The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street' — Unwrapping Some Week 13 Woes (Ep. 197)

Episode Date: December 6, 2017

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier sit down to analyze the violent battle between the Steelers and Bengals (02:00), the vacancies in the Giants' front office (07:15), Tom Brady's sideline spat with Josh McDaniels (12:00), the trouble in Chicago (17:45), a new gig for Herm Edwards (29:00), and the College Football Playoff (34:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Jason, I have some. Very distressing. news for you. Welcome to GM Street part of the Ring your podcast network. I am Tate Frazier. It is Tuesday afternoon here in Los Angeles and I am sitting across the esteemed. That's what I like to call you, the esteem, Mr. Michael Lombardi. Lombardi, how you doing? I'm good, Tate Frazier. How are you, huh? Nice Todd Gurley, Jersey there. Ra, Anna, got it going. You going out to the game this weekend? I don't think I'm going to go out to the game this weekend. You probably won't be able to get a ticket. Most of Philadelphia, I think it's going to be at the game. Actually, I read today that

Sean McVeigh is preparing for the silent count at the Coliseum. I'm like, yeah. Oh, Eagle fans travel now. You know, that's the one great thing about living in Philadelphia. The fans are passionate and they love it. And so, you know, why not leave Philadelphia in December to come out to Sunday Los Angeles? Do you think there's more transplants from Philadelphia that are already in LA? I think there's a lot of Philly people here.

Yeah, that's what I feel like. I'm sure there's a lot of people here. I mean, look, this town's filled with a bunch of different cities. But, you know, the Eagle fans carry everywhere. It's like, you know, at the Browns, Browns fans go everywhere. Raiders fans, they go everywhere. They're a national team. Don't you know that?

That's a national brand. Don't you know that? Absolutely. Well, we just did a three and out our Twitter NFL show for people that haven't seen that. We just wrapped up. We talked a lot about last night's game, Monday Night Football, between the Bengals and the Steelers, or at least we touched on it. I wouldn't say we talked a lot about it.

But off the top here before we get into our segments, I want to ask you, we saw the Shazir injury and then the Burfect, the big hit from Juju Smith-Schuster. There were just a lot of big shots last night. George Ayoka takes a big shot on Antonio Brown. That was pretty much the story of the game, right, from Monday Night Football. Yeah, I mean, well, look, I think that. The most concerning thing for me is both coaches are on the competition committee, right? So you think their teams would be more buttoned up in terms of what to do and how to hit and how to play because they are the guys that are involved with how their game's going to be enforced.

And I think Sean McDonough made a great point about the crew. They call way too many penalties. And they over-called the game to where they lost control of the game. Like most people want you to call the game tight so it protects the game. I think there was a lot of frustration with some of the calls. The holding call, I mean, you know, on Bernard. If you're going to hold somebody, you're going to hold somebody. better than that, right?

Like, it's just an unaware aspect of the officiating. I mean, a pass interference call down the field on, I think it was any, it may have been on Fitzpatrick. On Kirkpatrick, right? On Kirkpatrick, yeah. I mean, it goes either way. And so I think that with the fact that there's a lot of hostility between the two teams, a lot of that just is, you know, you want the game to be refereed fairly and controlled.

And I think the Bengals, that to me, once the score, once the Bengals had opportunities used to put the game away and they didn't do it. I just kept saying a milly, like, you just know the Steelers are going to win this game, right? You know they're going to win. I mean, there was no doubt in your mind like the Bengals weren't going to win the game. Like, they just had that look to them and drop passes,

penalties, mistakes. I mean, just really. But let's hope Shazir is fine. Let's hope he's recovering what all reports seem to indicate that he is. Yeah, we'll do some cleanup here. Shazir, they said he has a spinal contusion with some swelling involved.

They have been able to say that he has been able to move his lower extremities. so that is great. That's very encouraging sign. They're waiting for the swelling to go down. They said it's going to take nearly 24 to 48 hours before they can really give a true diagnosis of what's going on there. I know they flew his parents in. I say the Steelers, the whole organization,

and even Andy Dalton after the game, get in the prayer circle with the Steelers players, for as much as there was problems on the field with competition and maybe taking things a bit too far, at least after the game, we did see some sportsmanship. Yeah, and I love the, I think Michelle Steele from ESPN tweeted this picture out. I retweeted it, and it was,

It was Tomlin going to the hospital with Art Rooney Jr. And he looked like he was still in his coaching gear. It looked like he just left the locker room and went right there. It didn't even change, you know. So, you know, one thing about Tomlin, you know, he is all in and he gets that. Yeah, he loves his players. And we saw Colbert, Kevin Colbert, the GM, was on the sideline. And I think he was the one that actually passed on the diagnosis to Tomlin.

That's how close this whole thing was handled between their, like they didn't want anything to get out because they wanted to be as sensitive as they could be to the situation. And well, it should. And well, it should. I mean, there's really no need, I mean, we don't want to overreact people to the situation, but you also want to make sure that the player has a respect that the injury is determining to get his family in there. Look, I just hope he can walk out of the hospital. I think it would be the encouraging thing for him. Absolutely. And Ryan Chazir is an unbelievable lineback. Really good. A great player for the Steelers. So we hope the best for him. You know, and I think it really wasn't much talked about on the show, but when you're a zone team like the Steelers and you rely so

on your underneath coverage. You really, I have a saying that when the Mike linebacker is slow, your defense is slow. And by that I mean, when your middle linebacker, the guy controls the middle of the field, that space, Keeckley does it really well. I think A.J. Klein for New Orleans has made them a better defense because he runs much better. They have a Mike linebacker that can run. Sean Lee on the Cowboys. Sean Lee on the Cowboys, okay?

And they cover up a lot. Like, it's really one of the most undervalued positions in football, especially from a personnel guy. Well, he doesn't really impact third down. No, that Mike Backer can cover up a lot of things for you. And when you have one that can run, like Seizier can run, he may not be the greatest player at the point of attack, and he doesn't handle the ISO play like you would want. But that ISO play's dead.

It doesn't exist anymore in the NFL. It really makes you a better defense. And losing him, when you play against a quarterback like a Tom Brady, who can look off the underneath coverage and move defenders with his eyes, that's going to hurt them. Plus, he tackled really well. And when you play a lot of zone like the Steelers do, you better tackle really well.

Absolutely. We're going to get into our favorite segment. One of our favorite segments, producer Jim is laughing at that because I go everything, the favorite segment. But we have, if we're all thinking like no one is thinking, and first up, we have the Giants are thinking of hiring a GM, and they think that will solve the team issues.

Well, I think, you know, look, the Giants, as I talked about on the side, after the games on Sunday, the Giants have this model that's been really successful for them, and it's worked, and I think their model's going to have to tweak a little bit here now because to get a great coach, to get, like, if you really want Josh McDaniels to be your head coach, you're going to have to hire somebody that he wants to be the general manager.

Is he the top, I don't know what, but is he the top candidate, you think? I would think, when you go through all these jobs, I mean, look, he turned down the, the job Kyle Shanahan has was Josh McDaniel's job last year. There's nobody, there's no disputing that. He turned it down. He didn't feel it was the right fit for him, even though they were willing to turn over all the authority to him. He just felt like there was enough in that front office that wasn't really right for him.

With the York family and? Well, Prague. the assistant guy, was he going to be involved, how much analytics were going to be? You know, I just don't think it was right for him. And obviously, it's right for Kyle, and it will turn out. Now that they have Jimmy G., it might turn out really well. But I think the Giants are going to have to change and shift. They bring Ernie of course, he and their former general manager to help with the search,

which is going to lead them down a road to fire to hire this stereotypical general manager who then is going to hire their coach. This model doesn't work in the NFL. It really doesn't. I mean, the model that works is Pete Carroll gets the job. He interviews candidates. They puts John Schneider in the job, and they have a happy marriage. This other way, it can work for a year or two, but it's never going to work for the long term.

And it's not just the Giants that have an opening there for a head coach. I mean, we're going to look across the league and you look at the cult. Pagano will probably be out. No doubt. That will be a job that will open up. The Bears, John Fox will most likely be out. That job will open up. There's so many openings in the NFL.

I mean, on average, I believe we said there was seven, usually seven openings, but there aren't usually seven suitable coaches that go in and take these jobs. Right. I mean, you've got to think Cleveland's going to open up, too. I mean, I know Hugh Jackson, of course. Loved by the Haslam family, of course. Love by the Hasam family, which they haven't quoted of saying. Can Hugh run my next PR campaign?

I mean, Hugh's really remarkable at it. I think the genius of Hugh Jackson is that if you speak for other people, then it becomes quotables that people believe, but it's not actually them saying it. Did you see what he did this week, which was brilliant? He started talking up, like, you could really teach a class. We should get Jackson or somebody here over at USC. Yeah, teach a class on how to really get a half. head of everything. He started talking about the future of Kaiser Soso and how he was going to be

the quarterback next year and how much improvement he's going to make from year one to year two. It was so obvious what he was doing. He's just trying to make it out like, you know. That he's grooming this quarterback. It's all for next year. It's for the future. And it takes everybody's eyes off the fact that he's now past John McKay as the leader of the team with the most losses in the worst time period of anybody over an expansion team. And he had an expansion team. So look, I think that Cleveland job, Tampa Bay is going to open up. I don't think there's any.

Somebody's going to have to get that one in there. And then I think there's wildcards. I think Denver's going to have to open up. I really do. I don't see how Denver's going to stay the same. I think that one and done, like I said earlier, if you lost, you can't make good time. So Denver's going to make that decision. I think Cincinnati, I think Marvin Lewis, whether that's run its course, I don't know.

Last night was a really bad loss for them because it looked like that was the kind of game where the Bengals get a big win over the Steelers and they're right in it. And they're back on, yeah, they're back on track. And all they had to do was close it down. They beat themselves. Pittsburgh didn't win that game.

Cincinnati beat themselves. It was 17 to zero, right? It was 17, they gave up the cheap three points at the end of the half, which is uncalled for, right? And they lose by three. And they lose by three. That was going to be, that was going to be, you know. And that's what what situational football matters.

Like the last four minutes of every half really determines the outcome of the game. Obviously in the fourth quarter, it clearly does, but in the first half, it really does. And when you had the ball last, they score the touchdown, and then they give up those three points, horrible. And then you've got, is Dallas going to open up? Is the Clapper going to keep it or not?

Or is Arizona going to retire? I mean, what about Caldwell? He just signed an extension. That's not going to happen. So, you know, Detroit's not. Jim Caldwell. I mean, Detroit, look, they just gave Matthew Stafford a big contract, gave Jim Caldwell an extension.

I mean, everybody in the media wanted Jim Caldwell get extended at the beginning of the year. But they don't want to wait. They go ahead and do it. So, you know, look, there's some things to like about Jim Caldwell. And based on this marketplace, you've got to wonder, like, who's going to fill these jobs, right? Yes. Where is these jobs going to go?

So McDaniels, obviously, is the number one candidate, I think, that everybody feels like, and I think he'll look to him first. Absolutely. It'll be fun. It'll be interesting to see because, you know, you're going to, like Tom Brady, right, so they had that spat on the sideline, right? and everybody's making a big deal out of that. And, you know, as an observer from the outside.

Now, I have the inside story because I've been there, right? But as an observer, the confrontation between Brady and his coach, right? People say, well, how does he – well, look, Brady gets coached hard. Like, there's no double standard with Brady. Like, okay, Brady, I've been in a meeting room where Brady throws an incomplete pass. Belichick might say, look, we can't even complete a goddamn out. Look how bad this is. I mean, this is a Hall of Fame quarterback, right?

So part of the greatness of the Patriots is that Brady allows himself to be coached hard. Yeah, they never let him get too high. Well, he wants it. I mean, he encourages it. And there's sometimes where like what happened with the frustration is for the coaches is that Brady just sometimes predetermines where he wants to go with the ball. Trust is a huge thing with Tom Brady, right? So he if he doesn't trust the receiver to be in the right place at the right time to do the – he's probably. probably not going to throw the ball to him, no matter how wide open the guy is, right?

And so on that play, I think Dorset was wide open and Gronk was wide open and he missed it. So I'm sure Josh said something and Brady snapped, you know, because Brady probably frustrated that he knew he was wrong. He knows that he missed it. He knows that he missed it. And he really didn't need to hear it, but Josh needed to tell him. And so it's a moment of frustration. But when people like Odell say, well, you know, if I would have done that, well, no, first of all, nobody coaches you hard.

Like nobody's ever, like nobody coaches you hard. Poor Ferris. You know, Ferris. Like, nobody coaches you are. You're going to be part of the problem for people who want to come to New York Giants. Like, everybody in America thinks you're part of the solution. No, you're going to be part of the problem because you're going to be one of the highest paid players in the league. And everybody's going to ask why.

Is this a precursor for OBJ and Josh McDaniels getting an argument on the sideline next year when he's coaching the Giants? First of all, I mean, first of all, that's going to be, like, that would be, at least to the point where, like, that would make Josh McDaniels have a hard time taking it. Because nothing in the Patriots would indicate that this is how you build a franchise, right? That's how he's been trained. And we're going to have to dedicate so much money to the cap to get him to resign in New York anyway, right? I mean, you're already behind the eight ball and you start out. How do you coach him? I'm like, how do you coach him?

How do you maintain him? He's not used to being coached hard. He's used to be having his ass kissed, you know? And part of the Patriot culture, which I think is perfectly where Odell made the comment about, well, you know, if I did that, if I did that, if I did that, if I did that, you don't let anybody coach you hard. Like, you've got to get coached hard. Like, that's part of it. Like, that's Isaiah Thomas allowed Bob Knight to coach him hard. Like, that's way it was.

That's the program. That's what it is. If you don't want to do that, you can't do it. Brady allows it. He snapped, no doubt. But, you know, I mean, I'm sure it's not going to be the last time he snapped. He snapped to Billy O'Brien, too. But that's part of the coach.

You're going to get coached in New England. And if Josh McDaniels becomes a coach somewhere else, he's going to do exactly what he does in New England, coach him hard. Is it hard to snap on Bill Belichick because he's so monotone? It would just feel ridiculous. It never raises his voice. She's just very clear. And everybody's scared it because he knows more than everybody else in the room.

So everybody's sitting there like, just don't call me out. Just don't call me out. Like, look, you know, and I mean, the greatest line of all time is when he gives the team, look, we've done it your way. It doesn't work. We're going to do it my way now. I mean, that's like, clearly, okay. Like, this is bad ball.

You know, when he gives you this is bad ball, this shit's going to hit the fan. Have you seen the compilation video of all the times that Patriots have scored touchdowns over the year? and it's just a single shot on Bill Belichick, his reactions, and it looks like nothing is going on. They're just scoring touchdowns, and he's just, like, writing stuff down, biting his fingernails. I mean, like, people make a joke about that, but, like, I think it's really ridiculous.

Like, he's, obviously, he's thinking about, he's the chess player who's thinking about three moves ahead. And if you start reacting like you're out of control, like, you love basketball, right? Yes. Like, you'd show me a coach who's bitching at the officials. I'll show you a team. that's bitching at the officials. Oh, you mean Duke University? Well, okay, whatever. All right. I know you get

shot in on that. So, like, the example is if we're going to celebrate a touchdown, then everybody starts, like, he's thinking about his next move, the kickoff coverage, how we're going to do it. The game's not over. We're going to celebrate when the game's over. We're not going to celebrate for things we do well during the game. I think it's, it would be like Bobby Fisher getting up and he moved paw on the Queen three. Doing a Tiger Woods fist bump, yeah. Like, that's not how this is going to operate. Like, this is chess on grass. You've got to think about it. And I always think that coaches that show, I'm not saying don't show emotion. I'm saying be controlled and understand what's at stake here.

I think he gets way to know. So he never really raises his voice in the meeting or anywhere. I mean, he gets his point across fairly quickly, though. All right, Lombardi, we're going to get to your favorite segment, not for nothing. But first we're going to take a break to get a word from our new podcast host and member of the family, J.J. Reddick. Hey, this is J.J. Reddick. You may know me as a basketball player. You may have seen me play during my college career.

at Duke University, or perhaps over the past decade playing in the NBA for the magic, the bucks, the clippers, or the Sixers. Well, today I'm here to tell you about my new show, the JJ Redick podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. This is where you can find me interviewing athletes like my current teammate, Joelle and Bede, as well as in-depth conversations with celebrities like the late, late show host, James Corden. The very first episode goes live later this week, so make sure to subscribe to the J.J. Reddick wherever you get your podcast.

And now, not for nothing. First up, John Fox, who has quite the week. He keeps coming out. He said he doesn't plan on firing any of his Bears' coaching staff. At least he's not throwing anyone under the bus, but he's getting insulted. He knows it's over.

Ryan Pace is, you know, like the Bears can't even get their kicker situation right. Like, look at it. You know, they let Robbie Gould go. He ends up kicking five field goals to beat them this week, right? They sign that they have a kicker, loses games for them. I mean, this whole thing in Chicago has been bad. And it's going to be fascinating to see when they blow this up in Chicago, how they repair this in Chicago, because

ultimately, when you blow up an organization like the Giants or you blow up the bears, these are two historical franchises, right? So you've got to figure out what went wrong and then you've got to figure out how to solve the problem. Whereas both of these franchises, to me, from the outside looking in, have no awareness of what went wrong. They just feel like they hired the wrong guy. And so they're just going to put other people in their jobs. And then three years from now, we're going to have the same problem. Like, nobody's going to figure out what went wrong. If you don't figure out what went wrong, you can't correct yourself. At least the 49ers, say what you want about Jed York and about what they did. They figured out what went wrong. They made a mistake. They

valued Balke over Harbault. Big mistake there, right? And then they hire Thomas Sula because they wanted somebody to come in and be subservient to Balke. Okay. And then they hire Chip and they felt like, no, you know what, we need to clean everything out of here and start all over again. And they did. And they got that right. Because they finally figured out what they messed up on. That's what's going to be the challenge to Chicago. I mean, look, John Fox is going to go back to Carolina. He's going to retire. He's going

to play golf every day. He's happy. I mean, he's made it. You know, I don't know what Ryan Pace is going to do, but at this point, they're not even, like, fire somebody would be just like nobody's even trying. Yeah, and John Fox has really hurt. I mean, I know I'm a little biased with the Mitchell-Tubisky thing, but I think he is hurting him quite a bit by making

these comments after games. I mean, it's tough to be a rookie quarterback anyway, but then to have your head coach kind of throw you under the bus at times. Look, he's raw as hell. Look, I'm telling you, I've said this before the draft. I mean, Mitchell Tribisky going ahead of Deshawn Foster, Deshaun Watson was a joke. I mean, it's a joke. It's really a joke. But, you know, that's what happened. He's raw, and the next guy's going to come in there. You know, the next guy's going to find out, he's going to be really raw. And he's going to need a lot of reps, and he's going to have to run an offense. And you're going to have to build your organization around Mitchell Trubiske, whether you like it or not, and you've got to figure out how to do it. And that's going to be the hard

thing for pace because right now he doesn't know how to do it well at least you got the rookies you got you got chubisky you got young guys you got how to develop you got some there's a new the problem is they are a collection of talent they're not a team and this is what happens when the general manager is really just a scout not a general manager there's an idea of how to build a team and there's an idea how to collect talent they're two different things and i think that's the problem in chicago absolutely so john fox watch out he even said he might not even finish out the season so that's something I mean, he's, you know, I mean, I'm sure he's got half the stuff in his office already packed. Like, I'm sure it's all right.

He knows it's coming. I mean, you've got to be a blind man not to know this is coming. You know, he knows that the end is near. He's, I'm sure he's prime with it. He's all right. He's beloved in Charlotte. He'll go back to Quo Hollow, play some golf. That's right.

You can go back there and play golf. And, you know, he's got out of there and he can go from there. Because, look, there's going to be so many jobs open. Again, I ask the question, who's all going to fill these? You know, is Brian Kelly going to leave Notre Dame and come into this? is Pat Shermer going to get a second chance? Is Jim Schwartz going to get a... What about Jim Harbaugh?

I mean, I know he's not going to leave that cushy situation at Michigan, but if someone comes and then Chicago Bears come to Jim Harbaugh, and they say, we want you to run this franchise and coach Mitchell Tribeskey, I mean, is that an enticing offer? Well, I think the problem's going to be is Jim Harbaal's his own boss at Michigan, right? Yeah, no, that's what I mean. I mean, that's why guys want to go to college and not coach in the NFL. Like, that's why, to be honest with you,

you can be the head coach at Central Florida. It might be a better job than being at the Bears, because you can control your own destiny. You know, whereas at the Bears, you got Ted Phillips, who's the president of the team, he's looking out for you. You got Pace as the gentleman. You've got all these people involved. How are you going to build the organization you want?

I hear these Jim Harbaugh to the Giants to the – he ain't going anywhere. I mean, once Saban went back to college and basically said, I can't get done what I wanted to do. I don't think very many of these college guys want to come in the league. Yeah. Or you could be the Bobby Petrino situation where you run back to college after everything falls apart. Yeah. Yeah, and I think if you, whatever you think of Bobby on and off the field as a coach, Bobby's a really good coach. The reason he went back to college is because, you know, it's a great story.

I mean, Lane Kiffin, this is, we can work at a Lane Kiffin moment who's just absolutely. Lane Kiffin was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders, right? And so the Arkansas job opened up. Lane wanted that job. And basically they told Petrino, either you take this job right now or we're going to hire Kiffin. Or we're going to hire Kiffin, right? So he took it. But the reason he wanted out of Atlanta is because.

he kept asking Atlanta, I want to cut this guy, and they would say, yeah, and he'd have no control over it. So it all comes back to the same reason, whether you agree with Patrino or not. I'm making excuses for him. It comes back to who's making the decisions? The disconnect between the coach and the GM. That's what it all comes back to. And that's what all these six or seven jobs they're going to open up, that's half of them are going to have that problem. Was there any job that we think that will open up, I mean, whether it's like the Colts or is there just a team that you see a fit.

But, you know, if it is the Colts and, you know, someone that has worked with Andrew Luck before, and that would like to go back. I think like Josh McDaniels would be the better fit at Indianapolis than he would be at the Giants than he would be at Chicago because at least Chris Bauer, the general manager at the Colts, understands that the coach has to set the philosophy and that he probably wants more of the Patriot way of how to coach the team to be demanding

and to have pole players accountable. I mean, it's a great rivalry between those. They have always had something going on there. So that, to me, knowing Ballard and no one McDaniels, those two guys could work together. But if it's just an arbitrary, let's hook this marriage up, it's going to be like an arranged marriage that won't work. Yeah. And there are a lot of range marriages that don't work.

Yeah, that don't work. There's some that weren't arranged that don't work. But the reality here is this is going to be a partnership. And when Pete Carroll got the job in Seattle, he hired John Schneider. Like that formula works. Now, Schneider doesn't just say every yes to everything that Pete wants, right? But Pete instilled the philosophy and the foundation of what he wanted his team to be. And he also had all the scouting reports on every kid coming out of college for like five years.

And there's nobody telling Pete above Pete what to do, right? Like everybody works for Pete, but everybody works through John. That's the way it's got to work. That's why I think the giant model now isn't going to work. Yeah. Like you said, it was a model from 1979 and needs some upgrading. It does need to upgrade. It needs tinkering.

Yeah, a little tinkering. Should we talk about some college football stuff? Yeah, let's talk about it. Let's talk about Jimbo. Did you see the plane that Jimbo Fisher got off on? So Jimbo Fisher for people that don't know. I mean, he didn't even shave for the press coverage. Did you see Jimbo had the stub?

It was if Jimbo was in Tallahassee and they called him and he was just fed up with everything. And he was like, you know what? I'll take it. And he just got right. They usually threw his Christmas tree out by the road. I love that they caught him. They're throwing his Christmas tree out. Like, hilarious.

Like, wouldn't you be smart enough to say, look, I'm not going to throw my tree out? Like, put it in the garage. Like, we'll take it out. Like, are you kidding me? It was too easy. It was a fake tree, too. So I don't know why I couldn't just, you know, pack it up and move it. I guess if you're getting all that money, you're going to get a new tree.

Yeah, you could tell somebody, like, look, pack this tree up. You know, like, I've got to get out of town. Like, are you kidding me? I think this is going to be an interesting hire. First of all, you know, he takes the Texas A&M job. You've got to feel like he's going to get the best quarterback within, like, if you're a Jimbo Fisher and you just land in college station, right, you've got to feel like you're going to get who the three best quarterbacks in the world. You've got to get one of them, right?

And then you've got to have the – because Jimbo is going to run dropback pass. He's going to run a pro. I don't want to call it a pro style office. because the protections aren't pro-style. But the reality of it is, he's going to run more of a conventional type of offense, which will be fascinating to see. And what coaches he brings in because of the coaching staff that he had,

it'll be interesting. But I think this is, you know, I don't know if you could ever overpay Tate Frazier for a great coach. I really don't. Now, I don't know if Jimbo is a great coach. I think Jimbo's a good coach. I don't know if he's a great coach. But I don't think you could ever overpay for a great coach.

Yeah, he's got $75 million guaranteed in this contract. God bless him. That's not too shabby. he also has some of the best facilities for people that haven't seen Texas and him. I mean, it's unbelievable. Like, it's better than a Tennessee Titan job. It's really better. It's better than the bear job.

It's better than the giant job right now because you're down there. You run the program. I mean, you run the program. And I'm wearing a Georgia jersey right now that you brought up. And James Coley apparently is the leading candidate to be his offensive coordinator. Coley's at Georgia right now. He's a really good coach. Well, I think, you know, who he's going to hire is guys that can recruit, right?

So Jimbo is going to be his own coordinator. Yep. And so it's going to be guys that will be instrumental in. what they want to do. But I think, look, Coley just landed the number one quarterback in the country in this last class for Georgia. So that says anything about what he can do.

That just follows the whole line. I mean, look, the AD knew what he wanted. He wants to have this. I think it's a good hire. Whether you can afford, you know, some teams can't afford this. And obviously Texas A&M can, but I think the reality here is, like, you can't,

like, I don't know what Belichick makes, but you can't overpay him. Like, I don't know what Pete Carroll makes, but you can't overpay him. Where you get in trouble is when you're paying guys that are not great, You're paying Jack. You just re-dejectel

Real's contract making $6, $7 million. Like you're paying, that's not even a, like you're paying for average, maybe below average. That's when you get into trouble. Yeah, and there's another big change here with Scott Frost, the UCF coach, Central Florida goes undefeated this year. They obviously aren't mentioned in the top four of getting in the playoff. Scott Frost takes the job in Nebraska.

He's a Nebraska alum. He decides he wants to coach out the bowl game with UCF, who was undefeated. So it was a sweet tribute. He talks to his team and does this whole. thing about how much you love those guys. And I think when he started, they were, I think they had lost every game. And then they went six and seven. And then this year they were undefeated.

But look, Central Florida is with a great jobs of all time. I mean, you can walk out the building. I mean, it's the largest enrollment of one of the, it's the biggest school in the country, I think, or one of the top schools in terms of enrollment. You can get all the college players. Look, not to take anything away from Scott Frost, but, you know, he did a tremendous job. But I'm interested to see how he turns it around at Nebraska because things have changed in Nebraska.

It used to be Nebraska could have those gray shirts where they could take kids. you know, Nebraska was the Kiwanis Club from Omaha would sponsor a kid and he would walk on, but he really had a scholarship because the Kwanis Club played for it, you know. And somewhere out and Kearney, Nebraska would sponsor this kid and he would come on and walk on. So they could have like 30 of the players from Nebraska that were walking on, but they were sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of those cities. So they basically had scholarships in place and then they could go out to other states and bring. And so that's how that's how Devaney did it. That's how Tom Osborne did it.

So they basically always had two recruiting classes within their school. They can't do that anymore. So now they have to go and change. It'll be fascinated to see what the recruiting program Frost is going to bring in because if you're at Nebraska, you have to recruit Los Angeles. You don't play in Texas, so you really can't recruit there. You've got to recruit Los Angeles in Florida. And then you've got to hope you can get those kids into town.

That's tough. That's going to be a hard. I think that's a little harder job than most people think. But, you know, I think Scott Frost will do a good job on that one. Yeah, that's one of those things where people see Nebraska and they think power house program and why are we great? It's a remember when job. You know those remember when we were good. Remember when we were good? Well, unless you change who you are, it's hard to remember when you were good. I went to a school like that. I remember when they were good. That's right. Next up we got Herm Edwards, for people that

haven't seen this. Herm Edwards took the job at Arizona State, left ESPN. He does his press conference and someone asked him, they were at Devils Digest, I think is what the website was. And it's like a scout.com site about Arizona, Arizona State football. Oh, Robino, Devils Digest. Uh, devil's. Devils Digest, huh? Yes, sir. Where are you located, my man? You're right here on Toppe. Okay, Devils die, yes. Okay.

I'm Catholic now. I'm a Christian. Watch out them devils. What's saying? We're good, brother. You're good. I can't take any personal. This man just took the job with the sun devils.

He obviously did not know that they were the sun devils. That's probably not the most... I would say you're not prepared for your press conference, correct? I would say so. My whole thing is, Herm Edwards, takes his job. We know that he's maybe not the X and O's coast. Oh, he's not an coach that you expect. He's more of a motivational guy.

But to come in this press conference, get this big job at Arizona State, I mean, it was a comedy show, basically. Yeah, I mean, well, Ray Anderson was his former agent, okay, and Ray Anderson was in the league, worked in Atlanta, was an agent that got into the league, and now he became an athletic director. And they have some model where now it's going to be run like a pro team. Like, I'm not sure I really understand how this is all going to happen. I mean, I don't know. I mean, look, Herm's a wonderful guy. And I'm sure he'll be really good selling things in a home, and I'm sure he'll be really good at talking to players.

And his name recognition, at the least. At the least, right. But Arizona State's a great school. Like, Arizona State should compete for national championships. It's a great place to live. It's not that hard to get into school, I'm saying that politely. It's not that difficult to get into school. You can get pretty much any player you want in the country to come in there.

You get somebody on that campus in January from the East. I mean, they used to have a great tradition of going into New Jersey when Frank Cush was the coach there. recruiting, bringing all these great players from New Jersey in there, Jim Jeff Code. I mean, they've had great players on this campus, and they've lost that because they've lost their recruiting base and they've lost who they are. Probably their last most recognizable player is perfect, right?

Pretty much, yeah. I mean, you know, I mean. I mean, there's some give and take there, but it's just as far as the main recognition. They haven't done a good job of picking players and recruiting, and then they haven't done a good job of developing players. I mean, this is what college football is all about today is development of players. So I think, you know, it's a great job. It's going to be fascinated to see how Hirm adopts to be in the head coach.

I mean, Harm had Dick Curl on the sideline when he was at the Jets to tell him when to call timeouts. Like this was like, and Dick couldn't even get that straight. That would be interesting if he hires Dick Curl. That would be hilarious. Well, they have, you see a lot of this when these NFL coaches come down to college. I mean, whether it was like a Butch Davis or a Lovie Smith, I mean, they do basically take a CEO role. But like Lovie ran a defense, okay? So Lovie ran the defense.

And Butch ran a defense that could run. Like, Horm's never run. Like, Horm was a scout that got let go. And then he became a coach. And then Carl Peterson saved him and kind of like that was his mentor. And then he got the jet job. And then, you know, he got fired at the jets. And he landed right there on his feet.

And then when people watched him on hard knocks, they're like, wait a minute, he's really not an expert on football. Right. Like, he's a motivational expert. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I mean, you know, because players, look, at the end of the day, players want to get better. They want to improve. They want to get you to a point where can I get you, I think it's that whole John Calipari speech. Like, I'm going to be hard on you to make you a pro player. And if you don't like it, then don't come here. There's the motivation with kids that,

even though we say it's college and it's a great, most kids want to go to pro football, right? They want to get better. They want to learn. It doesn't matter if you're 13 or 88. If you have knowledge, the players are going to listen to you, right? And respect you at some level. Right. Knowledge is power. If I can make you a better player and my knowledge is going to make you a better player, people are going to listen to you. If not, they won't listen to you and they'll drown you out.

And I think that's the concern you have to feel like if you're Arizona State. Talking about another job, we touched on it, I guess, that Dan Mellon took the Florida job. He's just another name owner to throw out there. This is a guy that went to Florida. I mean, he invented the jump pass that people remember with Tim Tebow.

He wins a national title there with Chris Leak and that Florida team. And then he wins the second one in 08 with Tim Tebow leading the team. So he's got roots in Florida He's basically made Mississippi State a contender While he was there Comes back to Florida And I don't think he ever got the credit

I mean Charlie Strong and obviously Urban Meyer Were the two big ones that came out of that Florida staff But I mean he was there the whole time too And developed quarterbacks Absolutely And they haven't developed the quarterback since And then he goes on to Mississippi State And that's not an easy job to win at Mississippi State

And Dak Prescott Right he gets Dak Prescott I mean you're Sionist College Which is right outside of Philadelphia The defense coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals Paul Gunther and Mullen are best friends. They go back, I think, to your sinus college days together. So, look, Mullen has been trying.

He wanted a Georgia job badly last year. Couldn't get it. Kirby got it in front of him. And now he's got the Florida job. So he improved himself. You've got to think that that's a great opportunity for him. But I think, again, one thing about Mullen when you hire him, you're going to have to get a really good quarterback.

And at least he's proven he can do that and develop a quarterback. It's one thing to get that top five recruit of quarterback. Yeah, the Will Greer or whoever it is. Right. I mean, look, one thing about Jimbo, he can develop a quarterback, right? He's developed some quarterbacks, and I think this is what's going to happen at Florida. He'll develop some quarterbacks. It'll be fun to see Florida and Georgia.

I mean, the coaching in the South of these conferences are getting better. That's the good thing. Absolutely. Absolutely. We can touch on the four teams quickly if you want to. I mean, we have Georgia taking on Oklahoma, Clemson taking on Alabama. Those games, obviously, I mean, those are four stalwarts in college football. It's going to be great.

You got Lincoln Riley, you got Kirby Smart, two young coaches that are now taking over big programs. They get those guys to take the league to the next level. And then you have probably the two most dominant programs in college football over the past five years, you know, with Clemson and Alabama. This is going to be the real test to see if Clemson is now going to take the throne away from Alabama and be the class of college football. Yeah, I think it'll be, I mean, this game's going to be a war. And knowing Nick, as well as I know Nick, he has probably studied Clemson every day of his life in the offseason. Like, he's probably made it his mission to really understand this whole Clemson offense and to make sure he has

every single check that he can check and moat. So it'll be a great game. I think the winner of the Clemson, Alabama game might be end up being the loser of everything because it's going to be hard to play the next week. That's basically the national championship game. It's like a miracle when they play the Soviet team, but they played them in the game the game and everyone forgets the last game. That's what this is going to be like.

I think so. But this will be a good exposure. We got the highs been coming up this Saturday, right? So Baker Mayfield's a finalist. And I think Baker Mayfield is a finalist. going to win the Hivesman. Don't you? I think it's pretty much Settinstone. The only way that he gets knocked off was for that gesture against Kansas.

But the thing that he had in his back pocket there was he had the disrespect was put in his face before. So he had a little bit of a cop out. And he obviously apologized for that. Bryce Love kind of got injured late in the season. He's had a great year. And then the fatigue with Lamar Jackson. I mean, it's great that he got invited back. But there's no way he repeats his he repeats his heism.

And his numbers are great. Just his team wasn't great. I mean, I mean, Petrino made one of the world. I mean, Mississippi State and Louisville traded defensive. coordinators last year. So Todd Grantham left Louisville and went to Mississippi State. Mississippi State, I think it's Pete Serman. I mean, their defense at Louisville was atrocious.

And that really costs Lamar. I think Mayfield should win it. I think Mayfield's really a good player. Like, I think Mayfield's really a good player. I think Mayfield's got Drew Brees-like's ability. I think he should win the Heisman. To me, he was the best college player that I've seen this year. He made all the throws.

The throw he made against TCU, looks off the guy, comes down the field. I think the guy, other than, you know, socially, I'm not signing off on him. I don't know enough about him. But just as a pure football player, this guy's going to be, and he's going to play on Sunday. And Lincoln Riley, for people that don't know about him,

he was the offensive coordinator at ECU when they completely just took over and broke every single offensive record there could be out there. I mean, getting like 700 yards a game. I mean, he's an offensive guru. They do some interesting things. They do some interesting concept.

He's like the Sean McVeigh of college football. They do some really interesting things with their spread attack. And I'm not a big, I'm not a big 99% spread. guy. I think you've got to be under center to be really effective at times. But I think he does some really interesting things with the spread that's just, that's kind of like uniquely attacks the schemes within the schemes. So I, but I think Mayfield's done a really good job. I like Mayfield, when he's on the field, like I'm not sure how good Oklahoma is, if Mayfield wasn't player. And I think Mayfield, I know he's short. He looks really short on the field,

but he makes some incredible plays and his arm is really alive and it's tied to his feet. I think he should win the highs, but I think he's really good. Yeah, I think you will. Al Davis story for this week. Do we have one? Is anything coming to mind? You know, and now that we're in, now that we're in, I'm not going to share the coach's name with this story because I think it would be an indictment, but I'm going to tell this story. This is, I don't want to say it's my favorite out of Davis story, but it's. It's my favorite already. All right. Jim, it's his favorite. So obviously the Raiders always looking for coaches, right? So we happen to bring this one coach in.

Tom Cable. No, no, it wasn't Tom Cable. I'm not going to tell who the coach is that did it, but I'm not going to tell who the coach is that did it. I admire the coach who did it. So bring this coach in, and he's sitting down with Mr. Davis, and they're going over some things. And the coach says to him, he says, Mr. Davis, would you ever, would you ever, like, come on the field and coach a player and throw a player off the field? Do you take part in that?

And Al says, I just watch practice. I never do anything in practice. I just watch. I'm an observer. I just observe. Really? Yeah. You never get involved in any of that?

No, I never get involved in any of that. that at all. Okay. He said, because that's funny, Mr. Davis, because when I was a player, I was here for like about a two-day tryout, and I was getting ready to get in the drill, and you screamed at the coach for putting me in the drill, and you kicked me off the field, and you went to the next guy on the drill. And the interview ended after that point, and that was the end of that discussion right there. And then, you know, and then he... I do not recall. I do not recall. That ended that interview. He didn't become a head coach a head coach candidate for it. But it was just ironic that, you know, as we interview these

coaches. You have all this background on them, but sometimes they have it on you too. Right. And that's where he got kind of caught on it. Like, you know, like if you're going to do this, I got caught, I'm not interested in the job. And then, of course, he tried to lie his way out of it and he couldn't do it, which I thought was hilarious. And he threw the, because I've seen them. I mean, I've literally seen him take a player. Like, get that guy off the field. I don't want him in there. You know, and he'd scream to get him out of there, you know, and the coach would be. I should tell Ron Lynn all the time. You know, like so when you go to training camp at practice, up in Napa, I would always, Al would never an early riser, but at camp he would get up early in the

morning because we had practice started at like 8.30 and it would go to like 10.15 and it was unbelievable, Tate Fraser, in Napa Valley that at 8.30 in the morning you would need a sweatshirt on in the middle of July, okay? And you would, it would be cold and there'd be, there'd be like due on the field. It'd be really cold. And at 10, 10, 10, almost to the, almost to the minute, the sun would break through and it would be sunny, right? But he actually would get up early to go to camp. And I used to tell Ron Lynn all the time, Ron Lim was the secondary coach.

So Al would get out there early and he would walk out there and he would stand in the middle of the field, right? And you would come out. And so now you can see him. He's in his all white or he's in his all black. And he's standing there. He's got the towel and he's holding it, right? Now, if you're a smart person, right,

you would either go right or left. But if you're a dumb one, you go straight up to him so he can attack you, right? So I used to tell Ron Lynn all the time, Ron, just think about, would you ever, like, walk up to a tiger and say, hi, Mr. Tyre? I'm just going to pet you. Yeah, go to a bear and say, how do you do? Yeah, am I going to, like, don't pet the tiger. Like, don't pet the tiger. Like, you see him standing in the middle of field, go 50 yards to the right or go 50 yards to left. Because if you go pet that tiger, you're going to come back crying to me that your hand got bit off, which had happened all the time. I couldn't convince Ronald Lynn the otherwise. Stop petting the tiger. Meanwhile, everybody else who had any common sense.

Ron's a great guy, tremendous guy. He's just trying to win the guy over, you know. Anybody at any common sense would go left or go right, but in that case. But that instance of the coach, to me, was like a classic. Great life advice for Mike Tyson. Don't pet the tiger. Exactly. And we shall end this GM Street podcast.

Absolutely. This has been another edition of GM Street. Part of the Ringar Podcast Network. I am Tate Fraser. That is Michael Lombardi. Thanks for listening. Thanks, Tate Fraser.