The Kevin Sheehan Show - Sanchez Ready, But For What?

Episode Date: December 6, 2018

Kevin opens the show talking about Mark Sanchez's smooth press conference from yesterday. He also reminds everyone of the 2009 rumored attempt by the Skins to trade up to draft Sanchez. Thom called in from vacation with interesting information he obtained from the Santa Clara, California DA's office on Reuben Foster's first alleged domestic violence incident. Scott Van Pelt joined the show for a conversation about Terps' new football coach Mike Locksley and the show finished up with an NFL Power Poll. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I'm here. Corbin is here. Aaron's still on vacation. He'll be back next week. This show is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation. And tell them we told you to call. Scott Van Pelt later today. Tommy will call in from wherever he is on vacation. He said he was in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The other day. I think he's in Florida. I have no idea where he is, but he is scheduled to call in shortly. The Wizards won last night. Without John Wall, Atlanta is horrible. But it is interesting to watch the kind of offensive basketball the Wizards play when John Wall isn't there. The ball moves, players move. It's what we saw last year when he was out. Beale had 36 and 9 assists. Sataranski had 14 points, 7 assists, and no turnovers. And after the game, got a very warm endorsement from Bradley Beale who said he works hard, he's long, he's good, and he deserves this. I thought that

was interesting. Thomas Bryant, if you haven't been paying attention, he's the center now, the undrafted guy out of Indiana, 16 points, nine rebounds last night in just 21 minutes. If you're not paying attention once again and why would you. That's why you have me when it comes to the Wizards. They've won three in a row. They've won three in a row and they play their next game at Cleveland. The game of the night last night was in Brooklyn. Listen to what Paul George did last night for the Oklahoma City Thunder. They trailed the nets by 23 at one point in the game, 18 going into the fourth quarter. And that's when he went off. He scored 25 points in the fourth quarter. Outscored the Nets. 25 to 19 by himself. But the 25 that he had, it actually wasn't, they weren't all in the fourth quarter,

they were all in the fourth quarter, but they were all in the final seven and a half minutes. He came in with about eight and a half to go. He scored 25 points in the final seven and a half minutes of that game and hit a three with three point one seconds left and OKC beat the Nets last night behind his 47 in total. Again, 25 in the fourth quarter. Russell Westbrook finished with 21 points, 17 rebounds, and 15 assists. He passed Jason Kidd for the third most triple doubles in NBA history last night. Oscar Robertson is number one on that list. I looked this up this morning.

I didn't know what the numbers were actually on triple doubles. Oscar Robertson, the big O, 181 all-time triple doubles. Magic is two with 138. He's 43 short of Oscar. Magic is, and now Westbrook has 108. So it's possible that Westbrook will get close to Magic, but he won't get close to Oscar Robertson. One more thing from last night,

just recapping some of the things that happened last night. If you missed it, number one ranked Gonzaga nearly got beat at home by in-state rival Washington. I bring it up because if you haven't seen Rihachamura, he's a Japanese player for Gonzaga. Gonzaga's ranked number one in America right now. They beat Duke right before Thanksgiving. He hit a shot last night to win the game with about a second left. If you haven't seen him, he's Japanese, he's 6-8, 235 athletic, and he's going to be a lottery pick in next year's NBA draft.

He's a really good player. Gonzaga is really good again. And tonight it's Maryland at Purdue. The Terps are ranked 23rd, Purdue's 24th. The boilers are seven point favorites in this one. I was hoping to see like minus three. Minus seven means that Vegas feels pretty good about their chances of winning this game. If you missed Mark Turgeon on yesterday's show,

just go to past episodes at the Kevin Sheehan Show.com or, you know, in your catalog of shows on iTunes or however else you're consuming the podcast. and just click yesterday's show and go to the 47 minute 42nd mark. That's where he came on. He was really good with us yesterday. I really like Mark. Everybody likes Mark. This is a big year for Maryland basketball.

And this would be a huge win tonight to get on the road at Purdue, a ranked team that actually is desperate for a win tonight because they've lost two in a row. They are ranked. Corbyn's shaking his head saying they're not ranked. they are ranked in the coaches poll. They're 24th in the coaches poll. They're not ranked in the AP. I just use the highest ranking possible when discussing teams.

But Purdue's ranked 24th in the coaches poll. They're good. They've got a great home court environment at Mackey Arena. And this is a big game for Maryland. The Terps have a tough schedule coming up even before more conference games. The Big Ten's rough with eight teams in the top 25 right now. They play Seton Hall. before January 1. They also play Radford. Radford, you say? Yeah, Radford, who beat Notre Dame and Texas

already this year. So that is quite a schedule between now, and they've already played Virginia, obviously, and already a Big Ten game in Penn State. So big one tonight. Tom's going to call in from vacation in a few minutes. Scott will join us later as well. So I'm watching Mark Sanchez yesterday. and his media get together after practice. He's really good in front of a camera, Mark Sanchez is confident. He's really confident that his experience is going to put the skins in position to win or play well down the stretch. He seems to have no doubt. I mean, listening to him, there's no doubt in his mind that they're going to play well.

There's also no doubt listening to Sanchez in my mind that he was saying, signed by the Redskins because of his real familiarity with what they're doing offensively, and Kevin O'Connell and Matt Kavanaugh's familiarity with him. They know him. They know what he likes to do. They're able to communicate to the receivers, the kind of ball he throws, where he likes to throw it, and Jay Gruden was comfortable with that. And Sanchez thinks he's already getting close to being up to speed for all intents and purposes. He said, no excuses. He's like, no excuses. He said, I'm going to be ready Sunday for a game that's really important. We're in a playoff race.

I mean, he's still talking playoffs. And I think the team is. I think this guy's got something to him from a leadership standpoint. He's got some charisma. And let's face it, one of the reasons he keeps getting signed by teams, he wasn't this year, but in the past, is people like him, players like him. He does have some, he's got personality to him. There's something to him. You know, Dak Prescott says that much more than Tony Romo, Mark Sanchez was his mentor, his rookie year

in Dallas. As an aside, listening to Jay Gruden yesterday, there's no question in my mind that they signed Sanchez and then Josh Johnson for the exact same reasons. Both are players that the coaching staff knows. And the players themselves have an understanding of the play terminology and what the team is trying to do, and so there isn't a significant challenge in getting them ready to call a play in the huddle

and to execute a play in an actual game. Look, I don't think Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen were ever going to sign Colin Kaepernick for many reasons, but I think listening to Jay Gruden and from his perspective, I really believe that the decisions on San Francisco, and Johnson were totally about his and the coaching staff's comfort level. You can say all you want about Kaepernick being better than Sanchez and Johnson.

You might be right. But at this point in this season, Jay would tell you there's no way I can get a new guy that's not familiar with what we're doing up to speed quickly enough for them to be effective. From a pure football standpoint, they want the easiest path to a quarterback that can adapt to what everyone else is doing, rather than getting everybody else to adapt to the quarterback. That's more of an off-season thing. If you've got to, I just think that this is really when it comes to Jay about football.

I don't think there's a lot sinister going on here. Nothing could be, to be honest with you, nothing could be less of a story for me right now as a football fan than the Redskins not signing Colin Kaepernick. I don't know anyone who follows football, who would listen to Gruden talk about Sanchez and Johnson yesterday. Johnson, by the way, played with Gruden in Cincinnati. And he raved yesterday about how smart Johnson is and how familiar he is and how quickly he'll get up to speed on what Gruden wants. I don't know how anyone would listen to Gruden and not understand completely why he is more comfortable with them than he would be with someone he doesn't know for. this particular team in this particular situation this late in the season. Question Jacksonville or Arizona, why they didn't bring Kaepernick in during the offseason. Don't get hung up on why the Redskins didn't sign Kaepernick with four games left. So now that we are three days removed

from the debacle Monday night in Philadelphia, can I interest anyone in the Redskins being able to hang in there over the final four games with a chance to make the postseason? And with Mark Sanchez leading the way. Anybody. Anybody. As mentioned, Sanchez talks the part, man. You got to go watch.

You can find his press conference on Redskins.com. Just watch it. He's smooth. He's got personality. He's quick. Quick-witted. He's confident. Maybe he's the guy this franchise has been waiting for all along.

I thought about something yesterday, and maybe this has already come up on sports talk radio, which I'm not a part of anymore, or in columns, which I've read some, but I haven't read this yet, or maybe on TV, I don't know. But I remember the other day, and I went and started to look this up last night, do you remember that this was the guy that the franchise wanted? They tried to trade up in the 2009 draft to take Mark Sanchez. It was part of what we now know was a crazy off season in 2009. They hated Zorn. They wanted to hire Mike Shanahan then, that year, after 2008. And the first attempt to get Mike Shanahan was to try to trade for Jay Cutler.

And if you recall, Vinnie Serato has told the story after the fact. They thought they had to trade all locked up for Cutler. And if the Cutler deal had happened, they would have fired Zorn, brought in Mike Shanahan, but the Broncos were talking to the Redskins and the Bears about trading Jay Cutler, and they liked Kyle Orton more than they liked Jason Campbell, which is why they ended up dealing Cutler to Chicago and not Washington. So Cutler went to Chicago. The Redskins were still looking for a quarterback. They were still looking for their franchise quarterback, and they were still hoping that a franchise quarterback would bring Mike Shanahan out of brief retirement to take their job right then and there. And so they tried to trade up for yes, Mark Sanchez. Vinny loved him,

Snyder loved him, but they just didn't have enough to get into the top five to take him. So they were stuck with Zorn and Campbell for one more season. And if you recall, and I found this quote last night, Jason Campbell was upset about the whole thing. And Jason Campbell never got upset. But I found this quote from April 2009, right after the draft in which the Redskins selected Brian Iraqpo. I was about to say Arapco the way Vinny would say it, but when they took Brian Aracpo in the first round. Campbell was at a charity golf tournament shortly after the draft and was asked about the trade rumors, and he said, quote, it was definitely a shock when I heard the Mark Sanchez rumors. It's an awkward situation just because after the Cutler deal, we did sit down

and talk, and then the Sanchez thing came up, close quote. And what he was indicating at the time is, you know, the Cutler rumors were out there. So he sat down and had a conversation. When the Cutler deal didn't go through, I'm sure Vinny and Dan said, don't worry, Jason, you're our guy. And then the Sanchez rumors came up. Anyway, put that one up there with the mistakes barely avoided by the Serato-Snyder era. You know, two of them.

I mean, the Cutler trade would have been bad for the team. The Sanchez trade would have been bad for the team. Remember just a year after Vinny, and Dan, all of that came a year after Vinnie and Dan were ready to send two number ones to Cincinnati for Chad Ochosinko. Can you imagine if they had traded, if the Bengals had been, the only reason they didn't take it is the Bengals were just as dumb as the Redskins, because they should have taken two number ones in a heartbeat for Chad Johnson or Ochosinko at the time. And they didn't take it. That would have gone down very likely as one of the worst

NFL trades of all time had they made it. I mean, they're already on the list for some of the worst ever. But yeah, I mean, just think about the ones that they were able to make. A third rounder for T.J. Duckett. Third and fourth rounders for Brandon Lloyd with a new contract. A second and a fourth, I think it was for Jason Taylor, or second and a fifth maybe. I mean, the list goes on and on. Actually, I mean, we may be adding a fourth for ha-ha Clinton Dix to the list of bad deals over the years because he's played poorly. We'll talk to Cooley about that more likely than not tomorrow. Anyway, the skins tried to trade up to take Mark Sanchez in the 2009 draft.

They have him now. They've got him right now as a 32-year-old. Perhaps this is the chance he was looking for, and it'll turn out well for the Redskins. I doubt it, though. He's never been very good, ever, anywhere he's been. He's thrown too many interceptions for too low of a completion percentage. When asked to be just a game manager for a good team with a great defense like he was in his first two years in New York,

he was just so-so at that. He threw a lot of picks in those two seasons. With the regression of the defense over the last four to five games, I just don't think there's anything within the realm of reasonable to suggest that they could be good enough over the final four games to make a post-season run. I think it's one win the rest of the way. I think seven and nine is the best bet.

Maybe that's a poll. 10 and 6, 9 and 7. seven and nine or eight and eight or worse. What did I just? Tennis, there are more possibilities, obviously. Seven and nine, six and tens of possibility. I think it's going to be one win the rest of the way. And then I think there's going to be a reboot.

I do. I think Bruce will be gone. I think Jay will be gone. Many of you suggested there's no way that will happen that Snyder's comfortable with Bruce being a shield for him. I don't know if he's the shield. Bruce pushes other people out there to be a shield for him. him. I mean, you got multiple shields working, but I just can't see how any, any owner would look at

his team and the business around it and suggest that you're going to bring back the two guys that have already created incredible quantifiable apathy and expect that people are going to get excited about that. They won't. I think you elevate Kyle Smith to GM if he's ready. You let him report to Doug Williams, but let Kyle Smith be the guy in charge of personnel, the true general manager. I don't know anybody of significance that will want that job in that position. And then I'd go get Greg Williams. I was thinking about this last night. I'd go get Greg Williams. Give him a voice and personnel if he wants it. Make sure he's ready to hire a really good offensive coordinator. Maybe this guy, Zach Taylor, who works for Sean McVeigh as his

quarterback's coach in L.A. and is highly thought of maybe he's ready at 32 years old to be an offensive coordinator. You don't have to hire him as your head coach yet. You bring him in as the O.C. Let's get tough. Let's get a guy with some structure, with some toughness to him and Greg Williams. I would keep adding personnel to the defense. You're stuck at quarterback right now, although I would draft somebody first, second, third round, at the very least, somebody that you think you can develop. Now, if John Harbaugh or Jim Harbaugh becomes available, I'm interested very much in John. I'd hire either one of them. You know, Bruce Ariens has said he wants to coach, but I think he said that he only wants to coach the Browns.

But I always thought of Bruce Arons is a really good coach. Josh McDaniels, I don't know, Lincoln Riley is a college coach coming to the NFL. A lot of people believe he's brilliant. But anyway, I'd think about Greg Williams when the season ends. I don't know if that fires up the fan base, but I think it would be a much better sell than Bruce and Jay. One more thing before we get to Tommy, because I saw this this morning. Ruben Foster's girlfriend, Alisa Ennis, was on Good Morning.

America this morning. And she said about the incident in Tampa last weekend or two weekends ago, excuse me now, two weekends ago when the 49ers were in Tampa. She said, quote, even when I called the police, the 49ers came up there. I have pictures of the 49ers coming up there trying to talk to the police, telling them I'm the same ex-girlfriend that sat up there and lied, closed quote. And she's talking about her recanted accusation, the first time there was a domestic violence incident with Ruben Foster. And she said about that,

quote, love will have you do things that's not in your best interest. I did what I had to do for the person I love. I thought that he would change, saying that she lied when she recanted and saying she did so out of love. She also had comments about him being picked up by the Redskins. And this was the quote. Quote, when he got, when he got, when he, when he, He got signed, I was like, I can't believe somebody picked him up. I just couldn't believe somebody picked him up in less than how many hours. I was shocked, closed quote. All right, let me tell you about Window Nation.

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You can also go to windonation.com, and don't forget, it's a free estimate. There's no risk in having somebody come out, check out your windows, tell you what you need, and give you an estimate. Again, 86690 Nation or visitwindonation.com. All right, let's bring in Tommy. Tommy's vacationing. You're in Florida, right? Like the west coast of Florida somewhere? Yes, I am.

I'm in the Florida Panhand. Oh, you're in the Panhand. About an hour away from Pensacola and right on the Gulf. And the weather's been fabulous and I've been having a great time and I may not come back. Yeah, why would you? it's freezing here. And it's been freezing all week. By the way,

just as an aside, one of my very oldest, closest friends was in the Marine Corps, flight school down in Pensacola when, you know, we were in our early 20s. And we went down there a couple of times. And that was actually a fun town.

Now, it was a military town. It was, you know, a lot of, but a lot of his friends became friends of, mine and there was a bar called flounders. I'll never forget it. And I think on the two or three

times we went down to Pensacola, I think we got there when it opened at noon and didn't leave until three or four a.m. on multiple nights. But it was actually, it wasn't a bad town. And Tommy, it was also not a long drive to New Orleans, you know, from Pensacola. No, no. So we did, I'm about an hour east of Pensacola, and we're less than four hours away from New Orleans. Yeah, exactly. We went from Pensacola to New Orleans every single time we were down there for, you know, a day or two and enjoyed that. All right. Well, a lot's happened this week.

Yes. I mean, I know you want to weigh in. You wrote a column about Kaepernick. I know you want to talk about Mike Loxley. Do you want to just start with the game itself? I mean, can you believe that your son? I mean, how's he doing? I mean, I think everybody knows how much we feel awful about it.

I hope you've expressed that to him from all of us. Well, I have. I passed on everyone's thoughts and prayers, so to speak, to cult. And look, he thinks he may be back. before the end of the year. Apparently, it's not nearly as bad or as dire that as we thought that night. I mean, it's more of a crack than a break, a crack in a bone. And you heard Jay Gruden, they're playing on the possibility that if they could use him in a meaningful game, that's what they're hoping for. So, oh, it's not lost. Oh, come on. How can you, you know,

it's actually interesting. I would expect that he's going to end up. on the injured reserve after this week. How can you fracture your fibula? You break your leg and be back in three weeks. He cracked it. He didn't break it. All right. He cracked it.

You know, you've had bones with cracks in them before. I still do. I'm sure your head's got all kinds of cracks. There's a lot of cracks everywhere. But you're right. It may be moot either this week or the week after. All right. So their season's over in your view, right? They can't win with Sanchez. I think, I tell you what, if Jay Gruden somehow brings this team to a playoff appearance,

then he will have earned the benefit of the doubt from everyone. I said the same thing yesterday, that if they somehow win three games and they get to the postseason, well, then, you know, all bets are off because Tommy yesterday on the show, and I reiterated it today. I think it's over for Bruce and Jay. I don't know how in what world, as an owner of a business like the Redskins, you could possibly try to sell Bruce and Jay for one more year if they win another game and finish 7 and 9. I just don't see it.

I don't think there's any way it can happen. Well, like you always say, what's your plan? What's your plan after that? I just gave it. You want to hear it? it? Yeah. All right. So look, this is a reasonable plan because I'm practical about the kind of person that would actually come and work in the organization, right? So I'm going to elevate Kyle Smith to general manager. Everybody swears that he is talented and they can't let him leave this organization that he's going to go on and be a good general manager somewhere else. I'd let him report to Doug Williams, but Kyle Smith would be the general manager and would run personnel. And then Tommy, I would go make amends with Greg Williams, and I would hire Greg Williams to be my new head coach.

And I would give him a voice in personnel, and I'd make sure that he's ready to hire a very good offensive coordinator. This guy, Zach Taylor, who works for Sean McVe, as his quarterback's coach. People think that he may even be head coach ready. But if he's not, and he's a coordinator, bring him in. But I want a toughness to this organization. and I would keep adding personnel to the defense. I'd focus on adding more personnel to your defensive side of the ball

with Greg Williams coaching it. You're stuck at quarterback, although I think you've got to draft somebody now. But that would be, that's a solution. I'm not saying it's the solution, but I'm also practical about, you know, let's be honest, if John Harbaugh becomes available, he's not coming to Washington to work for Dan Snyder. There's no way.

Yeah. You know, so could you go get Greg? Greg Williams, even after the relationship was, you know, hurt a little bit there. I can't believe that Cleveland's not going to consider keeping him. I'd consider that. But anyway, that's a solution. I'm not saying it's the solution. I may come up with another one by tomorrow.

Well, you know, that would fit right in with the Redskins' new way of winning back fans because he would be the perfect coach for Ruben Foster, a guy who was the guy who was the grandfather of the whole Bountygate thing in New Orleans. Right. Wines up being your head coach here in Washington, that's perfect. Yep. You know, that's absolutely. I don't know if Ruben Foster will ever play for him, but Greg Williams.

I know that, but my point is, Greg Williams is, he's never going to be a head coach in this league. Yes. No one's going to hire him. He's a head coach right now. He's an interim head coach. He's a head coach right now. And you know what? No one's going to hire him.

I think you're wrong about that. I think, look, actually, I don't know if you're wrong with that. I think it's 50-50, but I will say this about Greg Williams. He is smart and he's a hell of a football coach. But you forgot about Bountygate, didn't you? No, I didn't forget about Bountygate. Okay. I mean, he's the guy.

He's the guy who engineered that whole thing that embarrassed the NFL and cost them millions of dollars. And you said at the time he'll never, and you said at the time he'll never coach again. And he's been coaching as a defensive coordinator. Right. I get that. I was wrong about that. I think the next step is that he'll be ahead. The league will never endorse the team hiring him to be the head coach.

You know what I'm thinking about here? I'm thinking about good quality coaches. And at the same time, from the owner's standpoint, what could you possibly do to get anybody excited about this team in 2019? I actually think Greg Williams would be a hire that would excite some who are not excited anymore right now. Not everybody, but some. It would, as opposed to a guy that most people have never heard of. Right.

Yeah. Or a so-called retread or something like that. It would probably generate some attention and interest. But look, Kevin, there's no hope. There's no hope. You know that. I mean, in the years that Dan Snyder has owned the team, he's had two guys run the personnel when he hasn't been running it.

Vinic Serrato and Bruce Allen. I mean, think about that. I know. What makes anyone think that anything's going to change? I mean, I don't think Bruce Allen's gone, but if he is, he may be. Tommy, he's enemy number one of the fan base. can you possibly bring him back? When they had the cutaways during the Philadelphia Monday night game of Bruce up in the booth with the headset, did you see Twitter Redskin fans, those that

were paying attention to the game? I mean, I know. Did you see Bruce try to hide behind the bar in between the windows at one point? I think he knew the camera was on him. I think I miss that. But I don't see it. I just don't. see it. He's been public enemy for a while, and I don't think it's going to make much difference to, look, I just think it's, there's no hope, Kevin.

There's no hope. There's not. There's no hope. You're not, look, you're not trying to, you're not trying to, you know, talk down a person that's, that's ready to jump in. I'm with you. I understand that Dan Snyder, as the owner of this football team, means that we're

never going to have a good franchise as fan base. I mentioned this yesterday that I don't want a good team, I want a good franchise, and I don't know that that's ever going to be possible with him as the owner. I'm resigned to that, but I would like, you know, if that's off the table, they got to figure out a way to have the best possible team every once in a while. And I'm, the accidental good season. The accidental good season that they've never had, that everybody else has had, that they haven't won 11 games once since 1991, and they've only won 10 three times. It's really, it's an incredible stretch of just horrible, horrible football. The funny thing is, is that these last four years,

if you add up the record of the last four years, it's about as good a four-year stretch as we've had in a long time. Yes, I know. I know. And, you know, my contention, fan bases should all be demand more in this town than they do. I don't think that's possible with the Redskins. I think seven to nine to nine and seven is the world you should be happy to live in. Okay. Well, you asked me for a solution. I gave you a solution. Okay. No, that's a solution. You're right. And I think it would generate some interest, although you're hiring a defensive coach to be your head coach in an offensive league. I don't care. I don't care about that. I really don't. I think that. I think

that right now I would add somebody like him. And by the way, if you can't add him as a head coach because no one else wants to hire him as a head coach, you hire Bruce Ariens and you make Greg Williams the defensive coordinator. Or you hire Josh McDaniels and you make Greg Williams the defensive coordinator. You want to kill poor Bruce Ariens? Go ahead. Hire him as the Red Kid's head coach. All right. What are you got for me? Your columns on Kaplan. And by the way, what? Yeah, I mean, some people think the solution is bringing in Colin Kaepernick. And I can't believe no one wrote this because it's the first thing that occurred to me. Why does anyone think Colin Kaepernick would come play for the Washington Redskins?

Why? Because of the name? I said this yesterday, yeah. Everything, everything that Colin Kaepernick is against. I'm not saying that. I'm just pointing out if you look at his supporters, if you look at the people that back him. It's the same crowd that wants to change the name. Now, those people are going to turn around and say, oh, our hero,

Colin Kaepernick is going to play for the Redskins, so we're going to support him and become Redskins fans. Colin Kaepernick, who I pointed out, appeared at a Native American protest on Alcatraz Island two years ago and spoke out against the genocide

against Native Americans and stuff and got two ceremonial feathers. from some Indian official. Really? Native American official. And what's you got to do? Stick those in his Redskins helmet? Well, maybe that's one of the Native American tribes

that actually love the Redskins. Because, you know, the Redskins just happened to be the most popular NFL team among Native Americans for those that didn't know it. But you know what, Tommy, yesterday, and I said this, and maybe you put this thought into my mind a few weeks ago, you could have.

I said, look, if you're the Redskins, you always need to be aware of the cause celebs. You have to be aware of whether or not someone with his profile is going to come here. Whether it's him or a future big-name free agent or a big-named high-profile draft pick, you've got to make sure that they're not going to say the day you sign them or draft them, I don't want to play for them. They've got a racist name. Don't you have to?

In this environment that we're in, don't you, do you think any thought goes into that? Remember there was a bit of a concern as it related to Sam Bradford and whether or not the Redskins. Yes, they do. Yeah, I mean, and whether or not

he would have played for the Redskins. He had Native American blood in him, supposedly. So, yeah, you're right. You do have to be aware of that. But these people, you know, are the most tone deaf, this is the most tone-deaf organization I think I've ever seen in the history of sports. But listen, there's no way that Colin Kaepernick is going to come play for the most hated organization among his supporters.

That's not going to happen. Did you try to call him before you wrote the column? No, I did not try to call him. Don't you think it would be interesting to ask Colin Kaepernick if he, is his view on the Redskins team name? Yes, it would. Yeah. It would be.

I mean, again. I just gave you an assignment today from vacation. He's not going to come play here. I mean, that's just not going to happen. And the people who are pushing it are foolish to think that he would do that. I mean, look, there's a petition going around to try to get Maroon 5, not to play in the halftime of the Super Bowl because of the NFL's supposedly, you know, supposedly, you know, freezing out Kaepernick.

What are you going to do if he signs with the Redskins, those people? Start a petition saying, let's support the Washington Redskins. It's not going to happen. You know. So he's never going to play here. I thought of the same thing, and I'm going to give you credit, because I have a feeling you probably put this in my mind in a conversation. that we had because I don't think we had it on the air, off the air, but I thought, I said the

same thing yesterday. I'm like, do they know that he would have come here had they offered him opportunity to come here? Because, yeah, it would seem in conflict. It would be really interesting to get his views on the name and whether. And maybe they know it. Maybe the Redskins already know it. Maybe they know. Well, look, you're kind of foolish if you can't put two in the same. two together and realize what would happen. Right. And the last thing the Redskins want is to offer Colin Kaepernick a job and to have to hurt them down.

Exactly. That was my point, is moving forward, and maybe they're already in this mode, I don't know if they are or or not, but they've always got to be aware of that, that a high-profile signing, you know, that you almost have to make sure that there is no, you know, emotional feelings. passionate feeling about the team name in a negative way. You really do because... Yeah, I agree. And in his case, I mean, can you imagine the opportunity it could have been for him

to turn down the Redskins because of the name? Yes, exactly. It would have always solidified his position as a, quote, social justice warrior, basically what it would have done. And you know what's funny? When my column hit social media yesterday, because reading comprehension no longer exists, people can't seem to understand what they read, all the change-in-name advocates were convinced I was on their side somehow. Yeah, right, of course. As a result of this.

And they kept retweeting my column and tweeting these stuff about some kind of big rally this Saturday and all this stuff. And it got so bad that Mike Wise stepped in on social media to tell all them, look, this is not, this guy does not on your side. That's not what he's saying. Did he really? Yeah. That's funny. That is so funny. Because, well, look, I mean, Mike certainly knows in this market everybody's position on that issue.

I mean, he and I have had so many conversations about it. But I am, you know, I am curious. No one in all of the talk in the last few days about just absolute frustration, borderline anger over the Redskins not even considering Kaepernick, you know, from a lot of the people that really want to see Kaepernick back in the league. I'm surprised no one else even thought of it from that perspective. So am I. So am I.

But you know what? It's lonely at the top. It is lonely at the top. You wanted to weigh in also on Ruben Foster. You heard about the ex-girlfriend's appearance this morning on Good Morning America. Yeah, you know, I may not be the amateur G-man that Bruce Allen is with his investigative powers that he seems to have. But I called the Santa Clara's DA's office yesterday, and I talked to somebody who told me off, you know, off the record. record, oh, I told me on background, would not go on the record, to say it that they believed,

they believed that the victim was lying in her recant, not in her original statement, accusing of Rubin Foster of domestic violence, so much so that if you go back and you read the statements issued by the Santa Clara DA after she recanted, they made it pretty clear in those statements that they thought she was lying then. Hold on. Just to be clear, lying when she recanted, not lying about the incident, lying about her view. Read the statements.

Read the statements at the DA's office. They wanted to pursue the case whether she recanted or not, because that's how convinced they were that he did in fact commit these acts. But, you know, I don't have the same kind of contact. that Jay Edgar Bruce Allen does over at Redskins Park. What a joke that is, you know? What a joke that is. They conducted their own investigation.

Yeah, without calling the Tampa police. They've got their own contacts down in Tampa. I, you know, highly, highly suspicious of any sort of investigation. You know what the investigation was? The investigation was what they told you on day one. It was. They talked to a couple, not all, but a couple of his friends. former teammates who said, yeah, he's a great dude.

I wouldn't, this stuff is all, you know, exaggerated. He's a great dude. That's the extent of their investigation. In my view, I could be completely wrong. But to your point, you just called the Santa Clara, you know, DA's office and essentially got more information than perhaps they even have. I don't know. Yeah.

I mean, the Santa Clara DA believes he beat her up. Yeah. Well. You're Washington Redskins, ladies and gentlemen. What do you think the crowd will be like this Sunday for the Giants game? Well, you've got a couple of things working against you. Number one would be Mark Sanchez. Number two would be 30 degrees.

And number three, it could be snow in the forecast, although that seems to be more of a long shot now than it was maybe a day or two ago. But it's not going to be pretty. It's not going to be pretty at all. you're talking about, you know, I think a crowd that'll be half full. And here's the... And the giant fans aren't coming either. No, they're not coming either.

That's part of it because they've got a four and eight football team, who, by the way, is pretty good right now. They're playing pretty well. You know, they've won three of their last four, and it could have been very easily four in a row, had the head coach not had a brain freeze and in the second half at Philadelphia with Sequin Barkley. But I'm not, I mean, did you,

You probably haven't had a chance to see Mark Sanchez's press conference from yesterday after practice. You didn't see that, did you? I did watch clips of it because he got such positive reviews. Oh, my God, Tommy. He's, yeah, he's smooth. That doesn't surprise me, though. I mean, he went to USC. You know, guys who play in L.A. coming from USC, that's almost like a movie studio

college in terms. So it doesn't surprise me that he'd be, and he played in New York. early years. He would have had... He's media savvy. He would have had you at hello yesterday. Had you been at the press conference because you're such an easy sell. But he really, he really is, he's super, like just watching him up there. It's like, I was thinking to myself, wait a minute, he really thinks he's about to lead them on a big run here. Like, he's confident. He's definitely got, you know, he's media savvy for sure for the reasons you mentioned, probably even more so because he was in New York for those years.

Right. And he's, you know, he's quick-witted. He's got personality. And, you know, and I mentioned this, you know, I don't think it's coincidental that despite no one thinking for many, many years that he was a starting quarterback, that teams still wanted him in their locker room. You know, Dak Prescott said he was much more of his mentor than, than Tony Romo was.

And if you recall, that 2016 season, whenever they'd show a shot of Dak Prescott on the sideline, it was Sanchez sitting next to him, going through everything with him. I can see why players and coaches like him. The problem is, is he's not very good. He's just not very good and hasn't been very good. He's limited.

Very limited. Yeah. And the bigger picture, too, Tommy, over the last month is that the deal, defense just isn't very good anymore. You know, you could, we relied the, you could rely on a defense in that first seven game, eight game stretch that shut down the run that that was that, and a team that was playing smart football. But defensively, they're 29th in the league on third down. They are dead last over the last month on third down in the entire league. You know, you just, it's not like

they've got something else they can fall back on now that they don't have a quarterback. I just... Right. Well, let me ask you this. Everything started going south with the Atlanta game. Did Atlanta show a blueprint for how to deal with this defense? Is it just a matter of opposing coaches getting film on the defense after a couple games and saying, well, we have to attack them this way?

I mean, really, except for Matt Ionitis and now quitting Dunbar, I mean, they're not really missing many parts. They shouldn't be this bad on defense. based on what we saw unless they haven't, unless other teams have adjusted to their defense and the Redskins have not adjusted in return. I don't even know if that's the case. Well, I would say this, not that they could use this as an excuse, but they have missed Dunbar because they didn't have depth at corner. You know, it was one of the things that every, every fan wanted addressed in the offseason and they signed Scandrick, and that didn't work out,

and everybody wanted guard depth, and they didn't address that either. I mean, the things that were obvious in terms of what they needed to address in the offseason, guard, wide receiver, and corner. You know, they signed Paul Richardson. I mean, he's a number two receiver, and he got hurt. And they didn't have depth at corner, and they had no depth at guard. So they're in this position, in part because of their own doing. But, you know, did Atlanta have a blueprint?

No, Atlanta just was the best offensive football team that they've played this year other than New Orleans. You know, New Orleans and Atlanta were the two best offensive teams. they've faced. And Dallas has gotten better, and they gave up 31 to the Cowboys. I thought, in terms of Monday nights game, I thought Carson Wentz for the first time that I've watched the Eagles this year looked like the Carson Wentz of last year. I thought he was. Yes, he did. He was really good. He was very mobile, very mobile, moving the pocket around. No doubt. And if you're an Eagles fan and you were looking for a ray of hope, getting the win was huge, but even bigger than that is

offensively they had the biggest, really the biggest day of the year for them. The 34 points they scored against the Giants were in part because of a lot of turnovers. But that was a big offensive game for Philadelphia based on what they've done. And now, you know, they've got a chance to be in first place if they can go to Dallas Sunday and win. But yeah, I don't, they just I never thought watching them defensively in the first seven or eight games of the year, and I told you this, I didn't think they were a top five defense. I thought they were improved, and I thought they would be improved before the season started. But they still have a few pieces that they've got to add. But they do have young talent defensively. I mean, if you were really stretching to find where's the hope,

you know, next year and beyond, it's pain, it's Allen, it's ionitis, it's, it's, It's a core group up front defensively that if you can build around that, you've got the right coordinator, and I'm not sure Minuski is the right coordinator. I'm souring a bit on Minusky as the coordinator here. I don't think that they adjust very well. I don't think they're schemed very well. I think they're easy to figure out. But if they can get the right coordinator and add more talent,

they've got a chance to be good defensively for the next few years. They've got to get the right dec coordinator in. They should have hired Wade. I mean, one of the biggest mistakes that he made, Gruden made, was not hiring Wade Phillips when Wade Phillips was ready to come work for this organization, you know, with his son. Supposed, it was because he didn't, he thought he was too old that didn't have energy. Yeah. I think that's one of the things I heard. But anyway, I'm not, you know, I'm not very bullish about these final four games.

They're going to be an underdog in all four of them. There are a three and a half point underdog Sunday at home against a four and eight team. And then you've got the Jags who just shut out Indianapolis and nearly shut out Pittsburgh and Tennessee's in a playoff race. And then the Eagles will probably have to win that game at the end of the year. I mean, six in ten is definitely in play. And that's why if it's six in ten or seven and nine, I just don't know how, Tommy, how the hell you see. say we're standing pat we're bringing everybody back we just had a lot we just had a lot of injuries look at you just mentioned uh i mean you see this in baseball all the time there's assistant coaches

that you can pin this on you know nobody's going to have sacrifice you can have sacrificial lambs other than j i don't think jay gruden or bruce allen are going anywhere you are very adamant that you think this would be it for them. Is this another bet that we've made over the years? No, no, no. I don't feel strongly about it. I feel strong. I think it's better than 50-50.

I think there's a 60% chance minimum that both of them are gone. I would wager on it right now. I'd actually, I'm going to check futures on Jay Gruden. I haven't looked at that recently. But he's got to be on the list of coaches now that have odds on him being fired. He wasn't earlier in the year. I'm counting on the Redskins doing the stupid thing and keeping both of them. Bad business for them.

Because you can't go wrong investing in Redskins stupidity. Okay. You don't, I asked you before we started this segment, you don't have any thoughts on the Nats, spending $140 million on Patrick Corbyn, who, by the way, Tommy, and I was reading about this, was almost a lock to go to either the Yankees or the Phillies. the Nats do this a lot. They are stealth and they come out of nowhere and they spend big money on

on players. I remember the years in which you said the learners are cheap. They're cheap. They're horrible owners. They are cheap when it comes to managers. But when it comes to personnel, I think they do a pretty good job and they're willing to go after it. And I just thought it was a good signing. I mean, he's clearly a guy. You give him. they now have an all-star lefty to go with shirzer and strasburg it's a good signing it's something they needed to do they needed a two a three starter in that rotation and particularly a lefty so yeah it's a good signing and they are good at that but kevin it's more complicated with the learners the learners will do that but then tell mike grizzho at the trading deadline

well you can't add any payroll okay so that's why that's why we're where they're cheap. I mean, they've done that to them time after time again when teams are trying to, like, you know, the nationals weren't sellers at the trading deadline this year, and they got crucified for that, but I had no problem with them not giving up at the trading deadline, but they weren't buyers either. And I don't know this to be true, but I know in the past that it is true that the learners told Mike Rizzo, you can't add any payroll at the trading deadline. So that's, I mean, they're cheap in so many other ways.

But they do spend on big ticket players. And this was, look, this was a glaring necessity. Right. And the National League East, it's not the National League East that the Nats dominated for the past five years. Phillies and Braves are just much better. Yeah. And the Braves added Josh Donaldson, the Phillies, or the Phillies could wind up with Bryce Harbor. for all we know, although my money's still on the Dodgers.

Well, don't you think that adding Corbyn at, you know, an annual value of $22, $23 million, I was looking at, you know, the luxury tax is $206 million next year. They, if they, don't you think that pretty much ends the discussion about Bryce Harper back to the Nats for $35 million or $40 million a season? Because they offered him $30 million, right? Yeah, here's what is. does. It leaves that decision totally, absolutely 100% now in the hands of the owners. The owners are the ones who could decide, well, we don't care about the luxury tax.

We want Bryce Harper to stay here. That would be an ownership decision through and through. So the only way Bryce Harper stays in Washington is if the owners decide that they're willing to pay whatever it tastes. Because eventually, the team that gets Bryce Harper, is going to make the decision we're going to pay whatever it takes to get them whether it's the Phillies whether it's the Dodgers or whether it's the nationals all right uh enjoy when are you coming back i don't know if i'm coming back you know what i one of these days you're going to go on one of these trips to somewhere warm and you're not going to come back because why you know you don't have to come back you can no i don't you can write your column for the times from yeah i mean sally

writes from New York. I mean, it's... Yes, I can. So you could do that. One of these days, I've always thought that about you. You and Liz are going to go on one of these trips to one of these warm places and you're going to say, honey, we're not going home. We're not going back to Frederick where it's 24 degrees.

Kevin, we just got back together. How could I abandon you now? Yeah, but we could... We'll set up something for you down there. You could do this from down there. You don't have to be here. But, But anyway, all right, enjoy the rest of it, and I'll see you next week. All right, I'll see you, boss.

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They're right there in the heart of Fairfax and Fairfax Circle. You can find out all you need to know about Farish, live inventory, live pricing, at Farish Cars.com. All right, let's bring in Scott Van Pelt for his week. weekly visit. A couple things to get to you on. And I'll just start with the college football playoff. Ultimately, did you have any problem with Oklahoma over either Ohio State or Georgia? No. I think we didn't, this is exactly what we said it would be last week if the people won who won. Yeah, but the difference being that Georgia played Alabama in a game that we watched

where it looked like they were every bit as good as Bama. There's no doubt about that. And there's no doubt in my mind that the committee wasn't going to put two teams into the SEC independent and the ACC team until three of their, three of their Power Five member conferences, tough. That wasn't happening. Yeah, I mean, I completely agree with you. And I thought when we got to Sunday that it was Oklahoma like we had discussed last Friday.

but Georgia against Bama was such an interesting game because it wasn't flukish. I mean, they have the players. The three teams that have the best talent on both sides of the ball are clearly in watching this college football season, Alabama, Clemson, and Georgia. And then to me, there's a drop off when you get to Oklahoma, Ohio State, and then maybe even Notre Dame after that. But that's not the way this playoff is going to work. It's going to be about who's most deserving. I guess. I mean, and you could argue, like, the point I made to Reese Davis when we spoke on the show Sunday was,

I think you could make a pretty compelling case that the best evidence Georgia had that it belonged in a playoff was losing to Alabama. Outside of that, what are you pointing to and saying, see, we did this, but what they beat? I mean, they won, like, what, at South Carolina and stuff like that? They beat Florida who had just beaten LSU. They beat, yep. No, they got crushed by LSU. I said they had beaten Florida who had just beaten LSU. Florida.

Right, well, and they got smacked by LSU on the road. And listen, I don't have any doubt in my mind, George's one of the four best teams. What sucks for them is that the playoffs started last weekend. And is that their fault? No, it's just, it's one of the, one of the collateral damage that comes with playing in the conference you play in, that you may have to play Bama before anybody else does in your version of the playoff. And we had Kirby Smart on Sports Center with me that night. Yeah, I was watching.

You know, he made the point that I get. I'd say the same thing if I were him. The really gutting portion of this, and it's not playoff related, is just, reality related if you're Georgia's. You just played Alabama at two football games in the same venue, one for a national title, one for an SEC title. And the stat, and

I think the athletic had this this week, there were like 260 some odd snaps in two football games. And Alabama had had the lead in those two games after nine snaps. Nine. That's amazing. Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine playing two football games against that team and owning 95% of the games, never trailing, except for nine snaps and going all in two. And, you know, that's why it's a huge bummer for Georgia. But at some point, the committee's got to take losses and wins into account. Otherwise, there's no point playing games to have a scoreboard. No, I get it. And, you know, for Kirby's smart, if he had just punted the ball against a defense that we set

expecting a fake punt instead of trying something that really, was dumb in the moment because you could see they had their regular defense on the field and they were expecting it. Call it off, punt the ball, make Jalen Hertz go 90 yards instead of 50. Speaking of Jalen Hertz, I mean, how good of a story was that? I mean, I was rooting for Georgia watching that entire game. I was. And then when he got that first touchdown and got the ball back, it was hard not to root for him. I agree. It was just, I mean, it's just the incredible, impossible symmetry of going into the same building against the same team. And this time, you're the one that comes in and replaces the guy who replaced you, and

you lead them to the win. And doing it in a number of cases by making huge third-down passes, which is the thing he really wasn't doing too well last year before he got replaced. And, I mean, he made huge throws and huge moments. So, I mean, it was incredible. Oh, Hugh's defense is terrible. There's everyone knows that. And they're going to score against Bama. I'll promise you that.

But Bama will score as many as they want against W. Yeah, it's 63.38, something like that. Probably when all of a sudden done. All right, let's talk about Maryland's football hire, Mike Loxley. I watched you the other night talk about Loxley, and you specifically had a message for people outside of this market and outside of this football community. And I just want you to sort of sort of

repeat that message. Everybody that doesn't get this is going to say he had a terrible record at New Mexico, and there were a bunch of off-the-field issues. And to that, I would say, yep, and yep, both those things are accurate. What people from outside the area don't get and won't bother to spend the time looking at is the overwhelming reaction within the DMV from the former players, the Stefan Diggs, the A.J. Francis, the Janik and Gokwe, the Vernon Davis, is like I keep going.

I mean, the laundry list of former players who, to a man, rave about Mike Locksley, the reaction of the current players within the program whose reaction is overwhelmingly positive. The reaction at the grassroots and, you know, big-time high school coaching level in the community, like Elijah Brooks at DeMatha, whose quote was, the free reign is over in the DMV. You're not just going to come in here and get players because players, coaches, and parents trust him. Maryland football will never be the same. That's what the DeMatha head football coach said about Mike Locksley. So the reaction in the community about him coming back,

It tells you all you need to know about how he's regarded. And by the way, none of us in life in our occupations should be judged by our worst moments, and we're allowed to get – I shouldn't say we shouldn't be judged exclusively. Yes, that's part of the story. And I understand why it's brought up. It's fair that it's brought up. But when I see the people in the post bringing up baggage and, oh, you know, the optics of this. he's worked at Maryland after that. He's already worked at Maryland.

He was an assistant after that. And interim head coach. Correct. And there wasn't this pearl clutching and hand-wringing and people bringing up New Mexico. None of that happens. None of that happened. And you're going to say, oh, look at what's happened to Maryland. They need somebody else.

Who were they getting? Who wanted this job? Who were the list of candidates? And by the way, Maryland doesn't have to make a hire to make you, happy. People, writers at the post and people out there that are going to, they don't have to do that. They need to make a hire that their team, that they're fan-based, that the people that are ultimately going to be the ones that have to support the program are going to make happy.

And that group, those constituents are overwhelmingly thrilled with this hire. And so, again, I understand pointing out in New Mexico, all that's fair. But a man's allowed to grow. A man's allowed to do better the next time. a man who just by the way was hand-picked by Nick Saban to come be a part of his program and just got a award as the best assistant in America and who Dwayne Haskins would have been playing for had he been the coach of Maryland, a Heisman candidate at Ohio State. I mean, I can keep going, and I will if you need content, you're bored.

But the reasons why he was hired are many, and none of them necessarily are what people outside of the area care about, want to hear about, or even take the time to consider. So I was on record long before the hire was made that this is the guy that it should be. He can help heal

his football community. He himself went through the tragic loss of a son to violence and I think is armed with the perspective of a parent that went through that. It's different than what happened to Jordan McNam. I'm not comparing the same thing. Other than this is a

man that's armed with more perspective now on what matters in life than before. And I'm not trying to paint him as a perfect person. I'm just trying to tell anyone that's going to bring up the New Mexico issues and the record. Here's why. And what I find interesting, Kevin, is how many people outside of here are so violently opposed and care so deeply about who the Maryland football hire is? Like it matters to them. It doesn't.

It matters to the Maryland football community. Well, not that they are apples to apples to apple. but the reaction to DJ Durkin initially being brought back was the same thing. I mean, you know, and I mentioned this over and over again. I was surprised that he came back. I don't think that it was handled well at all. But what, you know, and I said this to Tommy. What Tommy and Sally and a lot of these people don't have to live with

are the consequences of these decisions when it comes to, you know, brass tax, true financial impact. And, you know, Durkin, I'm sure they penciled out what that was going to mean. and it was probably ugly in terms of getting rid of him. And when all the columnists and all the outraged were gone, they were going to be stuck with budget shortfalls and needing to fire people, you know, good people that worked in the athletic department to make it work.

So whatever. By the way, when did he lose his son? How old was he? And what was the circumstance? I'm unfamiliar with that part of the story. His son was shot and killed in Columbia. last year and his son

was, I want to say 20 something years old it happened last year and I bring it up simply as a In Columbia, the country? Columbia? Columbia? Maryland. Oh, Columbia, Maryland. Okay. Yes. And

just a tragic awful story of violence and it took a senseless violence that took his life And again, I bring it up simply as a matter of just perspective on a man and how you gain perspective of life and understanding what the McNair family went through and losing a son. Again, in a different way, but a guy who's armed with just more compassion than probably he was when he went to New Mexico. Again, it's not the most important part of the story. I'm just saying. No, no, I was just curious. I didn't know. I was unaware of that. I'm just talking about who he is the guy.

Yeah. So yesterday on the podcast, I talked about just expectations. What are reasonable expectations? And I understand, and I've talked to a lot of people over the years, you know, in the coaching community here in D.C., basketball primarily, but people who are also involved in the football community. And overwhelmingly, almost every single conversation always ended with they should have hired Locksley. They should have hired Mike. Like, this is the guy that everybody, he'll go into anybody's home and he's going to get the most talent. And in this Big Ten East, you've got to have the talent and he can get it. So what are your expectations? What are reasonable expectations in terms of, like wins, losses, bowls, et cetera? What should that measuring stick be?

It starts with right now the most important things for bailout. ball to do is to try to unite the factions that have been torn apart. Former players, current players, boosters, a fan base that has, that is growing so pathetic that we've seen what the stadium looks like on game day. It's, you've got to figure out how to fill it. You do that by, by creating some enthusiasm around the program. You do that by getting the players that can help win games. Mike's going to do that.

And it'll start immediately. early December. Their recruiting class right now is ranked last in the big tenets, and it's in the 80s. I don't know what it's going to look like this year, but the 2020 local class there is one of the best it's been in years, and my guess is that you'll see them between now and the end of this signing period, flip a number of local kids, bringing kids that have verbally committed, other places are going to commit to Maryland. It'll start right now. They don't have time to make it like a top 20 class this year.

That's not reasonable. but you saw some of the talent that was in place from last year, you add that, you add whatever Mike can get this year and what they'll get in the 2020 class. And what's reasonable to expect is that they're going to be competitive, certainly at the level where they were this year with the people, you know, they'll be better than the Illinois and the Rutgers and, you know, the Minnesota's, they'll be not as good as the Ohio states, the Michigan, and the Penn State. And that's the challenge to close that gap because the three teams I just mentioned all live on your side of the Big Ten because the Big Ten's got a balanced problem with East and West.

But if you're talking about going to a bowl at a baseline expectation, being able to get over the hump and win a game now and again against the Penn States and Ohio States, that's how you gain momentum. Am I going to sit here right now and say win championships? I'm sure they'll say that because that's what every coach has to say. But given the cyclical nature of the sport and how rugged that side of the Big Ten is, there's no coach. It's going to come. Bill Belichick's not coming in here and making Maryland national championship contenders in a short period of time. This is a long turnaround that Maryland football is going to undergo. But it starts with talent acquisition as far as the on-field product goes.

And Mike is uniquely wired in the area to make that happen. Do you think there's any chance that Jalen Hertz would come with him? Sure I do. Sure I do. And look, I think there's, I would think that at Alabama, given the way they recruit, that there's probably a number of players that are four-star. Who knows? Even five-star type players that get there and realize I'm not going to see the field here

and would be looking to come elsewhere. I have no idea if I'm right or wrong about that. But as far as Hertz goes, the part I love so much about everyone doing the Jalen Hertz, oh, see, this is why you don't transfer. This is why you stick it out. This is why you stay. And I'm like, yeah, that's cool. Guess what?

He's leaving next fall. Whatever you want to bet on that, I'll book it because he's going to go someplace else because he's not going to play next year because Tua is going to play. So I'd be shocked if Jalen Hurts didn't go somewhere else next year. Would he come with his offensive coordinator? Sure, why not? I have no intel on that. I haven't heard that that's happening.

He'd have to sit out of year. No, he'd be a graduate. Oh, he'd be a graduate. So he'd be available to play next year. Exactly. Hello. Exactly. Yeah.

There just happens to be, no offense to Kasim Hill. Well, he's hurt. He's hurt for a second straight year. But that'd be pretty interesting. Jalen Hertz is the Maryland starting quarterback next year. That would probably put a few people into the stadium. Last thing on this, actually. What's his relationship with Damon Evans?

It's tricky. And I think that what happened the last time, because Damon was here the last time. And Mike went through the process, interviewed and didn't get the job. And my understanding of that is that it was, I mean, look,

think about it. You're, you're working in a radio station and, you know, you're working with a co-host, and that co-host something happens, and you take over the gig and you're auditioning for it. And then the station, you know, GM, program director decides he doesn't want to

keep you, and you leave. Well, you're not going to be like, hey, man, me and that guy are great. this is the job Mike always wanted. So when it ended, my understanding is that Mike didn't view it positively who would have. But I think both he and Damon were clearly able to see past whatever issues there were then and lock arms now and move forward. They got a pressure on Thursday and we'll see what the talking points about the future are.

But, I mean, I think collectively, Maryland spending a whole lot of time lingering in the past about what relationships have and haven't worked is counterproductive. Because I think everybody out there needs to know that they've got to do better than they've done. And I think it starts by decided to team up. So will they have stuff to work through from the past? Yeah, because their past includes that. but whatever issues existed, clearly they weren't hurdles that they weren't able to be overcome because they've agreed, you know, Damon's brought them in to be the coach. And Mike agreed to leave Alabama to come to it.

So that to me gives me optimism that if there were bruises or scars that they've healed sufficiently. Let's flip it to basketball real quickly. We won't spend a lot of time on this, but Marilyn plays Purdue tonight on the road. There's seven-point dog. I was hoping to see, you know, three or four, not seven. Yeah, but you weren't because Purdue's good. They lost at Florida State against a really talented Florida State team that they should have won the game and they lost it.

Then they went to Michigan against Smack. And that's the worst. Like, I was rooting for them to not come back home with a week to get ready for a conference game off of two losses. Like this is you and I both agree about Matt Painter. He's an excellent coach. I love him. Carson Edwards, their guard is one of the best players in the country. country and they go home and they're you know the wounded animals the dangerous animals so

this is a tough this is a tough one from peril at night um i i think it they're underdogs for a reason produce good they were ranked until they lost a couple in a row and it's going to be a lot to ask there's such your first true road game is a december game in back you get to pissed off bunch of Purdue people so um you know a win would be an upset tonight so they're in a i just i just updated. They're now an eight-point underdog. Yeah, I saw eight. It's climbing. The Big Ten's good, though, like this early season, and I had Turgeon on the show yesterday, and as unfair as it may be that your conference strength is determined in November and December

when teams really haven't developed and become what they're going to be in February and March, it's reality, and the Big Ten just hasn't had great November's and December, and certainly not last year. This year it's been pretty good. I mean, this is, you know, this league may end up with 9, 10, 11 teams in the tournament. I think the bracketology, the first one that came out, had 10 or 11 in the field.

So, I mean, it's... Yeah, and I want to put Nebraska team go on the road last night and lose that Minnesota. The one team that's Illinois, like they make struggle pretty, minor this year to start the year. They haven't, although they push Gonzaga and a little bit out in the alley.

But yeah, the league's really good. And I said on the show the other night. I really like these two games because they, I mean, let's be honest, the people you're playing outside of these games, in many cases just aren't your equal. And, you know, with respect to the, you know, L.I.U. Brooklyn's of the world,

playing games like that aren't going to help your team get better. knowing you've got a Penn State and a Purdue to play in early December that count towards your conference, it forces you to get focused, and it also gives you a chance win or lose to take inventory of what you've got as you get ready to enjoy the holidays and get ready for January where you dive in the deep end. So I really like it. And, you know, they got to win at home against Penn State. And now, no, whatever. This is a good team. And Maryland plays most of the good teams in the league twice this year.

So it's going to be, they're going to take them out. It's a young team. They're going to lose some. But they're going to win some, too. So it should be fun to see where they are. All right. Where did you, with winners, with your pick segment, you don't do NFL. Oh, yeah, I do.

Oh, you do? So you've got NFL. So who do you like? I mean, to me, the NFL board actually looks really appealing this weekend. You know what's funny? Because my winners is almost. Well, I just, I do college until it ends. I haven't looked at a single number because normally what I do is like on Wednesday night,

I get ready to do the picks for Thursday, and all there is is Army Navy. Well, Navy looks right. Well, of course they do. And I mean, I always have the end of the dog for years of his Army. I would have Army every single year forever. Now Navy is in that role. But I don't even know what the NFL numbers are because I haven't bothered to look. Now, you may want to look at them because it's an appealing car.

Oh, I will. And I've been NFL-wise. It's been a pretty good run for me. Actually, did sizzling, haven't? Yeah, 30 and 11 over the last three and a half weeks. I'd say that's pretty good. It's not bad.

Stanford Steve finished the year like 42, 20-something and two. Like, you get a legitimate 67% for a year, making games on the record. I know. I know. It's incredible the year he had. Okay. Thanks for doing this. Thanks for being patient too.

Well, we got our phone lines figured out. I'll talk to you later. It's fine. It's like a mom-and-pop outfit. It's in labor. It is definitely mom and pop. That's for sure. All right, I'll talk to you later.

Whatever the case we be. All right. Tomorrow on the show, I think Cooley will be with us. He's got some thoughts about some of the things that he saw watching film of the Philadelphia game, and a lot of it has nothing to do with the quarterback, and much of it isn't necessarily encouraging, but I think he'll join us on the show tomorrow. And we'll have a full Football Friday show tomorrow as well. Let me also just ask all of you that regardless of how you're listening to the podcast, those that want to listen that don't know how to do podcasts and say, how are you listening to Sheehan? Just tell them to go to the Kevin Sheehan Show.com. That's the easiest thing for people that, for whatever reason, don't feel like doing iTunes or Tune in or Stitcher, Spotify, or Google Play. Also, if you're on any of the Apple podcast platforms or iTunes and you haven't rated us,

or you haven't subscribed. It helps us if you do that. I'd appreciate that. Subscribing, by the way, doesn't mean you pay. I've mentioned that many times before. It's free, completely free. And you don't have to give any information, but if you subscribe on iTunes,

then the podcast every day will just get pushed to your phone every day so it's there when we have it up and done. All right, let's get to the NFL power pole to finish up the show. All right. I actually don't have a sense. smell test pick before we get to the power pole. But I will tell you that I like the over tonight

in Jacksonville, Tennessee. A lot of people think that this is an under game. The first game was 9 to 6. Jacksonville's been playing, you know, some of these games recently that are super low scoring, 6-0 last week against Indianapolis. But it's 37 and a half, 38 somewhere around there. I'm probably personally going to play the over. It's very, very. rare that the public likes an under. Very rare. And the reason for that is it's so much easier to root for an over, to root for points than it is to root for no scores and the clock to run. Unders are painful when you have the under to watch a game rooting for the under. But everybody's so convinced that this is going to be 10-7 or 9 to 6 or 16-13 that the

public's actually playing the under. I'm not. going to give it out as a smell test pick because there isn't, I don't see a lot of supporting sharp action on the over, but I think I'll personally have the over 37 and a half tonight in the Jacksonville Tennessee game. All right, let's get to the PowerPole this week, and I get to do it without Tommy. He'll be back next week to do it. But there are a couple of things that I wanted to mention as we went through the PowerPole. The PowerPole starts with me. Number five is Houston. I actually have them ahead of the Chargers at five. I am rooting for Philip Rivers. I've mentioned that over and over and over again, and I have for the last several years. Houston's a better team. Houston is really dangerous.

I saw a column yesterday on ESP, I think it was ESPN yesterday, asking whether or not Houston was a playoff team. Are the Texans a playoff team? What are you kidding me? Of course they're a team. The question is whether or not they're a Super Bowl contender. And I think they are. I think you're not going to want to face Houston in January. Now, their road to 13 and 3 to a 13 game win streak to end the year after starting 0 and 3 is Indy this weekend at home, at the Jets, at Philly, you know, on December 23rd, with the Eagles very likely having to have to win that game. and then they close with Jacksonville. I don't see anything worse than 12 and 4. I think 13 and 3 is in play. 13 and 3 probably gets them a two seed, maybe a 1, but more likely than not a top 2 seed, a first round by,

and, you know, a home playoff game in the divisional round. To me, that puts him in the AFC title game against either New England or Kansas City or San Diego, Chargers, or Pittsburgh. I don't know. I think Houston can go to the Super Bowl. I think they're good enough, but they're definitely a playoff team. They're my number five team this week. I've got KC at 4, even though I would love to see Houston play Kansas City. I think they could beat the Chiefs. But look, the Chiefs are, you know, they continue to roll. They gave up a lot of points last week.

This is why I am not buying them for Super Bowl. They gave up 33 to the Raiders. 33 to the Raiders. You know, that Cardinal team that all of a sudden played better recently, they had Kansas City in trouble in the fourth quarter. Not ahead, but it was a one-score game pretty much throughout. But I'm going to leave the Chiefs at four right now, and I'll leave the Patriots at three. I know I just went on and on about Houston, but I think still I would favor New England over Houston in a postseason game if it's in Foxborough,

and I would favor Kansas City at home over Houston. I'm just telling you that I think Houston could win that game. I think they could go on the road and win those games. So that gets me to two, which I leave the Rams at two, and despite the loss, I leave the Saints at one. Dallas is good, and Dallas was very close to moving into that top five. They were. Dallas is a complete team right now. I mean, I hate to say it.

but they are. Dallas and the Chargers were really just outside that top five. And teams to watch, I mean, obviously Seattle right now is a team. You got to be, you know, because, and here's why you really keep your eye on Seattle here the rest of the way, is that Seattle has already played the Rams twice and had a chance to win both of those games. I would give Russell Wilson and Seattle a chance in LA in a divisional round game. I don't know that I'd give anybody a chance in the NFC of beating the Saints in New Orleans. I know what I saw last Thursday night, and I called it last Thursday with Tommy here. I had Dallas as a smell test pick, and I said I thought they had a really good chance to win the game outright. And Dallas is really good,

and they're really complete. And Sunday afternoon's game between Philadelphia and Dallas, I think, it's a massive game. It's not a killer for Dallas if they lose it, because Philly's got the Rams and Texans the next two weeks after that. The Rams on the road, the Texans at home. But I still have the Saints as number one. They're going to, the biggest beneficiary of the Dallas win last week may have been the Rams because they won't potentially have to go to the Superdome in an NFC title game because they have one loss and the Saints have two losses. And the Rams right now, you know, they're going to be favored in their final four games. They're barely favored this Sunday, and I'm going to tell you right now more likely than not, the Bears will be a

smell test pick in the Sunday night game plus three at home against the Rams and what should be a frigid, cold soldier field. They've got the Eagles next week, and then they finish with the Cardinals and the Niners. I guess there's a chance that the Rams could lose one and the Saints could run the table. I think the Saints are going to have a difficult time this weekend against Tampa. But the Saints are my number one team. They're my number one team. It's become more interesting, though in the NFC. Because of what Dallas looks like, potentially because Philadelphia offensively found something Monday night against the Redskins. The bears are tough. Seattle's dangerous. The playoffs are going to be great this year. Both conferences are going to be really good.

I did want to mention one other thing about the Patriots. I have them at number three, but do you know what the Patriots are in Miami during the Tom Brady? era. Seven and nine in Miami, Tom Brady is as a starter. He's got a losing record in games in Miami. He's thrown 15 interceptions in those games. And almost everybody associated with this says, it's the climate, that Brady doesn't perform well in high humidity. Teddy Bruske said it's the humidity. Brady admitted it may be the climate. It's supposed to be 83 degrees with showers and 75% humidity in Miami on Sunday for that game. All right. Thanks to Tommy for calling in.

Thanks to Scott. Thanks to Corbyn, who produced us today. Thanks to all of you. A football Friday tomorrow, Redskins beat Giants. If you care, I guess would be the way to go with it. We'll have Friday football quick picks. I think there's going to be a pretty big smell test tomorrow, NFL-wise, and even the college game on Saturday, the Army Navy games.

So tune in for that. If you've missed any of the shows this week because the game got late Monday night and it was depressing. There was a lot good on the Tuesday show, the recap of the game. And yesterday, if you missed Turgeon, he was excellent. And that's at the 47-minute mark.

If you miss that, go back and listen to that. And you can listen to that by just going to the Kevin Sheehan Show.com and clicking past episodes. Have a great day.