The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Indiana Wins the Natty! More C.J. Stroud & Texans Talk

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Indiana Wins the Natty! More C.J. Stroud & Texans Talk

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 101 in H-town. Good morning. And welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. Where today, we will preview Nick Casario, who I thought was speaking today, but he's actually speaking tomorrow. So that's a goof of my part. Poor Jonathan was setting up the audio, getting here 845 this morning, locking that in, loading it in. You are so excited to hear Nick Casario. speak. Well, I mean, because you know what? I will give flowers to the members of the media that were there yesterday, the legit ones and the fake ones. They did ask about Joe Mixed multiple times. Yes.

It'll make a rather curt about those answers. And also asked multiple times about C.J. Stroud being the guy moving forward and asked if he was going to get an extension. He said, I'm not going to talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. So if C.J. Stroud threw four touchdowns in a loss, he'd be like, oh, yeah, you know what? We want to keep him long term. Can't wait to lock him up. CJ Stroud is the quarterback for this franchise. That's right. If it goes the way it did, we'll talk about that later. Yeah, we're currently mulling over everything.

Is that coming in? Didn't hear your question, next question, next question. The Joe Mix and stuff was even shorter in terms of, not terse, but I mean, he's gone. Asked and I answered, no explanation. And if you're Nicky C, tomorrow, you know, Nick, you have been somewhat forthcoming. Did he really shoot himself in the foot? I need to know this. There's no way.

It's going to cost me a coffee and a slice of lemon. Let's let's let's let's let's let's in on something here. A lemon cream cake. What? You and I think it's happened in it, don't you? I told you, I, it's too compelling. There's no way. We have no information.

He's not that stupid though, right? No, somebody shot him testicles off yesterday. What? Yeah, son of the 4U. Somebody, yeah, somebody shot test. What is going on in your 4U tab? Right. It's all only fans models and testicles.

I've had one testicle shot photo. No, I mean, on Twitter. No, I never saw it. Excuse me? You're clear your clip on that for a fire. Photo shoot? Oh, God. No, um, okay, at least you admit there's something salacious going on.

Look, I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm just saying it would be so insane. No, it wouldn't. It wouldn't? There are, unfortunately, and this is all seriousness, there are a lot of gun mishaps. Why wouldn't they want to be involving a shotgun to a foot? Because it's a shotgun? Or anything?

His feet's going to be in pieces. Not seeing in the facility for a year. No comments. Yeah, but he tweeted he was coming back, even though he did. That's right. If your foot's in 17 pieces and you're picking up toes from across the room, you're not saying about to be back in week 18. So if you're going to the press conference tomorrow and I would assume Wex can go,

you know what? I'll give Wex 20. to ask the question. Why? Why? I need to ask Wex because he's the Texans insider. No, I'm the insider. All I've done is giving you information all year long. Okay. I'm telling you, by the way, and I'm going to push this from to tell the truth the gut feelings today about Nikki C's future. Okay. The previous show, the one that we have on here, first and ten with Dan and Cole. I don't think that's what it's called. We're basically bit stealing my comments about the future of the Texans. Oh, okay. How does that make you feel, though? Oh, my God. Oh, this is a lot. Yeah. Oh, no, I better read. You just took his glasses off. Oh, no. What am I doing?

I'm agreeing with one of those two gibronies. Oh, yeah. How are you feeling? How are you feeling right now? God. Can I be... You want to cancel the bet? No, no, no.

If the Texans do not make the AFC championship game, Nick Casario is looking for work. Okay. Yeah. Because I'm not talking about what Hannah and Coward. I'm noticing the trend to run the NFL. Your shelf life for running off front offices and coaching

unless you're Indianapolis is very short-lived. Yeah, but notoriously under the McNair's, you get a longer leash and most everyone else. Unless you're an offensive coordinator. Bill O'Brien, Rick Smith, etc. David Colley didn't get that leash. Oh, David Cully was

not even supposed to be in the job. That's right. May I be hypocritical for a handful of minutes here? Okay. And I'm going to tell you all something. and I don't think I'm on a minority on this. Or I shouldn't say I shouldn't have a minority. I'm not the only one that thinks this.

And it comes to college football. And it's to last night's championship game. Which I tried to watch. I didn't have any interest in either school. I had it on. So it was a casual watch for me at best last night. It's a pretty good game. Pretty good game.

But again, I wasn't on the edge of my seat where the playoff games in the NFL, even though I have a dog in that fight, I was on the edge of my seat for that Buffalo game with Denver, the Rams game. game with Chicago was awesome as I got in the car after the Rockets game. So I can be captivated by an NFL game that I don't care about the two teams. College is a little more work for me. So here comes all the hypocrisy.

So we're watching this brand new football team. And not Indiana is not brand new, but brand new to the landscape of being good. They were good last year. They were great this year. They were superior. They didn't suffer a single loss. They were college football's best team. And it's an interesting.

story line that you don't have Alabama and you don't have LSU and you don't have Michigan and you don't have Ohio State. You've got this brand new school. And the reality is this, I spent a lot of time last time looking at the salaries of not necessarily every Indiana player, but I looked at their payroll and how much Mendoza was going to be getting this year. And again, everything is approximate, but they're saying approximately he made $2.7 million. And if there's been anything that I have done since you and I'm doing this show together, is I have changed my opinion, a large part about compensation for players because the money that is being produced at the collegiate level is absurd,

and now these athletes should get it. But here comes the hypocrisy part. I didn't take great, great joy in Indiana doing it because they spent a lot of money to do it. If not for the money, Indiana is not where they are. And you could say that for a lot of schools. You could say that for everyone. There's no school not spending and winning. I know.

Stay with me on this. I really, really, really want a salary cap in football. And I don't think we're going to get it. Yeah, in college football. Because here's the reason why. Because if you just can outspend everybody that's going to give you a significant chance of getting there. I guarantee, but it's going to give you a good chance. If you manage your money right and you have a salary cap, that's where I go, man, good

Good job by you, Indiana. You got the right players at the right amount and you did it the right way. Where all now everybody is doing is they're going to their boosters and saying, hey, I need, like Michigan took the Underwood kid from LSU because somebody stepped in at the very last second and just said, let's just throw as much cash as we can in them. So that's the hypocrisy part. And I don't expect you to say, Matt, I understand or Matt, you're crazy. I don't know what you want to say in return. But I watched Indiana And when I watch Indiana, I go, Okay, you just got a cash infusion. If not for the cash infusion, you're back to what you normally are.

They're in IL spending, though, isn't it up to what tech and some of a bunch of other people? They have a lot of developed players. They hit the portal well and they selected well. Kurt Signetti does his own scout. He does not have a general manager. He does his own scouting and finds his players. I would think if you're upset with the current state of college football, you should be fully on board with this. I'm not upset with Indiana

per se. I'm upset about the fact that, like next year, Texas Tech wins a national championship. Mrs. Thomas will be very happy. My oldest will be extremely happy. But there's no if-ans or buts, what's going on? Our guy, Clay Campbell, all he wants to, Cody, whatever,

his brother, Clay, all Cody wants to do is just flood the market with this money. I do believe that there should be some sort of science to it, where every school gets an NIL max of $40 million. Now, it doesn't mean you've got to spend it, but it means you can't go over that 40 million threshold. That's all I'm saying is the hypocrisy of this is that I would like to see some sort of small regulation to it. And I guess I don't think you can do it that way, but I'm just saying I just, if you're going to try to level the playing field a little bit, because if it's not for Indiana, it could be Rutgers in three years. It could be, I don't know, University of California. Just throwing money at them seems to be it hollows it for me a little bit in terms of enjoying the national

championship experience i didn't think about that at all and also i will say like with the nil what we've wanted for years and years and years is the word parity so kurt signetti is a great coach they didn't wallet whip everybody they didn't overspend and you're in texas tech and cody campbell's the perfect example that just spending money doesn't lead directly to winning how about phil knight in oregon as well yeah i mean we can point to any, Texas spent a ton of money this year and didn't do anything. So, I mean, this should be the perfect example, the golden example that you can still do it in the NIL era.

That it's not only that they won, they didn't fall bass backwards into this and get a bunch of turnovers and get lucky. They went 16 in freaking O. Like, they went 16 and O and beat down Alabama. They destroyed Oregon and they won a close game against a very good Miami team. And this is what we were looking for. what we were worried about when NIL happened. Oh, the haves are going to say the haves,

and the have-nots have no chance. Indiana, Indiana Hoosiers football. But here's my question now. Is the national champion? Is Indiana going to be on the top of the ladder or near it for a long time? Or are they going to go to Miami Morning's Rock when their championship and then the money drives? They're not going to sell a bunch of pieces. No, I don't think they're going to sell off a bunch of their team.

I think we'll see what happens and what the staying power is. But the bottom line is you can do it. I told you it was hypocritical. I just did. I told you. And I come to you and say, I don't know what the spending is of the Indiana Hoosiers. Nobody's making it this far without doing any spending. Indiana is not probably even the top 10 to be honest with it. But I'm thinking more of a macro view of this. And they went 16 and 0. So this is great. This is a parody. They've never won a football championship, correct?

Correct. Unless they did in like 1899 or something. No. So, I mean, this is great for the overall health of college football. And I bet you the ratings are going to be pretty good because they built them. they have a great, a huge alumni base. And I found them compelling to watch and follow because of the way that they were destroying the Blue Bloods as we made. What was it 38 to 3 with Alabama? Alabama, yeah. 38 to 3.

What was the NIL money for Alabama relative to the Indiana Hoosiers? I don't know if, I think Alabama is a little under the norm of the other schools. That's why part of the problem of Alabama. Well, all right. Get your weight up, son. Let's go. So as I'm saying, if you're going to get your weight up, that's good. But shouldn't?

I guess my question, my thought is, I feel like knowing the trends coming up, I'd like to see a cap. And look, there's no one even talking about a cap. It would probably not pass any sort of legislation. Why should Texas and A&M spend the same amount as Baylor? Like, how do you get, their athletic departments generate way more revenue?

Because I like level playing fields because in the NBA, I have Sacramento and San Antonio can win just as much as New York and L.A. can. Absolutely can't Look at San Antonio The night You get the NBA You get the soft cap And guys go way over

That's how the Golden State kept That's where it came in these aprons That I'll give you a better example Carolina and Greenback Can win as much of the Giants and Jones That's a hard cap That's a hard cap from a collective team Where they're sharing TV revenues

They're sharing jersey revenues And college football is not doing that No they're not And there's no reason Why would I Why would I as Chris Delcante Athletic Director of Texas come to the negotiating table and say,

you know what, yes, I want to be able to spend the same amount as bail. No, no, no, no. There's no way in the world the SEC or Big Ten wants this, because they're the ones that are carrying it. I'm just telling you, that's just me as I was watching the game last night going, okay, I'm supposed to embrace this story, but I can't fully do it. And again, I'm just coming to you, open and honest. I got you.

Yeah, it's your opinion. It's opinion. I think it's a great story. It might change. but I'll say this. For the underdog world, yesterday was a great day for college football because it wasn't littered with SEC and Big Ten.

Well, Big Ten, I'm in Indiana, obviously. As far as Power Four programs, Indiana Hoosiers have been as inept as it's gotten. I mean, Vanderbilt has been getting in the game. I think it's great. But it's like they were calling the game last night. Their last conference championship was 1967. Yeah. Was Lee Corsel the coach of that team?

I don't think he was. I think she was like in the 70s, I think. Yeah, a little before his time. I don't know. It doesn't make sense, but I'm just coming to you open and honest. I just am. I was like, you know what? I mean, if it's next year, if it's Texas Tech,

nobody's going to say, wow, thank you very much for all the great coaching. It was because Cody Campbell went in there and wrote the check. They were 151 to win the college football championship in the preseason. I saw this earlier. Indiana was, even after making the playoff last year? Really? that seems way too high.

That was the same odds as the Marlins to win the World Series as the Sons to win the NBA finals and for Utah State College basketball to win it all in March Madness. This is from a Bleacher Report betting posted last night. All right. So it's the same odds of the Marlins win the World Series. I mean, this is an insane story. Okay.

I know it feels kind of like it was going to happen because of how dominant they were. So maybe that takes some of the sting out of how crazy this is. But it's still crazy, I think. Yeah, so I'll throw it out. Wonderful story or a byproduct of a school that got money thrown into it. Like, again, here's a better, and we're going to get to a break here. Let me ask you, if there was no NIL, Indiana is, this is not Indiana, right?

I don't know. I mean, you're saying, NETA is a great coach. I think he's a bad human being, but he's a great coach. I mean, they're generating these millions of revenues. I'm glad the players are getting their slice. I guess we wouldn't even be able to know. Because if that was the case, we already know the issues. Five years ago when there was no NIL, Indiana wasn't on the radar.

Kurt Signetti's looking like the truth. Now we'll see. Time will tell all. But he looks like the real deal right. There's no reason to doubt him after the 16 and 0 with the Indiana freaking Hoosiers. Yeah. and beat up everybody, basically. And even beating Miami in their home field.

713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. I told you I was hypocritical. I just, let me just lay it out in the last simplistic form, and we'll go to the phone's over that. If it was, if Signetti kind of just, again, this is all over the place. I'm sorry. Indiana got to where it was, because Signetti's a good football coach, clearly.

that was the right decision for them to hire him. But it was the cash infusion fixed. It wasn't because Indiana's football facilities were great. It wasn't because Indiana had this amazing football. It was because, hey, we can offer Fernando Mendoza a lot of money. We're going to come do that for you. Now, he could have chosen a bunch of places or the money was greater than Indiana that was other places.

Money does make the world go around, like in everything. I'm just saying that are we going to talk about every year a new champion, not because it's the downtrodden team that finally gets on top because they did it through hard work and recruiting and academics and buildings and structure and gray or are we doing it because a rich alum dropped in $30 million to make sure everybody got paid. It's just a little hollow storyline, not the end all, just a little bit of a storyline. And if you gave me a cap, then they would then treat that general manager of most of these college football teams to say, all right, we put our money in the right spot. We're paying the kids we need to get paid. and there is somewhat of a level playing field. That's all I'm saying.

I guess this would be a question for somebody who's more in tune with college football, we have these people around here. But if we went to the college football playoff teams, at least the power four ones, where was Indiana? They probably spent less than Oregon, who they beat, probably around or less than Alabama,

certainly less than Miami, Ohio State, Georgia, A&M, Ole Miss, who knows? Like they're probably among the powerful teams spent the less on, at least on NIL of any team in the playoffs. But is that sustainable?

Is every year the 19th highest spending NIL team going to get to the championship? Probably not. Probably not. But that's, I mean, everybody's in the game now. When you go to, when you open up to a 12 team or you're going to get more parity.

You're going to get more crazy stuff happening in a bracket. You're going to get to 10 seed Miami in the final with a chance to drive with the ball at the end of the game and try to win it all. so you get more parity I mean isn't that what we're looking for Wait quick question to me Matt Weren't these guys getting paid under the table before all this anyway

And you didn't have that same opinion yes Well I don't think you want to know if Matt did Well I'll let him speak for himself Were people getting paid under table? Yes I don't I don't know what else to say beyond that I guess he's asking is it Why don't why didn't you have the exact same opinion As you do now Indiana you know winning

When say Alabama knowing that they are probably game because I can't I can't prove that there was I mean I can assume there was money to the table but I can't prove that yeah we don't know how much and we don't know how much it's not public it's not public it's not public the only we know is that each school can spend 20 or this past year can spend 20.5 million dollars on its athletic program which the presumption is that of that 20 to half million dollars of these division one schools 17 to 18 million of that is going towards a football and that's and that's basically a cap right there I mean if it is That's the cap. It's the NIL that doesn't have a cap to it. And that's where the money will, you'll never know. Everything is being presumed. And that's why I said if you, you know, and maybe what I'm looking for here, Ross, is some sort of regulation. It's all I'm looking for. Maybe I, now I would feel a little bit better. Again, it's not, this is not going to make me not watch college football. And hell, I'll be burdling on us with you. This could be the, I mean, this could be the University of Houston next year. Why? I mean, if Indiana is doing it, why can't Houston do it? Or why can't Louisville do it?

it. Yeah, you're going to be complaining? I don't know. This doesn't feel right. What if the University of Houston Cougars, didn't they spend some cash on the basketball? Yeah, but we were winning games before the NIL came into play. So, I mean, we had a program being built

and have a program being built. But you know what? To your point, though, I'm going to Shane on that. We are spending money on, I mean, we have two of the number one's recruiting class in the country, not because we have a sweet facility. I mean, it was nice and super

nice, but it's not because for Tita Centers as Mecca. It's because we wrote checks. Yeah. That's the way of the world. I don't think you're going to be saying that like if they go up 21 to 17 on Texas Tech next year or something. Do they play next year? Well, basketball will play this Saturday. Game Day is going to be there. Oh, yeah. We go, I think we go to Lubbock.

Don't go. I like, I tell you, I love going to Lubbock. I'm just telling you. Opposing fans sometimes. They're rude there. I get it. I've just heard of so many horror stores. They don't throw tortillas anymore. Yeah, because they get fined. Yeah. By the way, you can go to...

We can't throw tortillas on the field. This is the worst. Grow up! You can get bushlight at the Walmart at good spit value. Of course. It was dry until when, the 90s or something? I think later than that. But I was like, yeah, no, I had...

Yeah, I mean, it's got to be probably 30 years. Well, there was a will. There was a way. That's right. You know what? It's funny. I've only been to love it probably a half dozen times. I've only smelled manure once.

Now, it's pretty strong, but one on a six ain't bad. Okay. They got a P.F. Chang's now. Oh, wow. It's growing up. It's a Walmart was upgraded to a super Walmart, I heard. And there's actually another full service hotel there besides the main one. Oh, really?

Yeah. It's a Scottish inn, I believe. No, that's Bisonette. Biscuit, whether it's at 1028 on 790. Biscuit, good morning. Cougain back, Cougain back. Yes, sir. And I'm going to say this statement with the most loving affection.

Oh, here we go. Coming from a Hoosier, and I know it ain't that time right now, but shut your bum ass up. If you're a Hoosier, you're, you know what, you're talking with those rose-colored glasses on. So whatever you tag, I'm going to take it with a grain of salt. Look here, don't have me at Buki and Ray, Ray, waiting on you in April at the airport, man. Man. But no, man, to me, Matt, you have some valid points, but the thing that is, it's not like they wouldn't got the best players from Ohio State and Oregon or whatever. They got people from James Madison and New Mexico State and, you know, from the port or whatever through NIL.

They didn't, they got a bunch of four-star players, Matt. They don't have the five-star, you know, top athletes in the country. for them to win, for Indiana to win. Because we just played football until basketball season when I was in Indiana. We didn't give a flying flip about football. I know. Peyton Manning kind of changed that a little bit. But for Indiana to win the national championship, it's unbelievable.

I don't think you realize how big a story this is, man. This is unbelievable. I don't care of darn how much money they threw at the program. This is unbelievable, man, because we had the worst football program in history. we had the most waltors ever. I know. And for them to go under the... Well, this is going to be definitely a wake-up call for all the...

The thoroughbreds, the elite of college athletics, that if Indiana can do it, you better step up your spending because if it could be... I don't know, what would be a school? You talked about Vanderbilt. Hell, it could be a Colorado. I mean, I don't know if Deon Sanders will be able to do it, but it's going to be somebody made me winning this every four or five years. That's not supposed to be always a...

on the 730 ESPN game on Saturday nights. I think that's what it is, though. I think it's due to parity because now, you know, Alabama and Georgia can't just stack, you know, they'll get four or five corners, and so you can't get any corner, you know, or four or five rainbacks and won't even play two or three of them. And, you know, they'll just be stacking

and putting team players on the side. Now it's wide open. So to me, it's more of an even playing field. That's what I look at it. Indiana football, baby. On the scene. All right. Look at you.

Calling in once all these years are Indiana football. I mean, they've just been a joke for so long. Yeah. They wanted, I mean, Indiana, I mean, Miami gave a game a lot last night, but was there any down in your mind Indiana was going to win that football game? Even in the Orange, well, Hard Rock. There was some doubt. Yeah, I thought there was Indiana was going to win, but they got out gained by Miami.

They, there was a close game. Yeah, it was Carson Beck. It's an interesting. career for Carson. There's a lot of hate for Carson Beck out there. Yeah. Is he a bro's bro? Is that the problem with him or whatever?

He's with one of the Cavender twins, right? No, he's with, I'll tell you all off here. Oh, but would you see that porn star was getting a lot of run during the game last night? That's his girl. No way. No, it's not.

No, it's not. It is not. That's what they say. I don't know. Oh, really? They broke up. Wait, wait a minute. You're talking about an all-American quarterback

hanging out and dating a confirmed porn star? They broke up? Wait a minute. Is this why? Hold on. Wait a second. Bombshell.

Is that why they broke up? Oh, the Cavender twin for the porn star? Because, I mean, she got a lot of run last night. She did? Probably, what's her name? I don't know. Why are you winking? You can say, you can tell her.

You can say the name on it. Why is Jonathan sweating? I'm not sweating. I'm just like, I thought y'all would know. It's a Bella Danger is what her name is. Oh, is that right. Is that the category you choose? No, I'm just hip to the game.

I know. Hashtag favorites. Hashtag only fans' donation. Hashtag. Welcome back, Jonathan. I'm wishing her the best. She seems quite well built. She's built for the long haul.

Yeah? She partied quite a bit after the game last night, apparently with Carson. Are you confirming that or is it your source is telling you? How did you see that? Yeah, is that through the grapevine? Yeah. Did your friend in Nakanoi? No, she's tell you this, too?

No, I'm just telling you. This is the 40-you-paid. Is this an SFA journalism story here? All right, 1033. It's a Matt Thomas-Yo at Ross. Good for him. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Great for him.

Are you kidding? You're telling me you got a Caveter twin and that girl? Well, apparently the Cavender twin situation is broken up. Maybe this is why. According to Jonathan Allen, not me. Don't quote me. Don't quote me. 7-13-21-2.

57.9. 713.212.5.7. I got some Texans calls to get to. CJ spoke yesterday the day after he spoke the day before. We'll let some of the audience hear that. He spoke two straight days. I should have said that that's a bad way. Did he change much of his tune yesterday when speaking to the media? So funny that Ross had to use a new browser today using Google Chrome, I see. That's good. What do you mean, Matt? Well, just looking to see what search?

search engines you're looking for i'm not searching anything i'm on this work laptop that's true that's good for you saw you on your phone though matt yeah i was checking twitter what was that pop-up who's that girl on your pop-up time on my phone or me okay and seen uh 10 38 you're all right i'm fine okay seem a little flustered no you're the one like did you see her and I'm like, see who? I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, me either. I was reading my Bible passages during the break. I was that Bible study with you. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach a show.

We've got Rockets and Spurs tonight at 6 o'clock with the Launchpad. Who will be the host of said Launchpad? That'll be me. All right. A huge matchup, Maddie. It is. Spurs and Rockets. Seven o'clock. Wimby's coming in. They beat the jazz last night. Rockets were off yesterday. Rockets have a tough back-to-back Thursday Friday with Philadelphia and Detroit where apparently when we get to Detroit it's going to be minus three degrees Bring your heavy coat I'm not a

Did you have to bring? Did you have to buy new winter clothing when you started traveling with the Rockets? No, I just I actually just add some extra t-shirts. Oh, that's wrong. We might have some leftover from Minneapolis. Yeah, I did buy gloves and a cap. So I'm not a big fan of wearing hats like that, but you know, that's what it is. Why don't you get, well, you have a scarf too, right? No. Oh, why not? Because I'm not a scarf wear her. Oh, it keeps you warm in the cold, though. But my mom, I went and had lunch with her yesterday after the show, and she said,

you're going to bring a scarf with you? I said, no, I don't, I own a scarf. Oh. Would you like to buy me a scarf? Why would I buy you a scarf? As a gift? A cashmere scarf? I don't care for the cashier.

We can go over to Rerey racks. A nylon. Nothing but I'll get you a Manchester City scarf. I'll wear whatever you want to. If you bring me. If you get a scarf, I'm not buying you a scarf. Buying a scarf. That is such a ridiculous statement to say I'm out.

And I will go on the plane and I'll take a picture myself on the plane with a scarf on with your scarf. See, I don't think Jonathan was here for this discussion previously. Matt Thomas says, and tell me if I'm getting this quote incorrectly, Matt, real men don't wear scarves. Hmm. I mean, it's okay. Because if there's ever anybody who's an authority on what a real man does, it's Matt Thomas. Sounds like you don't got no style, Matt. That's all that sounds like.

I don't see. I've never seen. you wear a scarf. You know, I'll, I'll forget a shot. My girl got one. I can rock her right now. You know wear your girl's scarf? And why?

It's going to be fly. You got to, it's about, I got multiple scarfs. They're very helpful camping as well, by the way. I don't say I don't camp. Okay. I resort. No, you don't.

You don't resort anywhere. I wish I did. You don't go on vacation. I know. I know. I don't take vacation. It's between my jobs. Like, again, like, next week, I got a terrible back-to-back,

which I'll be off a week from Friday. Thursday because we play 830 Spurs game. We play the Spurs twice at home in the next 10 days. Isn't that strange? The MBA schedule is wonky. And then we go to Atlanta to play it back to back. By the way, Atlanta sucks. Milwaukee beat them yesterday. Ross. I don't know if you caught the

score. It was 1-12-110. We were watching it here in the office and Milwaukee was crushing but Milwaukee wound up winning by just two. To the phones... They came back. Almost, almost all the way back. Well. Almost. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Let's talk to our friend Doug in South Pidery.

Doug, you a big scarf wearing, Doug? Not down here. Say that much. It's warm down here. I understand. You know, Matt, I agree with most of your takes. I'm even behind you when you talk about guacamole and Dr. Pepper. Oh, wow.

I'd like to argue a little bit with you in regards to Davis Mills. Oh, okay. Let me just make this point before I get there. Sure. You know, in sports and business, you know, numbers don't lie. And I'll use you and Ross as a good example. You're in a business that has a high turnover. It's hard to stay on top.

You guys, for 14 years, have been on top. You put out a good quality product. It's entertaining. It's why you guys are number one and why you don't have to worry about losing your jobs. But I'll guarantee you if you guys' ratings dropped to like six, seven, or eight, no matter what your bosses at I heart feel, they would probably replace you guys with somebody else.

But that's not going to happen. You made me feel terrible now. But thanks, Doug. You guys do a good job. I'm complimenting you, and I'm saying that those numbers don't lie. All right. Thank you for saying, man. Talk about the Texans.

The last game of the season was a game of consequence. You had to beat the Colts, or you would have to play Jacksonville and Jacksonville. Davis Mills was the quarterback who led that drive and won that game. So if you get down to it, you were 4 and 0 with Davis Mills, you were 8 and 5 with C.J. Stroud. What I would love to see the Texans do, and I know you guys are going to argue this with me, but let me make my points. Okay. I would love to see the Texans make a trade with somebody like Pittsburgh who thinks they can still win now. I love C.J. Stroud. I think he's a great person. He's a man of faith. His heart is in the right place, but I just think a change of scenery would probably do him better and us better.

You make a swap with the Steelers, but they're one and their number two pick. You'd have two number ones, three number twos, and one number three. Now, there might not be a C.J. Stroud or a Bryce Ellis in this draft like there was three years ago, but I guarantee there might be a Brock Purdy or a Dak Prescott among those quarterbacks. So, yes, you would be running with Davis Mills and possibly your rookie quarterback, and I can hear the arguments coming from you and Ross now. You're going to say, look, we tried that once. It didn't work. When Davis Mills was a quarterback, you didn't have Will Anderson, Daniel Hunter, Aziselle Shire, Bullock, Lassiter, and Derek Stingley was just a rookie.

You know, I'll get back to the case where the numbers don't lie. You were 4-0 with Mills. You were 8-5 with Stroud, which really is a pedestrian record. What was the fourth game they won with Mills? Wasn't it 3-0? That's my point. That last game against the Indianapolis Colts, it was Davis-Mills. Oh, you're giving Davis-Mills the credit.

Absolutely. He didn't have Stroud. didn't have Nico Collins, just like, just like Straub didn't have those two in the last game. He was three for nine. He was three for nine with 36 yards in that game. But when the game mattered, and they were down with three minutes left, he took him on a drive and they scored. Again, I know you guys aren't going to agree with me. I'm just telling you, he threw 36 yards in that game, and you're giving him credit for the win.

I think that's, don't you think that's a little odd? No, because he took him on a drive. All right. Well, yeah, he won the game. You're right. 36 yards dominant performance from Davis Mills. Doug, we love you like his second cousin, but when Davis Mills is not a starting quarterback in the NFL,

he's not and you're never going to be able to convince us otherwise. You just, we're going to have to agree to disagree. My point being, though, if you draft somebody, who knows that that guy might not be the top quarterback. I love C.J. Stratt. I just don't think it's going to work, man. Well, again, I think this conversation, honestly, Doug, is for a year from now. I mentioned this on yesterday on during the Tell the Truth.

I don't think you invest in a draft pick for a quarterback this year, but if this faces a similar result a year from now and you're not going to be continuing to pay Davis Mills crazy money to be the backup, you should think about it, Plan B. I just don't think Plan B is Davis Mills. It's going to be, it could be something in the draft. It could be also some of you going to be trade down the road, but CJ Stroud is going to be given every opportunity to sink or swim in 2026, period.

Yeah, and believe me, I hope he does well. He's a good kid, and I hope he rebounds, but that deer in the headlights, that's hard to get out of your system. Again, I hope that it was a one-off or a two-off, Pittsburgh, and that last game, but, man, I'm just saying that I just don't know my man. But anyway, I appreciate your guys showing. I'm glad you guys are on top, and I think they'll stay there.

Thank you very much. Well, I hope so. Oh, my man. Just don't tell the negative people out there by us. All right. No, I just, no, they will have to, if, I mean, I don't think that. Texans put it this way.

Is this crazy to say they're not going to match next year? It's either going to get significantly better or it's going to get worse. That's how it feels to me. Because this is an epically awesome defense that you brought up at least five times yesterday during the show. Can't

stay healthy for 18 weeks in a row because it did this year. Yeah. So if it takes a step back defensively which would only make somewhat since, then it better take a significant step upwards offensively. And you have a new offensive lineman coming in via the draft. You'll have a new running back as Woody Marks cannot be a three-down back for you,

this team. They cannot. And you need C.J. Stroud to act like he's not afraid to take the chances and be a part of the big moment. I'll tell you this. There is no way the Texan season ends last year, next year in the divisional playoff. Either they're going to go to Epic all the way. way to the top, and you can call me Liberty White, Matt, or we got ourselves a team that is barely making the playoffs or not in the playoffs. It feels like to me, the history is not going to repeat itself next year season.

Well, yeah, we'll see. But I wonder, I need examples. I'm not saying they don't exist. I need, please, concrete examples of quarterbacks regressing the way that C.J. H. Trout has and then thriving and being Super Bowl caliber. can I give you Baker Mayfield Baker Mayfield was good that's the closest comp I can He was a great

But he wasn't great this year He didn't win a Super Bowl But Baker Mayfield He threw 45 touchdowns with Liam Cohen As his offensive coordinator And then he regressed significantly this year But see the difference is in that I think Baker Mayfield

Can take the Buccaneers to the Super Bowl I just do All right we have to We're way late for a break Oh look at how late we are We got back on the clock 1048 sports talk 7-0 1055 sports talk 790 coming up at 1130 today we're going to have gut feelings where we make our sports predictions

did we do we did a bunch last week last weeks yeah you know what I really thought the Texans were going to win but if I would if I had gone the other direction you just call me a Texans hater and I that's not true you know you would have that's not true I would never call you that I didn't have as much confidence I said I did not have as much confidence as I did not have as much confidence as I against the Steelers because Nico Collins was out. I know. So, you know what? It was more of a gut feeling.

I put more than my name on it on the Pittsburgh game. Oh, did you? Yeah. Oh, that's right. So I didn't know. Let's just say this weekend was a stay away. Smart by your part. I did not invest.

Well, I gave me the blanket statement. And again, it could be Captain obvious, Matt. This team will not end the season next year at the divisional level. Okay. Can you go? They will not end the season at the AFC championship game. That's my statement. Oh, oh.

Super Bowl 61, baby. I mean, they could not make the playoffs. What if they have a bunch of injuries and C.J. Stroud's still mid? Then they won't make the playoffs. The thing that makes me nervous is something you said again. This team basically health-wise was just about perfect defense of it last year. The roster was great. The key pieces were healthy.

but you had no run game, the offensive line was bad, and your quarterback was bad. And Joe Mixen allegedly shot his foot off. Into 17 bits. Jonathan, it's going to be so good. We're going to go to Rod Rux. Hold on.

I didn't say I'm paying for Jonathan's coffee. I'll pay you. Johnson's coming with us on all of our stuff. Does he even drink coffee? We'll get you a little at a cafe right now. We'll get you an, I'll say refresher, if you will. You know what, fine. But I made sure it was a small bet.

I mean, it's costing me like maximum eight bucks. Get your coffee and a slice of lemon bloke. You got to save that buddy for the habachi. Let's go to Scott quickly before the top of the hour on 790. Scott, good morning to you. Matt Ross, what's going on, guys? So everyone's been killing Stroud and trust me, no one. I was just, yes, he is absolutely not only was he awful.

He was the reason that we lost the game on Sunday. But, you know, looking forward, obviously everyone's saying, what we need to fix our offense. And I don't, you know, I don't trust, not trying to make excuses for CJ in his regression, but you look at our organization, I don't know from a talent acquisition standpoint or, you know, coaching staff game to game,

we're very good at creating offense or solving offensive issues. I mean, everyone says our offensive line is terrible, which, yeah, sure, it improved a little bit, but if everything had gone according to Nick Casario's plan and the Texans plan, on this team right now, Kenyon Green would be a solidified starter on the offensive line. Blake Fisher would be a solidified starter on the offensive line, and so would juice Scruggs. None of them worked out.

We look at Higgins and Noel, and I'm not closing the book on them. I think they could have good careers, but they didn't stand out as rookie risers, where we know for sure that they're going to break out next year. And, you know, we haven't acquired or developed the right people. I'm not sure which one it is. I can say Stroud looked amazing. in his rookie year and his regress since. So maybe we're not developing correctly,

more so than identifying talent. And then you look at it from a game standpoint, game management standpoint. And Ross, I've heard you, you know, criticize them for this throughout the whole season. We're one of the worst offensive, you know, operational offenses in the entire league. I watch enough football.

When the Texans are in a rare situation where they're in a two-minute drill, I've never seen a more clunky operation in the entire league. They've used timeouts at the wrong, wrong time, they're moving slowly. They don't seem to know what they're doing and how they're not able to get that fixed. And lastly, the play that just absolutely killed me because it's been happening for two years,

when you get the illegal motion in the beginning of the game with, I think Togi I was in the game, right? Yes. How do, Togi I is in practice for one play. There's not multiple formations with that going on. Like there's one play that the team knows is happening that they practice, presumably they practice. How do you mess that up?

Like everyone knows what their job is. There's not okay when we're in this set. There's multiple things I could be doing. But they mess it up time and time again. So offensively, I don't know if I have confidence moving forward that we're A, going to draft the right pieces, B, develop them, or C, even coach them properly on a day-to-day basis. And none of that is necessarily C.J. Straub's fault.

Thanks, guys. No, there are things around him that must improve. You must get an RB1. You must get more out of your WR2. I mean, I know Higgins started to improve as a season moved along. Kirk is okay. It was, no, Christian Kirk was not okay. He played for you one great week.

He was there. He was a jag. Whoa. First slot guy. He's here at the W.R.3. Dalton Schultz came on second half of the season. Jolts was your W.R. 2 and he ain't George Kittle. You didn't have a good pass catchers.

You didn't have a good offensive line. You didn't have a good running game. You had a first-time play caller where things. are always messed up. But also, you missed a lot of easy throws. You panicked under pressure too far, far too often.

We'll run through what CJ said yesterday, the day after, the day after. 11 o'clock on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. All right, so late in the show yesterday, we played the Domeko Ryan's press conference where he was, frankly, pretty complimentary of his quarter,

back. When asked about a fifth year option or extension, he said, too early for that. Leave me alone. Staff evaluations about a week. Very short. He basically said, I'm not going to talk about that. Yeah. And really, that's frankly not his call completely. I mean, he's got a lot to say about it. But that's going to be more for Nick. I don't think Nick Casero tomorrow can get away with that. And we will carry Nick Casario's media availability tomorrow at 10 o'clock. I thought it was today, but it's tomorrow at 10 o'clock. Okay. But as I said, if CJ Stroud threw for 375 and 4 tutties, he'd be like, Yeah, we want him here. Yeah.

We envision him being the long-term franchise quarterback for this team. Instead, he was as complimentary as he could. And again, I think other people are picking up on it, but it's not just exclusively to D'Amico. Quarterbacks are typically defended, more so than any other position player on the team. Maybe kickers. You know, that guy's made a bunch of kick express before.

A total confidence he could make it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, CJ spoke yesterday to the assembled media. Some people that think they're media, but they're really not. But some legit media that were there. And you got some of the highlights of that. Yes, I do. C.J. Stroud, of course, to ask some questions. I mean, stuff about like, he's excited.

Tank, Dell's getting back. No, but nobody wants to hear that. Thank you, C.J. We appreciate it. Thanks, softballs. After his leg exploded in 5,000 spots. C.J. Stroud, can you still be a good player in this league? It's making my mindset I do have even more tenacious and, you know, focused and, you know, just my vision to be, you know, clear. And I think, you know, my dad used to always tell me growing up, like when bad things just happened in sports and whatever it was, like injury or whatever, it always says it's just as fuel to the fire.

And so I'm going to take that mindset of just like whatever is, you know, going to happen in this offseason or, you know, and what people are saying, whatever, you know, I just ask fuel to the fire. It makes a story a little sweeter, you know, and I just, you know, I'm just, you know, I'm just, you know, I'm going to happen. excited to see where my career goes and, you know, my play. And I know this ain't the end of CJ Stroud, you know, this ain't end of my career. You know, like I said, the son came up this morning. I got a lot more ball to play left. And I'm excited to do that. Fuel to the fire. C.J. Stroud is going to turn this around. How much of it is psychological? How much of it is? he's playing a tough sport where injuries happen

even to the stars, even to the most important position player in the team, and he's already had a fair number of them during his short NFL career. Because you can work out all you want to, Ross. You can be in shirt and shorts, and you can go in the workout room and you can watch game film and you can do all that.

But man, when you got Joey Bosa coming right after you, it's a different story. Matt, are you familiar with the term sunk cost fallacy? Ooh, this feels like a college economics term, so I'm going to sit back and listen to Professor Villarreal. Let's say, Matt, you buy a stock, and it goes up for a little bit, and then it comes down, and then it keeps going down. And you're like, you know what, if it keeps going down, I'm going to sell it in another month. Take the loss.

And it keeps going down. And you're like, you know, it could bounce back. It could bounce back. Correct. Oh, we're waiting for these quarter three earnings. And it keeps going down and down and down. You don't want to sell because you didn't sell when it was high. you lost.

But at some point, you have to cut your losses. I'm not saying that's where the Texans are right now. But that feels like a danger of where we could be. Think of David Carr. Oh, he's got no offensive line. He's got no weapons. He's got no this. Well, maybe David Carr's not good enough.

Maybe you need to cut bait. Maybe they do need to try to figure out what plan B is going to be. Can we be in a situation where C.J. Stroud is possibly a sunk cost and we're going to try to say, hey, maybe he can turn it. We're all sitting here saying, maybe he can turn it around, maybe he can turn around. Maybe this stock's going to go back up. Maybe the Q3 earnings are going to be great. Or maybe we should just sell. You hear the pause, you hear the hymn and a hall. That's what they're doing in Texanville today. They're having that exact same conversation. And I got, let me give you this.

In a trend in sports, when someone is high and drops. Now, there are examples. But typically, when you start to fall, do you ever really get all the way back up? Like Jose Abraeu? I'm going to use Houston athletes. Jose Abraeu. Some cost. They kept putting him out. They kept putting him out there.

He's going to turn around. He's going to turn around. Because the history says he's going to turn around. And he never turned around. He got to 247 for a second. Yeah, okay. Oh, that was another bet you lost for me. I know.

Seriously, the last five years has not been good to you, by the way. It's fine. Yeah, Baker Mayfield, 26 touchdowns, 11 picks this year, 3,700 yards. Last year he had 41 touchdowns, but he also led the NFL with 16 picks. I would take Baker Meyfield over C.J. Straub.

Here's the thing that we have to consider as well. We've seen turnarounds from Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold, and, I mean, Mac Jones looked good. We can go to some examples. But none of those guys, at the time that they were succeeding and thriving, we're making $50, $60 million a year. Because if one, then the other, if C.J. Stroud is making $50 to $60 million,

that's going to hamstring you what you can build around him. So even if he would, let's say we were talking about going to pick him to the Steelers or whatever. He's not making $50, 60 million of the Steelers if they traded him away. You're going to be on a smaller deal. So that is going to give you more wiggle room in terms of cap flexibility. So these are things, as you said, these are things Nick Casario needs to weigh. We're not in the mean. We would have a better feel of C.J. Stroud.

If we're in the meeting rooms, if we're around him, we know it in his heart that he's going to be a competitor, he's going to try hard and he wants to do everything possible to win. But does he have it in him? I don't know that. Nick Cayley would have a better feel. Nick Casario and Demico Ryan's, and those are the guys that need to figure this out.

When athletes go south, as frankly dramatically the last two weeks took CJ, do they bounce back? And I'm talking about they, as a collective group. Like, for instance, let's go with some current NBA. Let's go with,

who has taken a dramatic fall from grace in the NBA? I can't think of anybody. It bounced back? That bounced back. It'd be like Kevin Durant going from scoring 28 points a game down to 14, and then all of a sudden going back

two years later and scoring 23, 24. He never did that. He has been at a high level, And that's again, again, it's a bad example, but I'm just trying to think of, give me somebody in sports that fell off the map and that came back. I'm not talking about it on a one-year thing. For instance, I'll give you a terrible example. There's still hope for Ben Simmons.

Okay, there's another one. Ben was in Maryland. I mean, Doug Williams, okay, former Washington Redskins quarterback, great for the Buccaneers, went to the USFL, left for nothing, came back as a backup and helped the Redskins win a championship, okay, in a Super Bowl. But that was a one-off, and a year later, he was not even really relevant to the scene anymore. You're about to ask somebody who's had a back-to-back, downplayed years, steady progression south, you're asking him to fix that two-year trend, and then as soon as he fixes it,

you're going to probably put between $50 and $60 million a year in his piggy bank, and you're going to severely hamper your cap. Tell me this story This story that I just told you It's going to have a sweet ending to it I don't know Tell me that two years Of negative play

Not awful He's getting to To say that CJ was awful The last few years is ridiculous You can't say that But we're only going off of the last Two games we've seen him play And he was absolutely awful

Against The New England Patriots It's like two of his worst starts ever Yeah In the playoffs Yes we certainly are we have a bad

very bad sample to go off of right now if I'd have dropped you out of a coma mad and you just saw those only two games you're like wow who's this quarterback they need you would be saying they need to get rid of him immediately you would be saying who is this backup or third string quarterback that just cost the Texans in their

great defense a playoff run now all right I'll give you a small example right now Sam Darnold on top of the world in Minnesota had two terrible regular season games and a lousy playoff game. They shipped him to Seattle. He was pretty good, obviously, for the Seahawks.

Didn't have to do a whole lot. He also got hurt towards the end, and he had a good divisional playoff game and their dominant win. But if he's lousy this week, there's going to be hesitation about what to do with his money. And they also had a high first-round pick in J.J. McCarthy

that they want to invest in. Now, it's a mix bag to be kind with J.J. McCarthy, but in a way, had to move on because they felt like they had their guy, or at least they were going to see if they had their guy with J.J. McCarthy. And Kevin O'Donnell was not happy with Sam Darnel by the end of that season with all the throws he was missing. I know there are examples. I just can't think of one right away.

He's too young and has too much left in the tank to be considered a journeyman. Sam Darnold with the Seattle Seahawks, 14 and 3 at 25 touchdowns 14 picks. He J. Strauss can do that. if you give me that next year with this defense you're in very good position to win the answer you next year QBR 56 CJ Strauss was in the 60s I'll pull it back up yeah I know you're not a QBR guy but it's just one one data point that's fine I can live with it 713212 5 790 can someone who has had such a drop in such a short period of time with so much still potential be saved not like literally said but you know from a football playing perspective say. We'll hear more from CJ coming back.

Back to more on CJ. What do you got there, sports RV in the audio vault? CJ Stroud made some improvements this season. This year was a step for me where I didn't have to be Superman all the time and I'm still growing in that.

You know what I'm saying? So, you know, I appreciate my team. It's taking a lot of pressure off of my plate, but also, you know, they do know that I can make those plays. So, you know, I'm appreciative of them having that perspective. And I feel like I've grown, you know, in that way of like, you know, taking what's there, you know, in ways where, you know, I would have taken a shot there or just, you know, take care of the

ball some other ways. But, you know, I just seeing some growth into my footwork, you know, in the pocket, you know, trusting my guy, staying in the pocket, not just running around, you know, but, you know, staying strong and firm. So I think I step, I made a step in that area as well. But, you know, always things are improving. And I'll do that. He knows his sport way better than I do. Would the term C. Day took a step up in anything this year be applicable? Now, say this. He doesn't want to run.

Clearly, we've seen that on multiple occasions here, especially back half of the season. Don't get mad at me. His QBR went up his highest in his career. You asked me for something. Sure, go ahead. Yeah, that was it. QBR went up. What is the highest it can be?

100. And what is a good quarterback? Like, what is Josh Allen's QB. highest, I'll go look it up in the NFL rankings. But 50 is average. He was like 62. Okay, QBR went up. I know, you don't want to hear it. Well, I mean, look, as I said before in the earlier segment.

Best in football, no, this is postseason only. He didn't have an awful season. He just didn't have a great season. Best in the regular season was 77, Drake May. Jordan Love, Brock Purdy, Matthew Stafford, Stack, Prescott, Pat Mahomes, Josh Allen. He was 11th in football. head of Baker Mayfield, head of Justin Herbert. Herbert or Stroud or C.

Give me something else. Herbert or Stroud? Mm-hmm. Do you see what we're doing here, gang? We're not trying to compare C.J. Stroud to top 10 quarterbacks. Our guy, your quarterback, your hero Ross, is not in the top 10 anymore. Not even close. He's closer to 15 than he is to 10.

Yes. Maybe closer to 17. We're comparing him to... Let me ask you this. if we were on Charlotte Sports Radio today, Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud? C.J. Stroud. I don't know.

I don't, again, you and I are not watching 16 Carolina Panthers. But I don't see the hesitancy in what I've seen in Bryce Young. There is hesitancy in the quarterback for the Houston Texans, who you've got to figure out financial what you're going to do with his life in the next two seasons. I don't see him hesitancy. Do I think athletically, C.J. Stroud has. way above Bryce Young, absolutely. But that's only part of the grade.

Are you sure you want to fall on that sort for CJ over Bryce Young? What did Bryce Young do this so great? Got him to the playoffs. At 8 and 9. Oh, great job. 23 touchdowns, 11 picks. Passer rating? Passer rating 87.8.

Okay. C.J. Strouds, 92.9. QBR 47 I don't know You know what Height 510 Slunderbilled He's the tank del of quarterbacks

Bryce Young had a better season I mean I would say a bounce back season Better relative to his rookie season That is true when people were like Why did you draft the guy that was 5 for 3 I'm still going with C.J. Stroud Is it because you're thinking about the potential Or what you've already seen?

Because I've seen better thing Yeah, from what I've already seen even going off just those seasons, all those stats I tossed at you where C.J. Stroud is better. Better quarterback. Some of the parts, it's C.J. Stroud.

But are there, if Charlotte Sports Radio today, are they wiggin out about... They're going to say Bryce Young, probably. Are they working out over Bryce Young's future? We're working out of him. We're working out over Bryce Young. I think they're thinking that Bryce Young is like this can't stop it, no doubt about it, franchise quarterback? I don't think so. You know what? I need to call some people in Charlotte.

Okay, call them. Get them on the eye heart. We don't have sports radio there, and I heart there. You know what? I've got friends to Charlotte. I'll ask. Because I'm generally curious if Panther fan is calling their sports shows today saying,

man, because the thing about this, they're in the same draft class, right? They got to figure out what to do with Bryce Young's contract status. You think that CJ's the only one to worry about. There's other teams worrying about their quarterback spots. They're in the same boat. Same boat. 713-212-5-790.

713-2-1-2-5-7-9-0. James with us on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. James, good morning. Yeah, maybe C.J. Stratt is just a Sam Darnold. Maybe it's just going to take him a couple of years to where he gets to where he's going to be a great quarterback. It's just going to take a little while. I mean, Sam Darnold for the first three or four years, he was awful. Now, look at him. So maybe that's always... But let's look at him. Yeah, I was going to say he's, you know what he is? He's a, he's a, he's a assistant. quarterback. He's a I mean, is Sam Darnold going to lead the Seahawks to a big ferocious 300 yard four touchdown day?

I'm trying to look at some quarterback data points because I don't want to just keep on bringing QBR, but Sam Darnold was 19th in QBR. Again, not in all be all. Nope. It's one data point. By the way, chat GPT has chimed in. Oh, good. You asked them? No, my buddy Wade did. Oh. Our associate producer, Wade. Quarterbacks.

Off a chat GPT, folks. I've never been on chat, GPT. I, go ahead. He asked chat GPT, can you name quarterbacks that have had a significant drop-off that have rebounded? Okay, that's better.

I didn't want their opinion on C.J. Stroud. No, no, no. I don't know. Here are the names. The question was, who fell off meaningfully, then came back and played well again?

Carson Palmer. That's a good one. Not bad. Here's one that actually kind of hits a little bit. Alex Smith, towards the end of his San Francisco tenure, was terrible. Now, he goes to Kansas City, gets him back in the playoffs,

but then Andy reads like, I know what you got Alex Smith, and I got Pat Mahomes waiting for me here. And then he was in Washington and nearly lost a leg. Correct. Ryan Tannahill. Oh.

That's a little bit of, Now here's one that maybe is the big hit. Okay. Kurt Warner? Fell off a cliff, came back. Barnstormers? No, like, when he went from where... Oh, with the Giants when he was ahead, his resurrection with the Giants?

I was going to say the Cardinals, too, right? Cardinals, yeah, maybe right. Sorry, Giants is where he was bad. Cardinals were he came back and made a Super Bowl. And they lost in that last second throw to San Antonio Holmes. There's your comps. But the problem is Kurt Warner's also like 38. years old.

I need 23 quarterbacks in history and we can poke holes in their resume as they are. Come on, JetTPT. Okay, well, if you want, do you want pro football focus quarterback grades? Why are you cackling over there? I'm not cackling.

I'm covering my mouth because I'm going to throw up. Go ahead. CJ Stroud 31st behind Justin Fields and Aaron Rogers. I was looking for another data point and I found one I didn't want to find. Yeesh. That's bad. Is it a sunk cost?

If I just said to you 31st behind Justin Fields No. You know, you're saying. You and I've argued, not argue, we've politely debated about the money that's going to go his way. And now you're going to got to. I'm willing. I can clean slate this. I can give C.J. Stroud the 2006 season to resurrect his career.

Because athletically can do it. Well, it's this fourth year and you have a fifth year option, correct? Correct. The question is, do you pick it up right away? And then you can franchise them after that if you want. Oh, let me tell you something. If you're not completely sold on C.J. Stroud, he could be here four more seasons. Season four, which would be 26.

That's the sunk cost. Let's give him one more year, guys. Then you pick up the option 27, and then you can franchise him 28, 29. Okay. And you're paying him a lot of money. But you're not extending him. Actually, the reality is you're thinking about a new quarterback by 2030 anyway. Ideally, you would want to have him have a great year and extend him.

That's why 2027. the year of the stroud. It was the year of the cat, according to Cat Stevens, many back years ago? It's a year of the Stroud. I give you another sunk cost. Please. You're with a girl.

Oh, I love this guy. I love her. John, listen, this may have been you back five years ago. She doesn't have a good job. She hasn't turned her around. She keeps saying she's going to apply for jobs. She doesn't. She keeps saying she's going to do this.

She's going to do this. She's going to do that. And it's just not happening. And you keep saying, oh, you know what? No, I really like her. You know, I think it's going to, to turn around and it never does. While you're saying, girl, this could be a guy too.

There could be women listening. There can be women listening to our show right now. There's a lot of women nodding their heads off right now when I'm saying. Because it probably does go more the other way. Oh, you know, he's really sweet. He's really nice. You know, he's just in a rough patch right now. He's still living with his parents, though. He's going to get a job. Still living with his parents. He's going to turn around. He's got a good heart.

Let me tell you something. It's more applicable for us dudes. You're right. It is. But you love him. But I love him. He's nice to me. C.J. Stroud. He's got a good heart. But he's going to turn the accuracy back around.

He's going to stop panicking when he's under pressure. He's going to see you the feel better. He's going to pay for dinner once in a while. Offensive line and run game is going to get better. I'm just saying. I'm not saying. I'm just saying. Let me tell you something. We just went love connection on C.J. Stroud's career. 1131. Let's play. We're going to get feelings in now.

And all our friends, all our friends on Twitter are saying dump that loser. We're not listening to our friends. Twitter doesn't want him. Twitter's like cut bait now. Your friends are saying move on. It's a toxic situation. You're not that bad.

Are they right? It's not toxic. You're not hitting her. They didn't shoot himself with a foot. See, you're finally coming around to this. This is awesome. It'd be funny. I'll get you a coffee and a slice of lemon cake for that.

Hey, wax, if you're listening, which he's not. He doesn't listen to our show. Wex, excuse me, Nick, there are some reports out there that Joe shot himself in the foot. Is that accurate? Would, would Nikki C. tell the truth on that? I mean, Twitter rumors come true all the time. I love it. All the time.

I got Jonathan to my side on this. Two to one. I'm not saying it's the craziest thing. Jonathan, we believe it more than ever, do we not? I think maybe it's been the whole year. It's been since July. CJ Stroud didn't go to 10. gun training?

I mean Joe Mixon? Gun safety training? Yeah, Joe Mixon, I'm sorry. I think CJ did. Joe Mixon did not. Gut feelings are next. 1132, Sports Talk 7.9. Listen up, girls and boys.

That's been so appealing. Chris Ross and Matt Thomas. This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas show. All right, I'm very curious to see how we did last week, because I think we were very boastful with all of our predictions, including the Texans beating the Patriots.

I went undefeated in Wildcar Weekend. I said it was, I said fade RV and the Wi-Fi's. What's meant with Wi-Fi? I can't, the documents are not opening, so. Why not? You know what I'm memorized? Let me try to pull it on my phone. At least our computers haven't crashed today.

Have they crashed yet, gentlemen? Yeah, they froze earlier. No, they froze. One of them there. Okay. That's fine. Hey, we're still in the air. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

Yeah. much more positive attitude about the technical glitches we have daily here on the station. Everything's going great. Everything is, this is fine. Okay, literally, finally now, it just opened. Perfect. All right, how we do?

All right, I know I got to scroll down. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Okay, Matt. Yes, sir. You said the NFL is done with Monday night games and the playoffs. Yeah, I'm very much, I'm very happy on that. Staying with that.

You said CJ Stroud will throw two touchdowns, two interceptions? He will have under 40 yards rushing. I think he had 11. And we'll throw for more than 225 yards. Nope. What did he end up with? It was something.

Too good. Yeah. None of that's good. I was just, again, I was trying to be Team Stroud. I like that. You wanted to become Liberty White Matt. Two hundred twelve yards in the air for C.J. Stroud. I was two wins away from being Liberty White Matt.

You said the Buffalo Bills would win. And they did not. You said if the Texans win AFC championship, you didn't make a prediction of early week. Yeah. You said, Nico Collins not there to the Super Bowl. Well, he can buy tickets. That's a hit.

You got the, well, we don't know that. Maybe he's ready this week for the flag football. I'll say this. He was at the game. I mean, if he was really in a bad spot, he wouldn't out of going on the fly all the way up there. The Rams winning the NFC. Ooh, that's still in play.

What's, I hadn't even looked at the divisional lines. I've been so sad. I mean, a conference championship I don't even care about the NFC. The AMC game to me is Uber intriguing. Is it weird that I think the Rams are the only team left worthy

of winning the Super Bowl so I want them to win? Why do you think Seattle's not worthy? I don't know. I just feel like they're not, they're two and a half point favorite, so maybe I'm wrong. I don't want the Patriots of Broncos.

I don't want the Patriots of Broncos to win because it just doesn't feel worthy. Is that weird? No, no, it's exactly weird. It's 100% weird. Because the defense for Seattle is amazing. Yeah. Jackson Smith and Jigma.

is one of the rich receivers. We're not the same darnal guys. And nobody, first of all, we're going to call soft this week. We're going to just do it. Okay. But the fact of the matter is, nobody cares about the Seattle Seahawks. Outside of Seattle. Outside of Seattle.

And they don't care about that. Norman Week. And I got news for you. Nobody cares about the Houston Texans outside of Houston. Is this true? Stafford had 46 touchdowns on eight picks on the year? I didn't realize it was that crazy. All right, anyways.

Is he going to win the MVP just because of where he is? LA? I don't know. Oh, yeah, the big Rams. I don't know. They were 12 and 5 and they were good, and he had 46 touchdowns. But Drake May was great, too. 31 touchdowns. Yeah.

Okay, continue on. I know it's the best quarterback with the best stats and the best team, so I mean. Mm-hmm. I had C.J. Stroud under two and a half turnovers. Wrong. You didn't even get that taken care of in the first half. 240 yards picking a touchdown. I did have one touchdown, correct.

That you did. I said Monday night football, hashtag fade MT, Monday night football playoff games will continue. Texans win 19 to 17. I also had the bills winning and the Seahawks winning and the Rams winning. So I went two for two. Okay, two and two. I said the Rockets will split the Minnesota Oklahoma City back to back.

They did. And C.J. Stroud under rushing yards 40 for Jonathan Allen. That was his prediction. Which hit easily. He had 11. By the way, he will, Will he ever have a 40-yard rushing game again in its NFL life? By the way, Tom and Downtown wanted me to write this down.

He said, Flacco-style running the postseason, Texans win the Super Bowl. Oh, Tom and Downtown, we're going to hear from you right now at 713-212-5-7-90. And there you go. That's from last week. I don't even want to make any gut feelings this week. This sucks. All right, I'm going to go first. Rockets beat the Spurs tonight.

Of course, duh. I have the rockets going 82 and all every year. Rockets beat the Serse. What's the line on the game tonight? Yes. I know it. I'll say Rockets point in a half. Four and a half.

Yeah. Give the points. Rockets win. Oh. Yeah. Rockets win by four and a half. I'm staying away. So you know what that means?

I'll be there. I'm not cheering because I'll be in the press box. No cheering in the press box. Oh, there's plenty of cheering going on in the press box. Imagine what a Texan's game would be like in the press box. Oh, my God. I was explaining that to a family member over the weekend. like, oh, come on, man.

You can't wear gear. You can't cheer in the press box? Oh, there's people wearing gear. Don't worry. Yeah. They couldn't wrap their head around the fact that I couldn't cheer in the press box. Anyways. So you're going with the Rockets?

Get the win. Do you want to make conference championship predictions? I will take the Rams and I will take the New England Patriots. That'll be a rematch of the first Super Bowl I ever covered. I was going to say the same thing. You can do that. I mean, okay, how about this?

Sheehog's dominant last week. I know. And that seems going to be rocking. Let me ask you this. Let's do the, let's do some stat predictions on Jared Sinam. 175 yards over under in your mind. I'll go over. I'll take the under because I think they'll be behind.

Okay. A number of touchdowns he'll throw. I'll say the number is one and a half. Under. Do you think he's going to throw for over 200, but you'd only throw for one touchdown? I just said over 175. I can get 176, pal.

That's true. Let's see what else. Number of times on Friday show, I'll bet you complain about how cold it is in Detroit. I'll put the over under at 7. God, you're going to be inside. You just have to walk from the bus to your five diamond hotel. That's all you got to make.

I still have to walk outside of it. make. It's not going to do it. 45 seconds. Get your bag. You'll be good. Oh, that's right. I've got to get that longer than that.

I get the bag, too. That's two times that. You're going to wait in the bus until you have to absolutely get your bag. I usually go to my room first, drop off my briefcase. I'll go back to get the bag. All right. See, there you go. So you're going to be outside for a combined 111 seconds.

Well, I get frostbite during that time. You'll be fine. Okay. You used to be a Minneapolis strong. I'm Houston week. Okay. So you have, you have stid them under 175 yards? Under 175 and under 1.5 touchdowns.

They have a great offensive line, and I think they're going to be behind, so I think he's going to be throwing. Jonathan, what are your gut feelings? He's busy doing engineering stuff. That's fine. That's fine. At least stuff is maybe kind of working. We love our man, Tom.

He's so awesome. He's number one. He's number one. He's the number one most important person in this building. Yep. You ask me. All right. Any other gut feelings on this? Michael Barry's off location.

Yeah, he's going to say. Michael could be sent Tom to prison, Turkish prisons. What else? Okay, I was trying to look it up. Did the Rams? Yeah, Rams and Seahawks split. 38 to 37 and 21 and 19. Rams won the game.

Sam Darnold throws two picks. Boom, write that down. I need to fade M.T. Fade him. Go ahead and fade me. That's fine. Fade me for a long time of last year. So how's that working out for you?

It worked out okay. You had the Texans under seven and a half wins. What did they get your bag of chips? Got me a deli lunch, which you still owe. You tried to pay, but I forgot. Yeah. I literally handed you cash and you didn't use it. I'm an idiot. You are an idiot. If you have any got filling, 713, 21, 212, 5, 7. Okay, okay, fine. Fime. Rams Patriots Super Bowl.

Rams Patriot Super Bowl. I'll even go ahead and say it. Rams won it all. I'll take the Rams as well. But it's a, it's a coin flipper game to me. It's not like I put my name on it. This is a coin flipper game. It's a long stayaway game from it. Yeah, I'll be staying away. All right. We were going to go to Adam and Tomball, but you just, You hung up. I don't know if you want to call back,

we'll get your gut feeling in. 713, 212,790. 713-212-5-790. If you have any gut feelings at all about anything sports related, whether it be about the future of the Texans, well, I'm going to go ahead. I was going to push my one gut feeling over. If the Texans do not make at least the championship game,

Nick Aserio's out. I have, okay, I can write that down. Yeah, you can. I have a gut feeling that I don't want to say out loud. And we'll do it next. 1146 on Sports Talk 790. All right, on the phones we go with gut feelings at 713-212-5-790. Let's talk to our friend, Gio on 790.

Gio, what's in your gut this week? Hey, guys, great show as usual. Thank you. So I come to this gut-filling segment with the heavy heart man because I don't want to say this. But my gut is telling me that C.J. Strout is done. I mean, like you guys said, the last segment or a couple segments ago, who has fell off the cliff this far and has come back, you know, to relevancy? It's not going to happen. I think this is who he is.

I don't know what happened from that rugby season until now, but I don't see it getting any better, man. I think we give him one more season, and I think we're looking somewhere else for 2027. Thanks. Thanks. I think it's something that I'm going to give ourselves credit for. I don't hear any other people talking about it. Because the cliff would be too strong of a term because you did beat the Steelers. You fell off the cliff in New England.

You did. It was so horrifically bad. How do you fall off the cliff, pick your feet up, and get back on going again? It brings us to the gut feeling that I didn't want to say out loud. Oh, okay. on. Real nice and quiet here. Let's go.

I don't want to say this. Let's go, Battle Red. C.J. Strau's not an elite quarterback and he's not going to ascend back to the elite. Okay. If that's the case, you are letting him walk. You hear me? I know. It's a gut feeling.

It's a gut feeling. And it were a couple days removed from a very bad game. Yep. So I reserved the right to change my mind. It's gut feelings. It's my gut feeling right now. My gut feeling is he's not an elite quarterback and he's not going to ascend back to the elite. That's just how I feel.

How can I possibly have confidence in that right now? Because how in the world is he not going to be skittish? Even for a September regular season game. You get him completely clean pockets and a dominant run game, then that's fine. But that's hard to do consistently long term when you're going to be paying him $50 to $60 million. Because you will not have an elite offensive line to protect you because your quarterback's making that kind of money. You're going to need to hit a bunch of offensive line draft picks, which we have no history of here with Casario. I gave you a gut feeling.

This is going to be a... Oh, boy, you thought you had one. Oh, do it. I ain't going to be mad at you. Let your heart sing. It's gut feelings, baby. His agent, David Mulligeta, is going to create a nasty divorce

between these two teams. Got a feeling, write it down. Okay. I'm sorry, I had to say it. He certainly can't hold out this upcoming off-season. No, no, no, no, no. But David Mulligetta is going to make this a very public nasty divorce.

Now, we'll shake ourselves of this gut feeling if he has an elite 20-26 season, which he very well could. Remember, these are gut feelings. We're not putting her names on it. But you get my, you get our drift on this. Because D'Amico, you know what D'Amico's going to do? He's going to call him David Mulligan. He's going to say, man, what the hell are you doing? I have defended your client too many times during weekly press conferences when I'm willing to take little jabs in my defense. I leave your client alone. And this is how you're going to treat me? This is, this is, oh, God. If he doesn't improve, it's a nasty divorce. Yeah, it could be.

Non-nasty divorce? Sam Darnell goes to Seattle. Gino Smith goes to L.A. or to Las Vegas. Matthew Stafford gets moved from Detroit to L.A. Not nasty. Matter of fact, it was very pleasant. I don't think David Mulligan runs that way. If it stays where he is to where he's not, obviously elite and not obviously horrible. And he's like 20 touchdowns, 10 picks and a lot of question marks. That is going to play out that way. That's kind of where I feel like he's going to be mid, where he's just mid to good and not elite. Ken on 790-1156, Ken, good morning.

What's in your gut this week? My gut this week is my Super Bowl pick is going to be Seattle and New England. And my second gut feeling is if we don't make it to the championship game, next year. Demico, CJ, and the GM are out. Yeah, I don't agree on, I think Domingo's safe. I don't think Nick's safe. Yeah, thanks for the phone call. There is no way Hannah is going to try to get a stadium pushed when she can't get her team to the championship game. She's going out there and saying, I'm willing to make changes.

I mean, Nick Casarro, it's been good. It's been good, not elite. nobody hits every single draft pick nobody stands in neutral for as many years this franchise has actually that's not true the texas staying neutral I mean well the bills in Sean McDermott yeah the Detroit lines feel the same way too yeah that could be a spicy one if Dan Campbell has another bad year I mean he was the toast of every town

I mean yeah togi I bring him back Rankins which who they're probably gonna try to keep the Deanal Hunter signing's been great Will Anderson's been great Camarra Lasseter pick was a smash Stingley hit So all the hits have been on defense Nico Collins was a big hit The third round wide receiver

Who who ascended to one of the top ten in football Mm-hmm I mean that no Edding Green was a good signing Tripp Brown was a good signing Whether whether Nick deserves it or not There's got to be a fall guy

You're hoping Ursary can Can improve Year 1 to year two because, yeah, I think a caller was bringing up, and I've said this too. If we lived in a world where Kenyon Green and Arionte Ursery and Juice Scruggs were hits, this team's going to the Super Bowl. Yeah, but this makeshift offensive line with injuries, with having to use a sixth lineman, with guys out of position,

let me ask you this. Do you try to trade Titus Howard? That's actually a question they're going to have to figure out. out because they might have to restructure him. They are not in a good cap spot right now. They can do a lot of restructures to get in a better cap space. And if he has no interest in that,

that's a Laramie Tunsel waiting to happen again. Yeah. Because you had a mediocre offensive line and you trade your best line in the office. He's been good when you when you kicked him into tackle. He's been, I mean, excuse me, into guard. He's been pretty good. Okay. That was what got feelings this week. Thank you very much for those that contributed. The news at noon is up

next 1158 here on the Matt Thomas show. with Ross 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Do we celebrate Indiana's national championship with a little John Cougar Malen camp? Why are you laughing? I don't know. That's just funny.

Can't celebrate with that girl from Miami. Well, I'll tell you what. A listener that messages me from time of times said yesterday, open with Fernando by Abba. And I literally said better than John Cougar Mellencamp. Or if I said better than John Mellencamp. So it's funny you say that.

Do we even have any highlights of the game in the system? I'm guessing not. We can get some. All right. My computer just died. How did your computer just die? You didn't touch it. Hello?

Are we on the ear? Yeah. Look at my screen. Maybe the monitor just died because Jonathan moved. I know, is he frozen? No, he's there. Thank you. All right. I'm going to put you guys to work.

What the hell is going on in here? I love pink. I don't like Abba's Fernando. I just don't like it. Can we play Pink Houses with a couple of Indiana highlights to honor the news at noon next here on 790? This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. And what a voice. And John Cougar's pretty good too.

Ah! I want to tell you something right now. This may be one of my 10 favorite non-Beal songs. of all time. Really? Yes. I have been in love with this song for decades.

Okay. Matter of fact, John Cougar Mellencamp is going to be in Houston on her tour on August 6th. Now, granted, that voice is probably nothing close to what you just heard.

It gets some backing vocals from the band and lift them up. Jonathan, you just heard Pink Houses? Will you be going to this concert with me? I've heard this song before, but I'm not sitting through that. That's going to be a long,

slow concert. I would assume if Jason... You can go with Vanessa. Vanessa's invited. She's a big Cougar Mellon campaign. She's not a... No. What's the difference between John Mellencamp and John Cougar Mank?

I don't know if she's a big J.C.M. fan. I thought she's in Indiana. Yeah, but it doesn't mean you're like everybody that's from there. You okay? Uh-oh. Oh, we got a goal scored. Goal! Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God. Goll, God, God, God, God. Go, goal, goal, goal, goal. Gold, there's goals. Bolo glimt. Goz, des goals. Stop.

Why are you rubbing it in just because you know I'm rooting for a city? This is messed up. I already suffered enough. I got up at 6.30 for that crappy Manchester Derby where they got destroyed. Now they're getting my ass kick and Matt's rubbing it in watching this Champions League game. This is bad. Time now for the news of noon at 1208 here on Sports Talk. The news of news is...

I'm going home. That's the news? Yeah. All right. Yes, you just heard the highlights there, Matthew. The Indiana Hoosiers win the national championship over the Miami Hurricanes. Many Hurricanes fans upset, but there is a new kid in town. And it's the Indiana Hoosiers.

Kurt Signetti and his squad getting the victory 27 to 21. You had Fernando Mendoza. with a decent enough game, 186 yards. He also had a rushing touchdown. Kind of a close one. Hoosiers get to win. 150 to 1 in the preseason to win it all. That would be like the Phoenix Suns winning the NBA championship this year.

Wow, good pull on that one. So if the Phoenix Suns won the NBA championship, that's how unbelievable it would be. Congratulations to the Indiana Hoosiers, their first championship. And by the way, this was their first conference championship. since 1967. It's a new era in college football. Everybody, as long as you have a really good coach and good players, has a shot. And would you like to know who the favorites are to win the national championship next year?

I have been for you. Oh, my God. What now? They score again. Goal. Goad days, goals. Goals, days, goals. Goal days, goals.

Two-nothing, bod. Two-nothing, bod. Bad. That's what I said, Bob. All right. Back to more important things. Oh, my God. The favorites.

Oh, my God. To win college football's national championship next year. The University of Texas Longhorns. Oh, let me guess they're going to be preseason number one like they were this year. I told you, I ain't getting my hopes up. I'm not saying a word. I'm not saying Texas is back until they are literally lifting the college football playoff national championship trophy again, whenever that may be, if ever.

The top five. Georgia at five, Notre Dame four, Indiana three, Ohio State two, Texas one. Among other schools that you'd be made interested in. LSU is six to finish, six favorite, Alabama seventh, Texas Tech eighth, Texas A&M is 10th. And I go a little further down. The University of Houston, if you want to put a power play on this with a hashtag good value, the Cougars are 200 to 1 to win the national championship. So you're saying there's a championship.

chance. Yes, sorry, Matt. Yeah, Ross is clearly flustered. This team... I don't want to talk about it. Is there anything I do to fix this? It's a terrible Norwegian team they're losing to. This is not acceptable.

This would be like losing to an FCS team. This is literally FCS versus Power 4 right now. Are you sure this is live, by the way? Yes. Yes, I'm positive. All right, sorry. All right. elsewhere, Matt, in the news.

How about the Titans hiring 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Sala as their head coach? And apparently it's universally very well received, right? I guess things went south quickly with the Jets, but it's the Jets. Five-year

contract according to Adam Schaefter. And there was an interesting, now I want to make sure, because I get Schifter and Rappaport confused sometimes. How could you not? they I think it was Rappaport Sala finally has his quarterback

or he's in a spot with a quarterback said Ian Rappaport Oh Cam Ward's the guy huh Okay I thought that was an interest Is this some water carrying We have plenty of that in Houston Yeah I thought that was a little weird

Here it is Robert Sala lands a second chance At a head coaching job This time with a QB To be determined on that by the way Water carrying for an agent. What does it sound like? Absolutely.

That's what it sounds like to me. All right. So there you go. Robert Sala is the head coach for the Tennessee Titans. Also, Matt, unfortunate news in the NBA, Jimmy Butler, suffering a season-ending torn right-A-L last night in a win over the Miami Heat

and throwing the future direction of the franchise into question, according to the CSPN article. And staying with the NBA, the Rockets and the Spurs play tonight. Saita Center. The Spurs winning last night in San Antonio over Utah by 13. Victor Wembeyanama had seven three

pointers. That was a season high. Eight is his career high. He also had besides the 33 points, 10 rebounds. He had two blocks. He is now shooting 40% from three point range. Not bad for

a bum. Not bad for the bum. Someone's called him a bum and a stiff. Said he wasn't going to be any good. he's doing all right he also averages 2.6 blocks per game he has played in 29 games he has 76 blocks I know we wanted him here in houston and we're bitter that he's in san Antonio but he's must watch television i will be in the building in Toyota and i'm hoping he crashes and falls i mean night like fall let me tell you i'm gonna say it hold on you're rooting for all those thunder injuries now you're rooting for wimby injuries too yes i'm rooting for a three of eleven with a turn calf oh well he

already had a calf injury earlier this season. Oh, so they're saying it a chance. I'm just saying. I guess you can't turn a calf. You could bruise it. Yeah, I mean, you could pull it. Well, let's pull a calf tonight. You could get a grade two hamstring strain. Love it. I love all those things.

Rockets in fifth, so it'd be a nice win to get as they are three and a half games behind the spurs who are second in the West. Let's go. Six o'clock with the launch pad with your host, Ross Ville. And also in the news, Bodo Glimt, the Norwegian football club is beating Manchester freaking city who is second in the Premier League I'm going to stick with it

this is like an FCS team being up two touchdown Is this what the kids call a friendly? No, this is the Champions League This is the biggest tournament in Europe Sorry for that All right, Ross needs a break because he's pouting about something

I don't even know what he's upset about 713-212-5-790 7-13-212-5-790 We brought up a topic today on the show that is worthy of a repeat. When a quarterback crashes and burns, how often do they come back? We're asking that because there's some serious conversation

that's got to be held in the Texans building about just that conversation piece. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-790. It's 1214. It's Matt Thomas Show at Ross, and this is Sports Talk 790. All right, I'm not happy.

You're not happy about your sports. soccer squad. So I didn't want to tell on this person. But Craig and I sometimes take Ubers and lifts to games ahead of time. And it was my turn to buy. We went from our hotel in Portland

to the arena in Portland. Which is about no more than a 10-minute drive. And the guy got us almost lost. Scenic route. He almost took us the wrong direction towards I-5 towards north towards Seattle. I mean, he took us way off the beating pass.

So I didn't tip the... I almost swore. Woo, language, Matthew. I just checked my Uber rating. I went down from a 4.90 to a 4.89. Suck it, Uber drivers. If you don't get us there in a very quick period of time, you're not getting a tip.

Sorry. Ugh. I'd be lucky that I even paid for the damn bill. I was pissed. I'm madder now. I'm sorry, Matt. No, you're not. You don't care.

You're happy. I'm not happy. I don't care about your Uber rating. I got a perfect 5-0-0 on Lyft. That's good. I'm proud of you, Matt. Suck it, Uber. Lift for life.

I have a 4-97 on Uber. Do you lift? Five. Okay, good. You must have to really be a jack-hold. I think everybody's five on, I'll tell you why, because I tried to give somebody like three stars on Lyft. It's like the Spanish Inquisition.

They try to keep everybody high-rated. Okay, I'd go with that. They're like, what happened? And how can you do this? And what, I'm like, well, I can't remember what it was. Oh, I think I talked about it on air. It was the old man who, like, should not have been driving. who got he was taking the wrong thing he wasn't merging he was driving slow he was driving skittish

and in houston texas you cannot drive skittish well i'm just you know what anywhere i auto tip on lift i don't think i can auto tip on uber but i can auto tip on lift so that's easy for me yeah i didn't get because i was mad i was like you use uber a lot i use lift 75% of the time maybe even 80 because sometimes i find gift card deals i'll let you know 15 bucks hundred dollars for 85 Listener Mike who just sent me a message on Instagram. He's not, he can't call, but he says, hey, what are the odds they trade Straub plus another picker two for the top pick of Mendoza? That would put that at zero percent. I don't think Stroud's going to have.

Stroud doesn't have trade value. Trade value. Now, he has a rookie contract. Rookie contracts are good. Somebody was mentioning the Steelers. I mean, he could have some trade value. But then you're starting from scratch. Man.

No, no, no. This is the thing. Yeah, you're right. You can't start from scratch. You've already, would you say it before the little stock tip you gave us earlier? Sunk cost fallacy. There you go. Sunk cost fallacy.

I should do your phrase the day. This is, okay, you know what I was about to say out loud, but I just had to stop myself? Go ahead. I was going to say out loud, you can win with C.J. Stroud with a good situation. Now, he didn't have a great situation offensively, but you had an all-time defense. Why would any team want to trade for a guy who had a horrific playoff game, knowing in two years you're going to have to pay him $55 million? Where's Bobby Slowick?

Well, he was on, he was on Miami's staff in Miami, but so I don't know, he's a free agent. Maybe if Bobby Sloak was somewhere and could convince somebody that he's going to, you can win with him to where you need to be Sam Darnel. Sam Darnel had 25, what was it, what did I bring it up? What was it, 25 touchdowns 14 picks this year? Sam Darnel wasn't great. But Seattle had a pretty good situation around him.

They had the number one defense according to different metrics that you look at. Jackson Smith and Jigba. Good running game with Walker and now Charbonnet's hurt. By the way, I got two offensive coordinators out there looking for work today. That's another interesting conversation. Joe Brady and Mike McDaniel are out there. That's another situation we could be talking about here. Nick Cayley, you're a sweet fellow.

Bye. You know, because here's, let me be brutally honest with you here for a second. If you are unsure of CJ's long-term forecast, wouldn't it be in your best interest to put one of the, brightest minds in football from an offensive perspective and say, we've given you, like, it'd be like a salesperson who you just think's got a chance, but he doesn't have the computer programs. It doesn't, doesn't the data. I mean, you need to give this person, everything, a support staff.

Nick Cayley, I don't want to say overmatched, but too young, too inexperienced, C.J. needs a lift, me up and Brady and McDaniel could do that. You write a blank check for those two guys to go replace Nick Cayley so then you can say we did everything on our power to prove that we've given him the right resources. We're going to invest in the offensive line in the free agent and in the draft. We're going to invest in a new running bag. We're going to hopefully that Jaden Higgins and Jalen Knoll can be the great second or third round picks that we thought they were going to be.

We're doing everything on our power. for CJ to be the guy. Experienced, knowledgeable play caller who has had success in other places does it for me to say, yes, CJ, you have everything in place. Now go take your natural, God-given abilities and become a better quarterback than you were last year. I'm with you. And I kind of posted out that, and then people, I was getting pushback from people with a couple of things. Oh, you don't want to C.J. Stroud to have a third offensive coordinator in three years. It doesn't matter.

Mike McDaniel and Bobby Sloak are going to be very similar. They're off the Shanahan tree. It's going to be outside zone stuff, and I imagine most of the nomenclature and all that stuff is going to be similar, if not the exact same. So I'm not worried about that. And number two, as far as overhauling the offensive line, we've got to go to an outside zone system with the offensive line.

Offensive line needs overhauling anyways. So I'm sorry. If you've got a general manager who I believe, you don't believe it, I do, you got a general manager who should be worried about his job, and you got a quarterback who needs. needs a good year to get a big contract, you need a better support staff. Now, it doesn't mean Nick Cayley, eight years from now,

can't be the most incredible offensive play calling NFL. But for 2026, right, it needs to be better. Where you need to be winning now with this defense the way they are before you have to pay everyone, before Lasseter starts holding out, before Will Anderson situation gets bad, before DeNeil Hunter gets older, which he already is, and he has one more year on his deal.

Yeah. You're a strike now. Window. How many times we have to say about the windows in the NFL and how fast they close? You realistically have a one-year window before difficult conversations even become more difficult. And I'm telling you, Molligetto's coming for the money. He's like the Scott Boris. When you want every single dollar out of that turnip, right? Turnup, right?

Sure. Blood out of the turnip or something like that? You want the blood out of the turnip. Sure, why not? You want everything out of Hannah's... exclusive Neiman Marcus account, you put people around him to make him better. Because I'm telling

you friends, if you're a Houston Texans fan, which clearly many of you are, it is in the team's best interest for CJ to bounce back. It just is. Phones are next, 1228 on Sports Talk 790. You folks want to speak, we're going to listen to you. Ross, believe it or not today, all

things about the Indiana Hoosiers. They are college football's national champion. 713-212-5-790. Kenneth with us on the Matt Thomas show. Kenneth, thanks for holding and good afternoon. Okay, y'all bringing up about as any quarterback ever made a show and after being on the skisd. Yeah.

I think of Kurt Warner. Kurt Waller was a 100% pedestrian quarterback and he ended up making a comeback and getting the Super Bowl. But what I'm really thinking is, man, is that Nick Casario got a history of keeping seats warm. like until he gets somebody so i think he's going to end up uh doing a number on the quarterback like he did with uh culli and uh bring somebody in up off of the couch and uh

we'll be uh looking over a t j's shoulder thank you thank you for the phone call all right do you want to guess what that beeping was in the background a forklift backing up okay that's probably the chalk pick right A forklift or something backing up. I mean, if he's a delivery truck. If he's in a forklift doing that. I don't think he's calling us from a forklift. But I mean, I hope he's on a hands free.

We have a lot of 18 wheel. I mean, people drive around and listen to the radio. We have a lot of drivers. Shout out to all our drivers out there. Love the drivers. Appreciate you all. But have a headset on. I just want to, I don't want you operating a forkcliff with one hand of the phone.

Yeah, I think he probably had a Bluetooth. Yeah, I think I said this yesterday. If the Texans move away from CJ, which again, I'm still going to tell you this, In the long term, it's not the best situation. They'll go get some. It's already been an NFL quarterback. That's what you need with this defense where you are right now. You don't want to restart with a...

You don't want to be going Cam Ward or whatever. Trying to figure out if he's the guy. Because you're starting the whole process all over again. You know what you're going to do. You're going to wind up getting a mid-level quarterback who makes mid-level money. You're going to go wind up getting... Who could I give you as a cop? A Mac Jones is a name that keeps coming to mind for me.

I know, but Mac Jones probably going to be somewhere else by the time you make that decision. Could you imagine, is Mac Jones going to be backing up again in San Francisco again? I think he's a... I go look at it. I don't know Mac Jones is a contract situation. I'm sorry, Matt. I'll go look it up.

I think he's a free agent after this year. That's what I'm saying. I think waiting around for Mac Jones wouldn't be the solution. If you don't want to wait around. Justin Fields? No, stop. Who would be somebody that's out there? I'm not talking about my back.

I'm talking about somebody that's the current. started the NFL that this two has this time has passed let's go somewhere else was it a one year deal for Daniel Jones he's showing up on spot track as a free agent yeah maybe did be a Daniel Jones type player you're going to get the next

starting quarterback for the Texans if things do fall apart for CJ is somebody with experience they're not going the rookie route uh this list is pretty bad Malik Willis how you a couple of good games with the Packers you just now you're just trying to ache me on

Daniel Jones, Aaron Rogers, Mariotta, no, Russell Wilson, Toro Taekelaloa, Joe Flacco. Tagavalao makes too much money. I don't think he, it's going to cause him a $90 cap hit to let him go. He's getting another year. Yeah.

Let's go to Jose on 790. Jose, thanks for warning. What's going on? Stick with CJ. With Chos, good afternoon. Hi. Quick question. We're not even a question, but when Stroud got drafted,

I know he came from Ohio. State, Ohio State doesn't have a good record of quarterback scoring pro. What if he goes and becomes the job of throwing too many interceptions? Well, I don't want you to think about Ohio State anymore

because CJ Stroud ended that thought of Ohio State quarterbacks can't lead because he had a fantastic rookie season. So it's not an if-then statement. If you play at Ohio State means you're going to be a Lazi NFL quarterback. That was just a bad run. He was spectacular, his rookie season,

and no one even worried about where he played his college football. So let that out of your mind. Let me ask the Fletcher running back for Miami. I believe he's going to be able to go pro. Is there any likelihood that Houston would look into drafting him? I don't know where he is penciled in draft-wise. Again, I don't know enough about him in more Portland. You're building your big board, Matt.

I need to build my big board. Thank you for the phone call, Jose. They're going offensive line in the first round. I'm sorry. They need to. They're just going to. I mean, I know you need an RB1, but you could probably get that in the second round.

I mean, that's where those running backs have been stashed the last few years. You need to go get some offensive line help. Let me tell you, Nikki C's been wearing it out about the fact that you can't draft offensive lineman. You're going to have to keep doing it until you finally strike gold. You just are. Yeah, Jeremiah Love is thought of as a, I'm just looking up, some big boards. Jeremiah Love from Notre Dame, the running back has been very good.

I don't see. I guess the question would be, just because you've got a board of running backs, that's good, but where are they anticipating on being drafted? I'm trying to pull this up. Because I haven't done any draft. No, we will get to the draft stuff, I promise you. We'll actually probably do some pretty good. And, again, the Texans with their record.

They're not going to be, you know, they went to the divisional round. It feels like a sweet spot for an offensive line. It just does. Let's go to on 790 at 1237 to the Reverend KJ. KJ, what's going on? Hey, afternoon, fellows, afternoon. Real quick, I think I need to throw a ticker tape parade

and follow for the executive ward. think this is actually the first time to me and Matt, I mean, me and Ross agreed on something. I think... Oh, no, I might be wrong. Yeah, you might be out. Well, actually, I'll be able to be in unison on this.

Oh, that's... Well, shut up. Are you in the bathroom? Are you in the bathroom? KJ. What are you doing? Man, I'm on my way out to go for work, man. I'm doing that I'm doing after a joke for work. All right.

All right. Well, I did it when it do, believe that you guys are on to something because if they take the philosophy or the approach as y'all mentioned about just going out in trying to upgrade the offensive line getting a quality backup

quarterback no disrespect to David Mills and he did a good job for us but he doesn't have enough pelt's on the wall to me to be considered a veteran quarterback and go all in on whatever other positions they need addressing basically what you're doing at that point

is you're basically sitting in a message to see that. Okay, look, we got this, you got take their

back, you got the show's back. We went upgraded the office of the line, XYZ. So your

success or failures this year, not necessarily for a pay-cally standpoint, but from a performance

standpoint on the field, it's going to be solely up to you. And how you play on this field is

going to determine how many comments you get in that paycheck. And in addition to that, I actually saw

some of the shortcomings that ZZ had this season last season, but it was masked a lot

because you had Joe Nixon out of the backfield still breaking off touchdown ones to kind of cover up some of the shortcomings that we saw this year. So in addition to everything you guys mentioned, I think we also need to go all in on the workforce running back. Who can again kind of alleviate some of the

Woody Marks is good, but Woody Marks and I've talked to the Rockwood Championship team. So again, man, shout out to y'all boys. Hey, Rounce. Your brother's not, man. Talk to you later, man. Talk to you later, man. All right. See you later. Thank you, KJ.

Yeah, I got, we're dealing with absolutes here. You absolutely must get, and they may not do it, but they absolutely have to improve their offensive, play calling, coaching situation. You've got two guys out there that you can write a blank check to. You just can't. And that they go somewhere else a year from now because they're NFL coaches, that's fine. But this is such a pivotal year. The number two thing you got to get, you got to get a better running back core.

You just do. You also, yeah, Nick Casario. I wonder at the conversations. I'm talking about Nick Cayley. do you want to admit a mistake that fast? A good leader would do that. Good leadership is being able to admit mistakes and move on. That's what the Patriots did.

Gerard Mayo, bye. One year. One year. Love you. Vrable you're in. And Mayo was highly regarded too, but sometimes you make mistakes. Don't let your girlfriend keep you from finding your wife. I feel like I'm listening to Dr. Laure over here.

People don't even know who Dr. Laura is. I was arguing with people about the Mike McDaniel thing, and that's, there was that type of situation. Hey, you know what? Maybe Nick Caleb's good. Maybe it's going to work out. I think Mike McDaniel. Joe Brady, too. Out.

Joe Brady's good. These guys are going to find work. Well, Brian Dable might end up back in Buffalo. We'll see what's going on there. Sifansky's already taken, unfortunately. I don't know who else is out there and available. Nick Cayley did get better as a year got along. I don't think either of these two losses we're not putting on Nick Cayley.

I'm not two losses. I keep thinking of the state of coverage. It felt like. a loss. The way that C.J. Stroud played, it felt like either of these two bad offensive performances, not on Nick Cayley. If Dimeco

goes to Hannah and says, we got a broken quarterback. Don't you bring in the best specialist and the best doctors? You have to be talking about this. They all have to be honest with each other. So you're going to go with your general practitioner when you have a chance to have a specialist come in from out of town to work with your guy and make you feel

better and I don't mean to get a medical on you, but. I'm it's interesting I'm not saying there's some kind of don't you feel like everybody could be pointing fingers though let's say everybody comes in

oh I got one for you everybody meets with Hannah yeah Nick Casario could be like you know what yeah play calling wasn't where we needed to be it can be a little bit better you know my guys weren't put in the right position Nick Kayla comes in meets with Hannah

hey you know what look at this offensive line look at these past catchers look at the running back you gave me look at the running back you gave me you got old ass Nick Chub coming here want to be a primary ball, Kenner, what are you nuts? Demico Ryan's

meeting with Hannah. Look at Nick Cayley, you know, he's just starting out as a play caller. Is Nicky's guy. And look at Nicky's and look at Nicky's see, look at this offensive line they gave us a workout. Everybody who could potentially meet up with Cal and Hannah while Cal is reading Curious George in the

corner, they could be talking about how pointing the fingers at the other. Everybody's got a case. Absolutely, they could be. Well, nobody's really got a case, I guess, pointing a finger at D'Amico, but everyone else, game management. Oh, everybody can point a finger. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Nikki C is pointing at D. D.M.C. is pointing at D.M.C.'s of game management. By the way. Yes, yes, you're right. Everybody who's meeting with them can be pointing a finger. By the way, I finally had that DJB enemy tweet, that punt late fourth quarter. The second time this century, a team has punted down two scores in the final five minutes of a playoff game. The previous time was the Panthers in Super Bowl 50. They punted down 14 points on.

fourth and 24 from their own six yard line with 208 left. How many timeouts did they have? That's what I want to know. I'm going to go look that up. I'm literally pulling it up. 2016, you said? Yeah. Super Bowl 50, so 10 years ago. I'm going to go see how many timeouts they had. Again, there's no way they had. This century, a team has punted down

two scores in the final five minutes of a playoff game. And how many timeouts of the Panthers have? Back on the phones next. 1244 is our time. believe it or not today all things about Indiana football. This is Sports Talk 790. With Ross, we thank you very much for being a part of our show today. We're with you until 2 o'clock. 713212-5-790. 7132-1-2-790. I don't know if anybody's going to particularly care about this, but I'll at least pass it along. The NBA final schedule is out. Game 2 will be on my birthday. Hopefully the rockets are involved in it.

That's when they go up 2-0. That's when they go 2-0. On the Pistons, heading home. Oh, I like it. Wednesday, Friday, Monday. That's two days off in between. Then Wednesday. Then two more off days a Saturday. Then two more off days a Tuesday.

Two more off days a Friday. Okay. And it ends in September? They're avoiding Sunday for the first time since 1970. Okay. I'm ready. Let's go. I need it.

It'll be on ABC, ESPN? Just ABC. Oh. Not both? Maybe they'll do like a special cast or something. Let me be cool. They'll do a... Like maybe a Mike and Matty T. cast.

This is unconscionable. I cannot believe the Detroit Pistons are giving the ball away like this. Not terrible. Thank you. Not your best. That's fine. Let's go to Charles on 790 at 1249. Charles, what's on your mind?

I'm a Cleveland Brown fan and from Ohio we've seen CJ enough he already mentioned his Ohio State he had the best receivers in the world at Ohio State and he couldn't win the big ones but my question

why didn't the Texans try running the ball more that's a typical northern type football game and I know we can say they couldn't do this couldn't do that but big linemen like to just bump and bump and push Woody Marks had 14 carries for 17 yards

Nick Chubb had four for 14. They ran the ball 22 times, but two of those were Cades Dover on a, on the, what do you call it, Tish Push, and two were C.J. Strouds Campbell. So overall, they ran the ball 18 times with their running backs, which is not nothing for 31 yards. But here's the other side of that. And these games, these cold weather games are one in the fourth quarter. you know and it's if you run the ball this way i've seen it Stephansky well he had the best uh what i want to say line coach up there

callahan you run that ball you'll wear that defensive lying down they ran the ball for 1.5 yards per carry i they were down two scores they were down two scores what don't you comprehend two scores is not insurmountable in a game like they're not running the ball come on come on dude seriously we just gave you 18 carries for 25 yards or whatever hell it was. 31. I'm off of my yard. Trust me. They weren't, they don't have any running backs. That's what we're

talking about, man. They don't have any running backs. They need RB1. You know that. You're a smart guy. What's wrong with Nick Chub this year? He's slow and can't move. He's wrecked his knee twice. You've got better cartilage than he does. I don't even know how old you are.

I'll tell you, they could have won that game. If they had Callahan at the line code. If they could have changed. changed line coach. You know what? I'm with you, Charles. I appreciate it. They could have changed line coaches in the middle of the playoffs. Who's the guy they got, Popovich? Yeah, Cole Popovich. Cole Popovich. Welcome back, Maddie.

Thank you. Come on, folks. This is about your quarterback, your leader, not performing. Hesitating on open pass routes. The running game wasn't doing much. Much, zero.

You can't. Also, I mean, CJ Stratel. wasn't getting any help from his running game. That's also true. And you needs help. You're not staying on schedule. When you run for negative three yards on first down and it's second and 13, everybody knows that they're going to be passing. What was the longest run of the game in that game? C.J. Stroud's 10-yard scramble.

Other than that, Woody Marks had an 8-yard gain. Chubb had a 7-yard gain. Those are each of their two longest. Cades Stover on one of his tush push. Cades over on 2. Tush pushes had three yards. Had three yards per carry, which is more than your running backs had on their 18 carries. Yeah. Them running the football would have been to the caller's point.

It would have been great. It would have been awesome. It just wasn't happening. No, the offense was a generally speaking, a complete dud. It was a complete utter dud. And yes, running backs do make a difference. And running the ball would be fantastic. You just don't have the firepower to do it.

offensive line is mid. Your running backs are below average. Woody Marks would not start for any other NFL team. That's just the gods on his truth. And he wasn't supposed to be your starter. And he even said it. No, he didn't say it. He thought about it. He didn't say it. No, of course he said it.

Take me out, Coach. Yeah, I'm good for like, he takes a break every game. He goes to the blue tent, hangs out for a little while. That's rude. And not nice. Paul on 790 and 1253. Hello, Paul. Hey.

What's going on, man? I think you're probably right about this C.J. Stroud not having a whole lot of trade value, but I would concentrate on next year. You know, obviously everybody says the quarterbacks are coming out next year. C.J. Stroud still has some potential trade value. Not much. But there are several teams up there at the front of that line this year that need quarterbacks, and there ain't any to draft.

I would concentrate on the Jets. I would concentrate on the Jets. They have three number one picks next year. If you could somehow sweeten the pot and get the Jets to take C.J. Stratk because they're not getting Mendoza and there's not a clear number two. Trade this guy to the Jets. Try to get one of those number ones for next year.

Hopefully the Jets, if you can, if not the second, but I don't know what other two teams they have, but if you could get either the Jets pick or the second pick, because you know as well as I do, these teams turn around now in one year. It ain't a guarantee that any of those teams are going to be up in the top of the draft, except for the Jets. They are an atrocity.

They're an embarrassment. All right, so hold on. So you're telling me, C.J. Stroud to the Jets for the number two pick in the draft. That's not what I said. I said not for this year. Next year's draft. Their pick are the second pick that they have. They have three number ones.

They have three number ones. Their pick is going to be the best one. If you can't get that one, get the next one. But somebody, they could take C.J. Stroud. You could sweeten the pot enough for them to take him because they don't have one to take this year. and all I'm saying is he's not going to work and you can still he's still got two years on that rookie contract

and you mentioned a couple of the free agents this year and all you got to do if you could get a tick for next year and get a quarterback next year all you would need was one of those free agents for a two-year contract for this year and next and if you don't want to play the guy you draft but you mentioned too that I would probably, and let's be honest, if you do this soon enough,

when that free agent market hits, that Houston job will be the top job for any of those free agent quarterbacks. And Malik Willis or Matt Jones were the two of the best ones that you mentioned out of all that group. Look, I would tell you right now, you don't won right. You don't one this year with Malik Willis. No, you wouldn't have. He's not an NFL quarterback.

I thank you, Paul, for the first. phone. Malik Willis is not an NFL quarterback. No, sir, no chance, no way. I've watched him enough, and all of you have to. You put your name on that a while, yeah. I put my name on that one. Malik Willis ain't going to get you squat. Three touchdowns, no picks this year. And how many games? Four?

Ooh, 12 yards in a temp. Beast. Now you're just trying to egg me on, aren't you? I would never do that. Yeah, you do it daily. How do I phrase this? CJ had two terrible playoff games in a row. Now, against not the greatest defenses on the planet. Now, Steelers are good, but let me stay with us.

Go ahead. If you said, I can fix him, or you said, hey, maybe there is a change of scenery scenario, the culture's not bad for him here. The people around them aren't great. The players. The players. But it ain't about a toxic culture.

It ain't about hesitation about whether they like him. And D'Amico probably goes overboard and loving on the guy. At least publicly he does. If you were to make a trade for CJ, which I don't believe would be the case, you're going to trade back just, it would be very much a Matthew Stafford, Jared, golf type deal. It just would be. We're going to trade what we think is a guy past his prime for a guy we're going to hopefully catch that maybe catch lightning in a bottle somewhere else. Jared Koff has been great with a great running game, great offensive line, great weapons around him.

Yeah. I think C.J. Stroud could be great in that type of situation. It's just not here. It's not here right now. Can C.J. Stroud handle the pressure ultimately? A better offensive line? Does he make the more keen throw? Does he make the more accurate throws?

My guess is yes. Jared Gough, 34 touchdowns, eight picks this year. That's great. I don't think either side's particularly unhappy with those deals. I mean, hell, the Rams won a Super Bowl off of that trade. About to go maybe go to a second one. It might be two. So, as preposterous as it sounds,

first of all, I don't believe CJ is going to be traded under any circumstances. I'd put it at 1%. Mm-hmm. But you'd be getting. back comparable value in return. If you're the Jets and you're trying to start from scratch, which you literally are, you're not giving up the number two pick.

Or next year, you're not giving up a high draft pick for a guy who has melted like butter in the playoffs. No, nobody's getting multiple firsts for CJ Stroud. His stock is at an all, this is the lowest his stock has ever been right now. That's why if you think CJs, you're from a distance going, I can get this,

then you go get it when the stock is low. And he's on a rookie contract for two years, and ultimately you could franchise second for two more. But again, if he comes back and bounces back, then he's going to want the crazy money. Which would be a good problem to have if you're Houston. You'll pay that crazy money. You're saying.

You're saying now and just won't pay him crazy money. That's what you're saying. I'm saying that I don't know what you're going to do. Just don't take the phone call from David Mulligetta, his agent. Just don't do it. All right. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross continues in a moment here on Sports Talk 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. All right, Bob leaves MCI by a score 3 to 1. Some guy got Red Card is. He's out. You guys are down to man. You're screwed. Oh, my God. 28 throws it over to 11, number 11

kicks it to the back corner and then it gets... Keep Jackson on the call. Oh, my God. Oh, that kick in a kick save. Turn this. I got to turn this. I'm turning this off from my own mental health. Could put some old match? Put some old match. Oh, God.

Put some old prices rights on for me. This is an embarrassment. All right. Matt and Ross with the final hour. We got, believe it or not, all things about Indiana coming up. Last, Yes. Undefeated national champions in basketball, Indiana University, 1976.

Is that true? I think. Last football undefeated national champion, 2006, Indiana University football. insane. Great for them. Great parody in the NIL era. All right now, first blush. University of Texas or the field for the national championship next year?

Come on. Oh, stop. Oh, please. I would take you major with a field for basketball. There is no way. Okay. Let's bet. Side order of fries.

You just said, oh, you're such a fraud. That's my favorite. When I get you to fold like the fraud you are within seconds. I bet you fries for it. All right, I'm writing it now. Is that a French fries? Yeah. I get the field.

You get the field. I get, yeah. Okay. Can I get some odds? You just said the field. Is it 4-1 now? Okay, never mind. That's a replay.

No one of you stopping your tracks. Your love for this sport is maddening. I'm trying to turn this off. Oh, have you getting your World Cup tickets for Houston yet? No, I'm not going. Too expensive? it's pretty pricey. It's also like Portugal versus

like Macedonia. Who's your team out? In order to get tickets, you had to go into like all these lotos and I just didn't, I didn't do that. By the way, I'm in the lotos with me, my wife, and her two of her best friends for LA Olympics 2028.

Now I will not be going. I'm just going to I'll just get the tickets to them or something, but I have no interest in going. Yeah, my team is USA. Who's your second who's your second team? Mexico. Okay. And third? I'll go with Well, maybe I'll go with Norway because Erling Holland, Oscar Bob,

some Manchester City players are there. I'm rooting for Ireland in the World Cup. Ireland? Yeah. Did they make it? I don't know. I know Scotland did for the first time in a while. Oh, Scotland?

Okay, I'll go with any of those. That's good. Let's go to the phone, talked to some great people of Houston, Texas. Who's that, by the way? Oh, yeah, she's nice. I can't remember her name, but she's nice. All right, so they bumped off Young and the Restless

and Bold and Beautiful for this game. That is so weird how CBS does that. This is not regular CBS, right? Yeah Kate Scott She's British But isn't it weird how programmers go What do you mean

Like if you're a midday viewer on CBS I don't think I don't know this is on regular CBS Oh okay I was gonna say if it's on CBS KHU11 is beyond the gates Oh that's yeah it's a regular It's a make a deal Yeah so this must be CBS Is this PBS Sports Network or what is this?

Paramount Plus Oh Paramount Plus We've got all the channels here don't we You can be all right Yeah turn it off Turn that off. I'm not letting you watch this. They're going to come back. Oh, my God. Let's go to the phones.

Talk to Micah on 790. Micah at 108. Thank you for waiting and good afternoon. Hey, man. A long-time listener. Not a first-time caller, but it's been a minute. I wanted to speak up for CJ. I feel like everywhere I turn, whether it's 6-10 or 790,

everyone kind of has the same sentiment. You know, I'm about all of 23, and I know ball. When it comes down to the procurement process for the offensive coordinators and any kind of, whether it's conditioning coaches, we kind of just pick up these guys off the street and we plug and play them, and none of them fit. The stuff that CJ was doing in Ohio State, we just had a caller from Cleveland.

He didn't know a damn thing from football. He said that CJ should have won that game. Well, last time I checked, CJ doesn't kick field goals. He doesn't call the plays. He doesn't do the installs. He doesn't do the conditioning. He does what he's supposed to do. do. He throws the ball. He runs when he

can't, and he's running for his life 95% of the time when he has a chance. The way the offense is supposed to work is running the ball to open up the past game. We don't have anybody that strikes fear in any defense. So what they're going to do is they're going to blitz and they're going to get into the teeth of CJ

every time. They're going to hit him in his mouth because they can give a damn or a rat's ass about any old running back that we have, whether that is Nick Chub. And not saying Woody's bad, but he's more sober. feeding back. He's an elusive guy. He's a contact guy, too,

but he's more so used for that. He's not a three-downback, in my opinion. You know, what we need to do in the draft is evaluate running backs like Jeremiah Love. You know, it's a consistent blame game when it comes down

to the quarterback position. We've watched bad quarterbacks, and we know what bad quarterbacks are in Houston. We've watched TJ Yates. We've watched Brock Oswald. Waller. We've watched Brian Hoyer, and we've watched shitty quarterback play. I'm sorry for Curson. Oh, you can't do that, so, uh, yeah, well. It's the truth. We've watched it. So what we need to do is we need to bring the right guys in,

like Bruce Ariens in order to grill a bit. Bruce Ariens. Yeah, I mean, this guy is retired. Bruce Ariens is like 75 years old. He is, but he can be a consultant. Y'all, I've heard people throw out QViac's name for God's okay. Well, they're wrong. They're idiots. No, no, I can throw out, uh, Charles Manson's name. I mean, I want to do that. You think Charles Manson would get a lot? Is he a lie? No, he's not a lot. I don't think so. Okay. Okay. He's not the coach. He'll be more so

of a consultant guy. He groomed Andrew Luck. He groomed Peyton. He groomed Ben Rothesburg. He groomed Carson Palmer. You need to bring in guys that can get him to the next level. And we don't have that in Nick Kaylee. And Nick Cayley never

played quarterback in his life. More does he know how to get to him and and elevate his game. We need to get that into this building. It's not just the quarterback. It's all around. Whatever smells at the top, it's going to smell at the bottom, but it starts at the top. And it doesn't just

start and end with CJ. He's not the whole team. And it's his... He's not the whole team. But how are you defending those four interceptions? One was off the hand of Hutchinson. That was still a high throw. Did you think that it, do you think it wasn't his fault when he's loft in the ball and not

reading the safety? Do you think it's his fault when he can't throw a simple five-yard out and he throws it into the hands of the defensive back? Is it his, is it not his fault when he's under pressure? And he's tossing up the ball up in the air. Like you're playing a game in a playground and it gets caught and taken for a pick six. That's not his fault? He doesn't have a tackle like a Trent Williams to grab him by his own.

No, he doesn't. And it's not going to happen. None of those plays are his fault. That starts with Nick Casario. You need to get the procurement process down. So Nick Casario, Nick Casario, Nick Cacario, to teach him to throw a five-yard out? Yeah.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I got you. He's been throwing football his entire life. He should know how to throw a five-yard out without throwing it to the cornerback. Come on, man. All those things are true. Running game bad.

Offensive line, bad. Play-calling, inexperience. But he's got to be better, too. These throws are just not accurate and not good enough. Come on, gang. I mean, there are elements that must be improved. From play calling to getting a legitimate RB1 to improving the offensive line. But it's not possible to get five new offensive linemen to come in and give him a chance to you to sandwich when he's in a seven-step drop.

Not the left side of the offensive line for the New England Patriot Sports RV were two rookies. We're getting a lot of push for Charles Manson's Texans O.C. I believe he's deceased. That was a randle pull on me. You okay? No, did you not like it? It kind of fit. I don't think so.

Well, he did get people to follow him. Okay, that's terrible for you to say. Point being. Whatever. Point being. Point being is that not every offensive line is handcrafted to have five all pros. They do have the worst one that was left in the playoffs. Texans and it wasn't even close.

So I don't know. But did CJ make plays during the course of the year? I mean, some. I'm telling you this, this is more about to me, hesitation, not trusting his body, not trusting his arm, not trusting his offensive line, and concussions. And asking him, you're not, I'm not asking C.J. Stroud to go out there and throw 400 yards

and four touchdowns. You're not saying, hey, C.J. Stroud, go out there and will this team to a victory, otherwise we have no shot. No. Just don't cost them the game. Don't blow the game. Don't turn the ball over four times. And then don't the week before fumble the ball five times. Make simple, fundamental throws because your offense is not asked to do much.

It really isn't. And maybe Domingo Ryan's will never ask his offense. Take a sack. Take a sack and dirt the ball. Don't throw the bad interceptions. Don't cost them the game. Because think about this. As bad as he was and as bad as the offense was,

it was a 10-point game for most of the contests, and if not less of that. They were down 8th the half, right? And now Roy wants Jeffrey Dahmer for Strength and Conditioning Coach. That says, Matt, look what you did. No, he's not putting Jeffrey Dahmer in strength of conditioning. No, I don't think so. I wish I had done better than that.

I should have given you a better comp. Yeah, thank you. What was the, I didn't even come to play. Team psychologist. How didn't even come into play? I don't remember. You? Oh, you were saying he wanted Bruce Ariens on the staff.

Gary Kubiak Yeah Mikey Micah we appreciate you and you No ball Micah we just tease him Because we love you I almost feel like we were being trolled for a second

No we were not Nobody would troll this show And by we were not digging up Bill Walsh Okay it's not happening I mean that's a great offensive mind We're not digging him up either Well we could see Never mind

I'm out here Just finish just take the log You know what You've been different since your team is down 3-1 to bod. Yeah, you know what, I am pissy. And they got a red card. They're going to lose.

It's fine. They're still going to make the knocking around. They look goofy and they're all yellow uniforms, by the way. Yeah, and they've got artificial turf in a European cup game. That's not supposed to be happening. Tisk, tisk, tisk. It's not right. Can we get some public play this if we come back?

No. We have the audio. We have a live feed. This? No, yeah, of course we do. We do. No, we do. No, we don't.

116 of the Matt Thomas show at Ross. So the word for us here for Cenergenics. Again, I apologize for bringing up Charles Manson's name. It's getting inundated. Oh, dear. Folks, it was just an example.

Yeah, I can't even read these. Y'all are warped. No more John Wayne Gasey tweets, please. And no, we're not going to wake up Bruce Ariens from his midday nap to get up on the field. Bruce Ariens is a good guy. Not going to get Eric Corrella. of San Diego. That's really inside

baseball for a lot of you there. Oh, my goodness. These facts are indisputable. I shouldn't say indisputable. Pretty close. CJ's not getting traded. CJ still has the trust of the organization.

They absolutely, for the viability of this franchise, have to trust that he can get his situation fix and be a better quarterback next year. if he's not you're all going to have a lot i told you so's but it's not going to help because that franchise will be set back it will be 100% set back if because you're going to have this great defense be gone and or hurt because that's what life does injuries happen can't stay healthy for 12

months a year you're going to be losing players because other guys are going to get paid and remember rossie you're going to be paying two guys you're going to be paying two guys guys super mega dollars in the same draft if i should say you're not going to there's a chance that could happen so you've really got to be sure that cj is your guy and he's got 2026 to prove it if not you get two options you trade him for another quarterback who's got his own issues you let him go and don't pick up the fifth year option and then you start piecemilling it together until you find that super awesome quarterback in the draft. By the way, you'll be drafting number four

because you're going to go three and fourteen. You want that? Then Miko's out. I don't want any of this. Nick is out. If you're a Texan fan, listen to me right now. You have to be saying to yourself, in CJ we trust. Please. We trust you, CJ.

We're hoping and praying. We hope we want you to be better. When Brady left, who did New England replace them at quarterback? Was it Mac Jones immediately? Or was it somebody else? I felt like it was somebody else. Oh, was it?

Oh, Cam Newton was there for a year. Yeah, I mean, that's what you'd be going through. When you transition from the guy to a guy, hell, we went through this before. When Deshaun left, right? Let's see. Yeah, their leading pass of the year after Brady left was Cam Newton. Then it was Mac Jones for three years,

and now they got Drake May. Actually, it was before Deshawn. John got there, right? It was that was the time of T.J. Yates for a while. And there was Brock Oswater for a while and Ryan Fitzpatrick for a while. And we thought those days were over when you got Deshawn Watson. And then we thought those days were over when you got C.J. Strait. And now it's... You don't want to go back there. It's a dark time. And I'm telling you, Hannah needs her stadium. So Hannah... Her refurbishment. Or refurbishment. You whatever. Cut the check, Hannah. Okay. Lay off on the handbags for a couple years.

because the McNairns aren't stupid. They know. They'll figure it out. But she's going to need, they want help. And winning will cure that. But that stadium, she wants the bells and whistles. And you're going to need as much public support as possible. So you know what? Do what you can control.

But the best people around you have great assistant coaches. Invest in the draft. Spend money in free agency when you can. look this is a team that wins a divisional playoff it may sound like we're doom and glooming here and the problem is we're kind of are feeling that way because we're just repeating ourselves over and over and over again that's why I couldn't do it it's why I couldn't join the Texan berate

I just couldn't do it Ross and I apologize I'm sorry I feel like I let you down you didn't let me down it's been nothing from frustration since I got enough frustration my life riding high with the C.J. Stroud in the first year you make the divisional round you felt like it was it was the start of something great It was the We'll be back. It was, I don't even know. Just start of things.

It was like Steph Curry and Clay Thompson losing to the Spurs and the playoffs. Like, eh, we'll be back. It was like 93 Rockets was in the C, the Supersonics in seven games. Sure, why not? Going two championships out of that. It was like, it was like the start of something great.

It was like the Astros in 2015. Took a small step back in 16. World Series banner 17. Let's go, baby. Instead, it's like the 2012 Thunder losing to the heat and then never getting back until a whole new era happened. Chris on 790. Thank you for holding good afternoon.

Hey, how's it going, fellas? Good. Man, beautiful day in the city. Oh, I know why you're talking like this. Go ahead. Say your thing. Say your thing. I'm not going to rub it in, man.

It's a couple tradition now around this time of year, right? Y'all make it to the second round of the playoffs. And, yeah, yeah, you out like you always are. But I ain't called for that. I actually called to defend CJ, really. But I heard him say something a couple years ago, Matt. I was listening to the podcast, and I think this is the reason he's having a problem with it.

I listened to his podcast. He had him a tank on air, and they were talking about the season and this and that and the other. And the host asked CJ, where would he rank himself as far as quarterbacks? And I believe CJ did himself, the ingest is that's actually

the common that's actually pan off on them or they've come to get him now because he ranked himself like three or four or something like that after his first year

and the guy tried to give him my out and he said well what about um you know borough and he names

some of the quarterbacks and C.J. Lahn I think I'm much better and I knew then Matt and I'm not trying to take a slight at C.J. I knew then

that that was a mistake because now it becomes part of psychic, yes, you're supposed to have confident, but once you start making those type of mistakes, after having that much confidence in yourself, then

you don't know how to move past them because now you're pretty much grading yourself at a level, and you can't, you know, it's kind of, it comes a little bit harder to overcome some of those things mentally, right? So I think that's a big factor with CJ, because I like the guy as a quarterback. I like

him as a person. He seemed like a really genuine guy. He seemed like a nice guy, but you got to humble yourself. Now, maybe the playoffs going to humble him because he's seen himself, you know, fail on the biggest stage for inception, it's not good for anybody, right? But I think what's going to happen, Matt, if he starts off that year and you guys going to get a big game, Monday night's all-game or Thursday night game, is it going to be against a big appointment, appointment, and he's going to make a mistake again,

and it's going to be right back on him. That's why I believe it's going to happen. So I don't know if he's going to actually move past it. I think you guys are pretty much stuck with a Dack Prescott type quarterback now because Dack the same way. He had these great year during the regular season. He getting in the playoff. He makes all these mistakes because his eyes get big

and he get caught up in the moment. So, CJ, I like you, my man, but that was a mistake by saying that some of the greatest quarterbacks ever never put themselves at. You should have got yourself out of that question by just saying, give me more time and I may be one of those players but you can't just put yourself as two or three when you just have one good season. Have you ever said something stupid at a young age?

Let me ask you that, Chris. I have, I have, but I'm saying. I say super's up at an old age, trust me. It has nothing to do anything. It has no bearing on anything. It just doesn't. Chris, you're just stretching. I mean, you are.

You are, and that's fine. That's just my thing about it. He was a great, a great rookie season. They made the divisional round. He was looking like one of the best quarterbacks football, at least top 10. Of course, have you heard athletes talk? They're going to overrate themselves.

They do, Matt. And I'm not saying that. I understand. So, Matt, listen. I'm here. Ross is here too. I have the same fear for Cam. Right? Cam, I think Cam is a little bit overconfident, right? You're supposed

to be confident. But, you know, you've got to be able to be a little bit humble where you're being confident. And before I hang up, I know this guy, he's our new head coach. He coached with you guys before. Okay, not you guys. I'm not a Texan fan. I'm a Texan observer.

So it's not a you guys thing here. Well, Ross, Matt, you are a Texan fan. You should have become a Texan fan. No, no, no, no, no, I have no, I have no fandom of any NFL team. But let me put it quickly because I get to a break. Robert Salat was an excellent hire out of the Tennessee Titans, period. How about that? Really? Okay.

Yeah. I feel good about it. What do you think? He's the best coach ever in history of the time. Oh, my God. You are, now you just pour and salt on the man's wounds. It's a good hire.

He's got a great track record as a head coach. I don't like, I don't, I mean, I like Cammore. I don't love him. I didn't, I didn't, wasn't blown away by him last year. They're not any closer. I'm not quaking in my boots if I'm a Texans fan about the Tennessee Titans, all the sudden becoming a 11-win team

because of Robert Sala. Short sample size is not very good coach. He has a head coach. Can coach the hell out of a defense, though. and sometimes that second job is always better than the first, especially because frankly, the jet situation is pretty toxic. John, Vince Stunner, we get to you after I talk about uptown appliance repair. All right.

You guys have been awesome. We don't always agree with you, but we love you, nevertheless. That's a lot of feel about Ross. I really agree with you, and I tolerate you. Okay. Actually, we've been agreeing quite a bit lately. That's problematic. I think it's great on your part.

You're wise enough. We've been green a whole lot. Hmm? You've been saying some crackpot stuff. I don't think so. Especially when that gunshot story comes out. Okay. Yeah, Indiana, the overspending powerhouse.

Can't believe they won. Is that again? Said Indiana, the overspending powerhouse. They're ruining it for a ruining college. Indiana Hoosiers are ruining college football. I didn't say they were ruining it. If there was no NIL, there would not be Indiana. So good thing.

NIL's there. We want parity. I thought that's what we wanted. I never asked for it. Well, you got to keep. You of H's got to get in there somehow. Because it ain't going to be on their history. Yeah, they are.

Oh, we've finished number 21 in the poll, baby. Yeah. Number 21. 2-1. Let's go. Well, that's good. Let them ride. Willie Fritz doing a great job.

You're doing a fantastic job. John on 7-a-Hello, John. Hey, how you're doing? Watching that game on Sunday Like CJ, I'm not a professional athlete But just looking at him on the sideline He looks like he wants to cry And it's like he makes these mistakes

He goes to the sideline, he goes to the end of the bench And he just like sits there And it's like he's fulking it. And the only other game Well, not the only other game but the other game where they kind of highlighted that is the last time I really think that the Texans got manhandled was a Seattle game.

You know, the way they were, you know, I feel like every time he goes up against a good defense and they hit him in the mouth, it's like he doesn't know how to handle it. I mean, I honestly think if Damiko let his mom on the sideline to coddle him, Oh, my God. He's not going to have his mom. He's not getting swaddled by his mother on the sidelines, John. Come on, man.

I mean, does he need a pacifier or two, John? What's going on here? I mean, come on. I mean, if he looks so sad to inject it, he didn't throw any picks in the second half at least. I mean, he looks so bad, and his body language is so bad. And he was whatever. He would have thrown some more picks. He didn't do that, at least.

Okay, so you look at other quarterbacks when they make mistakes, right? Yeah, they're pissed. and they're sad. No, when the camera catches them on the timeline, they don't look like they want to cry. Oh, by the way, speaking of crying, Josh Allen cried yesterday. Josh Allen literally cried.

After the Buffalo game. Literally tears in his eyes. Okay, does he do that on the field? Oh, God. All right, all right. We love you. Thank you. Look, let me just be really blunt.

C.J. Stroud sucked on Sunday, okay? but we don't need to get into his emotional psyches. I don't care if he cries, if he yells, if he throws water bottles, if he goes to his house and throws glass champagne bottles against the window, I don't care. For four quarters and 60 minutes, if you're a Texans fan, you want him to compose himself and have a good football game.

What his demeanor is? Doesn't matter. Yeah. We always go to the body language card When somebody's losing And it's funny because Kevin Durant Was arguing about a Sons fan About this last year

The Sons fans are You guys his body language is bad It's always so bad Like okay yeah You're down 15 Your body language is gonna be bad You just threw four picks in the first half You would think he was a psychopath

If he's out there High Fiving everybody And throwing up I don't know Chalking bottles of water And causing a ruckus Typically when you're not playing well You're not in a good mood

You're not gonna be in a good mood And everyone goes to the body language card when somebody's losing. To me, it's overblown, and it's low-hanging fruit. You know, you could see it at his eyes. Okay. Well, then you know what?

I did see in his eyes. He said, thinking of himself, I sucked. And you know what? Guess what? If I've had a bad show, come find me out for the show. I'm not running around. High-fiving my sales staff. They're like, man, your show sucked. I've never had a bad show. So, clearly you haven't. Yeah,

yeah, let's not read back. the wheel here, gang. He sucked. Are we getting rid of Josh? Are the bills they should get rid of Josh Allen because he cried? Hell, I'd be weeping too. My best chance to go to the AFC title game and I just found out that Bo Nix cracked his ankle in 14 pieces.

Got your coach fired, Josh. Got your coach fired. And you live in Buffalo. That made me cry in itself. Got Haley Steinfeld to go home and cry too, though. Gee, I. Well, Vince, son, 790. Vince, what you got today?

Hey, so I'm kind of looking at this whole CJ thing again, and I think it's something between his ears, but looking back at his rookie year, he had a great season. Second year, he was getting pummeled. If I'm not mistaken, he was like the top sack quarterback in the league, correct? C.J. Stroud was? I don't think he was number one in sacks this year. No, I'm talking about his second season last year. Yeah, I believe he was most sack last year. year. Exactly, exactly. So, and then the playoff game came and his best buddy's knee got bangled. He came into this season. First three games, he was hardly playing very well at all. And then

he gets hurt. Three games in a row, Davis Mills starts and we win. He started the winning streak. We go along the season. He plays well enough for us to win some games. The defense, sense mainly is carrying us, but he's actually playing well. The big lights come on, playoff, and all of a sudden his eyes are getting big, and he's just not functioning like he should. I don't know.

If there's something between his ears, and I think he needs a sports psychologist more than anything to figure out what's going on in his head. I would take that as well. I think all of us need therapy in our lives, my friend. You know what? You know what? I'm serious. I would include CJ. There's

something, and thank you for the phone call. There is something about losing. There's something about being on top of the football world and falling from grace. And getting confidence shaking. Yeah, I don't think it's crazy. Jonathan could tell us how important confidence is. Yeah. To his running.

Yeah. When I was a mascot and I needed mascot confidence in high school, I got it. Yeah. Got it from Angela and mothers, but that's fine. What? Nothing. What's it going with this? I don't know.

Yeah. Is it between his ears? Yeah. When you are throwing four-foot interceptions in the first half, I would say you're mentally afraid a little bit. That comes to the performance. And that's, again, if he can't handle it, which is still to be determined,

then he's not going to be able to strike it rich. Oh, no. Ryan brought up somebody whose name popped in my head earlier in the week. What? Frumber. You mean great and fell from Grace? Started melting down? No.

I don't know. I don't want the same category. Thank goodness. Oh, a farmer's still looking for work. I don't think you want some more money than he's going to get. I'll make a bet. No, we already did, but that was before he completely melted down and hit his catcher with a pitch in the chest.

I wanted to cancel it, but I honored it. We're going to honor it. What is it for? Five and a half of A.A.V., nothing. Oh, it's just a bragging point. Yeah, I mean, I fully expect to lose now that he... Let me tell you something. If y'all are smart, if you own a company,

You should sponsor the Matt and Ross Daily Bet segment. We've like 14 running bets going at one time. I can't keep track of all of them. All right, believe it or not, about IU football. You better get working on that. 145 on the Matt Thomas show. If you want to play 713-212-5-790, 7-13-212-5-790. All right, tomorrow on the show,

we're going to open up with Nick Casario's going to talk at 10 o'clock. And normally we don't run Casario sound bites It's because he just talks and talks and talks. But I feel like we kind of have to do it, don't you think, Rossi? Because, I mean, there's a lot of questions I know about CJ's future, coaching staff, Joe Mixing. I'm going to put out there, I'm going to buy the media member that asked the toughest question about Joe Mixen, a big city wing's lunch. Wow. Okay.

But they have to be a real media member. and you can't be some fanboy. So if a real member of the media ask Joe Mix, like, we want to know the deets, right? Yes. And whether or not he shot... He shot himself on the foot. What kind of gun he used? Oh my gosh.

All right, maybe not. Was it a Glock? The Saturday Night Special. Sig Sour. Where did you go? What do you go with? I can't even name guns. Can you name a gun? I just did. Can you name five? Five? Yeah. Remington?

Glock, six hour, cold. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show we simply call it B. Leaving it on and here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-2-790.

7-1-3-212-5-790. Today's edition of Believe or not, is all things about Indiana football. Read to your statement of Indiana football. Statements completely not early accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. The statement's erroneous football.

comment up you will say this. Not. Two, believe it or not, it's in a row, but win you one of these three prizes. One is a $790 t-shirt. Two is a four pack of tickets with party pit passes to the Montser Jam, February the 15th at NRG Stadium. And you can also get tickets to automotive, automotive.com. That's January 28th through February 1st at NRG Stadium. For tickets on that, go to Houstonautoshow.com.

So Auto Show, Monster Jam, or a 790 t-shirt, if you believe it, or not. Robert on 790, Robert, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Robert was 715 losses. Indiana football has lost more games than any other college football program in history. 750, believe it, or not? That's a believe it. Thank you for playing, though. Believe it. Seconds? Northwestern. Well, that big 10 really sucks at the bottom, doesn't it? Oh, hi, Bill.

Champs, Matt. Hi, Bill. What's going on? What's going on, Matt? The Indiana Hoosier's all-time leading passer is Trent Green. Believe it or not. Who is that? Believe it. No, it's Nate Sudfeld. Duh. You know Trent Green.

He's played for the Chiefs and the Rams. Steve, oh, Steve, are you on a player? You want to talk about quarterbacks? Well, I wanted to talk about quarterback. One thing that nobody has mentioned so far is the weather, because cold weather and wet weather will make. you fumble that ball. And so,

yeah, and Drake may fumbled the two. Thank you, Steve. And through three touchdowns. And through three touchdowns. Steve, call back tomorrow. We'll talk more about weather. We love talking weather.

John on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, indeed. In just two seasons, Kirk Signetti is already fourth all-time in coaching victories in Indiana. Believe it or not. I believe it.

No, you shouldn't. He's all, not even in the top five yet. Thanks for playing. They're bad. That bad. Mike on 790, what was your favorite part of today's radio? show, Mike.

CJ Stroud Depression Talk. The Indiana Hoosiers have won three conference championships in their history, one of the Big Ten this year, and also in 1967, and also in 1945. Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it. Statement number two of the win,

with 81 meetings all time. The team Indiana has played more than any other is Northwestern. Believe it or not? Not. No, it's Illinois. Congratulations. Nicely done. Mike on 790, Mike, you ready to play, believe it or not? Absolutely.

Indiana plays its football at Memorial Stadium where the field is named in Lee Corso's honor. Believe it or not? Not. That's right. Not. Statement number two for the win. Indiana and Michigan State play annually for the Old Brass Spatoon Trophy. Believe it or not?

Not. That's a belief. Believe it. Thank you for playing. Come on. Matt on 790, Matt, your favorite part of today, send the two radio show. Matt, it was great, top to bottom.

I'm going to two, solid show. Thank you, friend. Not only is Antoine Randall L. Second All Time in Hoosier's passing, he's also second time all in rushing. Believe it or not. Hello? I'm here.

Did you hear the question? Yeah, blew it. Believe it. Oh, you said, we'll give it to you. Thank you very much. Believe it. Congratulations. Antoine Randall.

Well, it's a good pull. Legend. Legend. Love those name and five other Hoosier Greats. Trent Green. Fernando Mendoza. Yeah. Is Nate Sudfeld?

His brother who's leaving to go somewhere else? That one running back who had that one year in the NFL? Oh, that guy. Up next, it's Clinton, it's Wexler. It's the A team. I'll talk to you at 7 for Rockets and Spurs. Down with Wemby on Sports Talk 790. You do