys with Turgeon, be careful what you wish for. And I would say the same thing about Kevin Willard, because Kevin's a good coach. He's having a tough season for sure.

a season where they just haven't had anything really go their way, but really it's been more about their performance on offense. Now, they are a great defensive team, but they are a wretched offensive team. Per the Ken Palm numbers, the advanced numbers, the adjusted offensive efficiency number, the adjusted defensive efficiency number, Maryland on offense is ranked 187th in the country, 187 in the country. Defensively, they're fifth. Fifth on defense. 187th offensively.

In all of my years of watching Maryland basketball, I think I tweeted this out after a game recently. I can't remember a more limited offensive basketball team. Imagine what they would be without Jamir Young. My God. Defensively, though, excellent. You know, it's a credit to Kevin Willis. in his staff. And don't roll your eyes, because I know some of you will roll your eyes with this

little spiel here. Basketball people will know, when you're losing games and when you are bad on offense, it is hard to get the night in, night out commitment defensively. It's just harder and not as fun to play defense. And so to get that night in and night out commitment defensively when you are losing and you are bad offensively, and they have gotten that night in and night out, they've actually improved defensively as they've been losing games and struggling on offense. That's a credit to the coaching staff. They have not quit on Kevin Willard and staff. They are playing hard.

They are playing extremely hard on defense. That's why all of these games have been winnable. I mean, they've lost six of their last 10, but the losses have been by three, three, two, three, and four in double overtime. They had a nine-point loss at Michigan State, but they led that game with five minutes to go. They've been in every single game for a month and a half now, two months now. But when you are bad defensively and you're losing, it's not nearly as hard to get the commitment on the offensive end. It's fun to play offense. I'm going to try to go out and get 25 tonight.

Yeah, we may lose because of our defense. but we're going to get some shots up. So credit to the coaching staff for continuing to have this team compete at a very high level defensively. It's been very impressive to watch, albeit having to suffer through the offensive possessions in the same game. So I'm bringing up Maryland basketball on this show today because they are going to play the first of their final seven games tonight against Iowa. And I just have this sense that interest in Maryland basketball is declining and maybe declining exponentially at this point and that these final seven games are big for Kevin Willard, not for his job security at all. I think Kevin's a really good coach. And I don't want to go back and,

you know, relitigate the Turgeon era. You guys know what I thought about Mark. I thought Mark was a really good coach. I said, be careful what you wish for. They were, you know, in the tournament, six out of the final seven years. His best team didn't have. a chance to compete because of the pandemic. They were consistently kind of a top three to top five-ish big 10 team. But it got stale. Understood. It got stale because they weren't winning in the tournament and they were getting bounced in the first weekend. I get it. And I like Kevin as a coach. Trust me. I like the hire and I like him as a coach. But this program right now is at a point in which if things go south the rest of the way, they could potentially end up with a losing

record. They will end up playing in the first four of the Big Ten tournament. That's never happened to Maryland since they've entered the Big Ten. They've never finished worse than ninth. They could potentially finish 11th through 14th, which puts them in that Wednesday night, first night of the tournament, which has been relegated for other teams like Penn State and Rutgers, not Maryland. And they've only had, you know, they had the losing season when Turgeon left and Danny Manning came in, but that was the only losing regular season, 15 and 17, since 1992. They haven't cratered, really, in any year, you know, when Gary got here, starting with the, you know,

Gary years post-probation. You know, Maryland's always been either really good, good, or decent. you know, that's pretty much been for the last 30 plus years. They've either been really good, good, or decent. You know, really good top four seed in a top four seed in a region in the NCAA tournament, a top 15 team. You know, good, top 25-ish, just on the outskirts, definitely going to the tournament. Or decent, eh, they're not that good this year.

They still could make the tournament with a nice little run in February and early March, a conference tournament game or two. That's essentially what we've been for 30 years. And this year is headed towards potentially a losing season, a first night in the Big Ten tournament, and then what will that do in terms of allowing Kevin Willard to rebuild immediately through recruiting and through the transfer portal? because you've got, you know, typically it's February 14th, right? You'd have a good crowd tonight.

You win this game. And Saturday at 5.30 against Illinois, ranked 14th in the country. You'd have an absolute zoo of a crowd where you could bring recruits into. Look at our environment, you know? And then you'd have a game against Northwestern that would be big Indiana at the end of the year. And you'd have three or four games in February and early March that were meaningful games, big games at home that were really impressive to people watching and paying attention. And then you go into the tournament and whatever happens, happens.

I'm concerned that if you don't win four out of the final seven, you end up 15 and 16 or 16 and 15 or something like that. You lose a first round, first night big 10 tournament game. Is that going to hamper Kevin Willard in the offseason? It's a totally different offseason now as well because of N.I. And Maryland doesn't have some of the same availability in terms of NIL collective dollars that some of the teams that they're competing with do have. So, you know, if they could get on a mini run here, not because they're going to make the tournament. They'd have to win all seven pretty much at this point to have at large aspirations, certainly six of the seven. And that's not going to happen.

They're just not good enough on offense. but if they could win four or five out of the final seven, you know, end up 17 and 14, somewhere, you know, seventh or eighth in the big 10, you know, no worse than ninth. It doesn't look like a cratered season, which they just haven't had, you know, other than the Manning replacing Turgeon season two years ago. So I'm hanging in there with them. I've appreciated the effort. It's been painful to watch on offense, but I've appreciated from somebody who thinks about basketball a lot and loves it so much. I know what they're going through where they are just not good enough offensively,

and it's hurting them night in and night out, and yet they're able to get their guys to defend well enough where they have a chance to win these games. but I think this is a big stretch the rest of the season for Maryland basketball. Just don't want to see it kind of get relegated to third tier in terms of importance in the market.

I think sometimes Maryland basketball fans, even some of the people out at Maryland, are a little bit overreaching in what we or they think they are. You know, it's not a reload situation. when you have an off year. It just isn't anymore. And in terms of their stature in the market, which they're competing with four professional teams,

yeah, they have two markets to pull from, but this is a team now that is bandwagon, and they've got to win. And if they're not winning, this is a big revenue producer for their athletic department, because football generates a lot of revenue, big 10. Being in the big 10 ultimately was the right thing and a good thing,

But basketball matters a lot to Maryland sports fans. And I just have had this sense over the last couple of games that, wow, I think interest is really fading. And they can't see this season totally crater. Anyway, go Terps tonight. Back tomorrow with Tommy.