The Ryen Russillo Podcast - National Championship Game Recap: What Went Wrong? Plus Stetson and Duggan As Pros With Trent Dilfer (Bonus Episode).

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

Russillo shares his thoughts on Georgia's blowout win over TCU in the College Football Playoff National Championship and the SEC's continued dominance over the sport (0:30). Then Ryen is joined by Trent Dilfer to discuss the mismatch between TCU and Georgia, Stetson Bennett IV and Max Duggan as NFL prospects, next year's college season, and more (7:47). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Trent Dilfer Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A little bonus episode for you. We're going to do a little open on George's dominant win and repeating and what it means for some of the conference conversation. And Trent Dilfer on the game. Stetson Bennett, Max Duggan, also as pros, their chances. There's not a ton to get into with this game. It was so one-sided. Thanks for checking out a Tuesday episode. Okay, that was

not a close football game. Georgia wins back-to-back titles, demolishing TCU last night. I felt like pretty early on you're like, this is probably not going to be pretty. TCU only scored seven points because a guy fell down so it could have been worse right

and so that then leads to some of my most disliked content when you start talking about like oh well TCU never should have been in it man what the fuck like yeah okay what do you want to put Bama back in it now

and have him play next week? You know? As I said, after the semifinal, the Peach Bowl game, it felt like that missed field goal was for the national championship. It was. Ohio State would have beat TCU.

And then I can't help but think of the transitive property of equality, which is usually always a mistake to use in sports. And I mean this. Like, I think it's always a mistake because every game is different. Week to week is different. Teams are different every week, unless apparently you're Georgia. But there was part of me that was kind of thinking about leading up to it. I'm going, okay, I was down in the Big Ten for most of the season because I keep waiting for the Big Ten to be

the team that surpasses the SEC at some point. At some point, the SEC is going to be totally down. They're going to lose out of conference games. It'll be weird because it'll probably have to happen the bowl season where they're a disaster. And then, you know what I mean? Like for them to lose some of the benefit of the doubt stuff, it's going to take more than just September. You get the point.

But I look at the Big 10 as the only conference that could really, if they had everybody rolling at the right time, and that includes Wisconsin, that includes Penn State, of course Michigan and Ohio State. Michigan State at some points has been a really competitive football team. I'm like, that's the only one where it feels like you could get to the fourth team that won a national championship. Not that I think the Big Ten is going to win four in a row

with four different programs, but you get my point here. It gets a lot harder to get that deep in the ACC or the Big 12 and even times the Pac-12. Although the Pac-12 maybe has a better chance. But again, I get frustrated with Big Ten only because I'd expect at some point it to go a little bit better. Right now, the SEC in the playoffs is 14 and three against every other conference. So they have more losses.

Yes, against each other. But now they're 14 and three. So then I looked at Bama beating K-State who beat TCU and Bama could name their number against Kansas State. And it wasn't like, oh, Bama should have been in because I just don't think that's fair. Like, what the fuck did we just do for three plus months? Right. I should have been in because I just don't think that's fair.

What the fuck did we just do for three plus months? Right. But when that happened and then Michigan TCU happens, and yes, there was part of me that still couldn't get past that. Maybe Fluky always feels a little insulting, but there was like three specific busted plays in Ohio State Michigan game where I was like, what the hell happened there? Like if Ohio State and Michigan played 10 times, what do you think the record would be? Because I don't think it'd be 5-5. I think Ohio State would win more of those games, but they got trucked at their place

in the second half, credit to Michigan. So what I don't want to do is also turn this into a bunch of stuff where you feel retroactively like we're taking credit away from teams. But there was a combination of events there. I tcu gets michigan you know that house state michigan game was kind of weird well how state's one of three four teams that has the talent that he can match up with georgia that's a close game goes down to the last field goal and then wait that's right

kansas state who beat tcu smashed by alabama I mean, even LSU, who I knew conveniently became like a weird four loss team. Well, I mean, they destroyed a Purdue team that yes, I understand had had some challenges with the coaching stuff, but I mean, give me a break. I, you know, that's, that's two division winners there. And it was, I mean, LSU a break. You know, that's two division winners there. And it was, I mean, LSU probably could have scored more if they wanted to. All right. So you add all these things up and it'll go into next year and it's going to piss off Big Ten fans again. And it's really simple.

Just start winning some of these games, man. Just start winning some of these games. Illinois loses. Ohio State loses, although close. Michigan loses. And then a weird thing from Ohio State fans is like, yeah, hey, we were right there and it could have been. Yeah, but you're Ohio State loses, although close. Michigan loses. And then a weird thing from Ohio State fans is like, yeah, hey, we were right there and it could have been. Yeah, but you're Ohio State. Like, that's not the way you should be looking at things.

You should be pissed off about it, not relieved. Right? I would think. Penn State finally gets a ranked win against a good Utah team that lost their quarterback halfway through it. So it's Penn State's first win of the season, and it happened in January. You're just going to need to start winning some of these games, even though the bowl season could be a little misleading because of stuff that happens depending on who leaves

and the coaching things, right? Again, ask Purdue. You could also ask Florida, and you could ask Kentucky that, right? I know how frustrating and how annoying it is, and then to have another title, four in a row for this conference. But that's why I would say, like, I argue as much as I do about this at times because it comes down to like,

you kind of have to start winning some of these games. If you don't want to start hearing the same arguments that annoy the rest of the conferences this much. So congrats to Georgia. And I remind the audience of this story from Bob Myers, runs the Golden State Warriors. I was asking him about a run that seemed a lot more challenging after they had won. I mean, the same thing happened with Jordan's Bulls, where especially that second three-peat, the third time, even they didn't know if they could do it,

even though they've had the right team for it. It just was mentally exhausting. There's such entitlement that comes with it. There's no way. It's very hard to duplicate the inner drive, that inner motivation when you've actually already accomplished the thing. But he's like, look, imagine this. Imagine if you want to hike Mount Everest with your closest friends and you put together a plan. You booked it all out. You finally got the schedule right. You maybe even talk about it for years. You get the equipment. You hire the guides.

You get there and it's like you're timing it right and it works. You summit it. You make it all the way back down. You're safe and you fucking did it. You did it. You did it. And then one of your buddies is like, hey, you want to do it again next year? There's no way

your focus, your drive, your anticipation, your excitement, it is impossible to keep you to that standard of doing it the first time. And so college football, even though it's a little bit more turnover, I don't think there's

any scarcity of entitlement for teams that have won. Whenever you talk to these teams, like, what happened that next year? I thought you were more talented. Like, man, just wasn't enough buy-in. Wasn't enough buy-in from the guys. Hear it all the time. And even with the turnover, maybe the defensive turnover was good for Georgia, even though talent-wise, it wasn't the same. So that doesn't seem like it makes a ton of sense, but it is so hard to repeat. And so they deserve a ton of credit for it. Even if today it feels like people are going, wait, were they even playing the right team? Yeah, they were, man. They were playing the right team. Even if, like we all thought, the Peach Bowl was the national title game.

Very excited to have Trent Dilfer on one more time here. He had mentioned it last week. Hey, let's talk after the national championship game. So bonus episode of the pod for you, as you understand. Okay, that wasn't close. Well, you know, we play him in Athens week four. Right. Yep. No, we're going to talk about it. That was awesome to watch.

Oh, good times. Did you pick up on anything? You find any weaknesses there to exploit? There's not a whole lot of weaknesses, man. They are super talented. They get better as the year goes on. Scheme-wise, you know, I think when Kirby's saying aggressive, what that meant was they had meant was they were scheme sharp. They had scheme advantages. They felt like they had distinct scheme advantages,

to be honest with you, and it showed in the game. So you put talent, you put hungry, you have tactical advantages. Kirby's a master with creating this chip-on-your-shoulder mentality against the world. That's as good a football as I've seen that group play. I don't care who was out there last night. Nobody really had a chance. No, I would agree with you. I think the first thing that was so alarming was

how easy it was for Georgia. When you had Stetson at that keeper, there wasn't even, there was two blockers out in front and there was no one to block. So you had the little eye candy got TCU thrown off. And again, like there was something I was trying to figure out, like, okay, how could it play out? How could it be competitive? We've been around sports long enough. We know stuff, weird stuff happens. And I was like, man, you know, they got some tackles for loss. They got some penetration against Michigan.

Like, is there any chance? And right from the jump, you're like, this is going to be really easy for them on offense. And then you're thinking, okay, can Duggan and Johnson, can they have some miracle plays here? And it felt like there were 13 defenders on the field for him. That was the other thing. Like, it felt like TCU had no space to ever operate anything. If it wasn't there immediately, which it rarely was there immediately, they weren't going to have any time to go to the other thing.

And it was pretty clear early this was going to be horrifying. Yeah, let's talk about the mismatch of Georgia's defense versus TCU's offense. I thought the biggest thing that stood out was the length, the difference in length in the whole game. I'd say both sides of the ball, but George is not just having it, but knowing how to use it. The extension at the line of scrimmage, shedding blocks, George's defensive line, which is manhandling TCU's offensive line, using their length. In the secondary, using their length to not let TCU's receivers get going,

in the secondary using their length to not let TCU's receivers get going, eating up space. And then the strength, I would argue, too, that Georgia just, their bodies look bigger and stronger. They played with more strength. They didn't miss tackles. TCU just ate up all of what TCU's been doing all year, which is taking advantage of space and speed, length and strength,

trumped space and speed. And I think you see it every year. At some point, you know, these teams go the speed route, the space route, and then they meet length and strength, and it doesn't hold up. And to me, that was the biggest thing. I will go back to Georgia's offense. Munkin and that staff. It's not always just Todd, but Todd's offense coordinator. But they had such an advantage with shifts, motions, personnel groupings,

going to using the two back sets sometimes to take advantage of the perimeter and the passing game. Now, you can draw this stuff up on paper, but Stetson had to execute it, and he executed it at an elite level last night. He's always good. I'm a huge Stetson fan, but he was the best he's ever been in his final game there. It was pretty special to watch.

What was it with the way they were changing up how they were basically tempo um they they threw a lot at tcu it looked like on that first big play to the left side as as herbie pointed out like they broke it really quick um i think he called it a sugar huddle there what was going on with what they were doing with changing up how fast or slow they wanted to go? I think the easiest way for people to understand is they were mixing really well. So they were mixing personnel, formations, shift motions with tempo. When you can do all that, the defense really is on their heels and really had to get in some base looks. And what they did, they were strategic when they used kind of that sugar fast mentality to get them into their base look.

And that was a flood concept to the left, kind of taking advantage of a base look. And they knew if they could sugar out of that in that personnel grouping, that would be the scramble defense. That's kind of what we call it is, what are they going to scramble to? And if we know what they're going to scramble to, then we know we have a tactical advantage on that play. And they did that a bunch throughout the game was kind of using all the different mixtures to get the benign base looks by TCU. They really wanted them in their base defense. And I think we talked about this last week. Like, you know, you want certain teams in their base defense. And I think we talked about this last week. You want certain teams in their base.

And that's what Georgia wanted. And you saw a lot of the big plays coming against just that, TCU and their base alignment, because they were forced either by personnel, either by a shift, either by a motion to get into what I'd call their training camp defense, their day one. Okay, back to Stets it. I'd call their training camp defense their day one. Okay, back to Stetson. We all know the story.

Who is he as an NFL prospect? Chase Daniel. I think that's the name that I keep using. My daughter asked me that last night watching it. Case of dad, when's he going to get drafted? What's he going to become? And I'd say Chase Daniel's a great. Now daniels made i think 42 million dollars and started five games the league so this is a compliment by the way um and chase is a unicorn i mean you know

there's just not many people that are ever going to have that kind of run and honestly i don't know if he i think him not playing may have been the best thing for him yeah i think you're right but you create value for yourself he's sure he's very talented uh stetson's a very talented player uh he throw he can rip the ball uh he has elite twitch in his feet um he's obviously very smart and comprehend a large volume of offense because that's what Georgia does. They run an NFL offense there. So it's just the, the physicality of the NFL is so extreme that, you know, can he stay healthy? And that would be my concern.

I think he could, he execute, but could he stay healthy? It's my only concern I have with Bryce young. You know, I think Bryce young is a generational talent. Um, he's thin jointed. It doesn't weigh a lot.

Can he stay healthy? Um, you know, the, it's a big man's game in the NFL. Yeah. There's some exceptions. Yes. People can question and say, well, what about this guy? What about that guy? But, uh, those guys are unicorns.

Uh, they're outliers. Um, for the most part, the guys that play a long time in the NFL as starters are thick, jointed, broad-shouldered, big-hipped, physical guys. Not height, but stature. as it used to be at quarterback, you still have big dudes landing on you. You know, you still have those out-of-pocket hits. You still have enough opportunity where your body has to stand up to the rigors, which is the NFL. So that's what I think Stetson will be looked at.

I think fifth round, fourth round, to a good team that doesn't need to add a, you know, a corner in that round to add depth or another offensive lineman or an H-back. You look at that fourth, fifth, sixth round, and that's typically where good teams are either adding depth to places that they're talented already or they might be getting old and they need to develop that player,

or they have the ability to take a quarterback that can come in and digest the playbook and execute at a high level in practice. And if your starter goes down, feel good about going in there and playing well. The commander's quarterback, I always pronounce his last name wrong. Heineke. Another comparable. I think Stetson's probably a little more disciplined than him. Yeah, I don't think that one's we agree because like as much as you appreciate what heineke did i think

what ends up costing him his job is people look at him as a total wild card i think with stetson you would go at his worst his his floor is a little higher than some other prospect which a veteran you know team you know i can see the fit for him in a team where it's like, hey, this guy's not going to go out there and kill us. And that's, I think, what the pitch on Stetson. I think you're going to win with Stetson. I really do. I don't know.

You don't want to build your franchise around him, but I think you're drafting him because you believe, wow, we do this right. His work ethic, his grit, all the things that he showed in his career, they're all these, you know, movie type stories that were being told last night, all translate into why you want him on your team. Because if he's your backup quarterback, then those qualities he's going to have to utilize on a day-to-day basis. Grit, determination, perseverance, doing the lonely work, being patient, and go on and on and on. If you have that as your backup, then your starter goes down for six to eight weeks. I think

you feel really good about Estetzi Bennett. I don't think he's not going to get his kill. That's what made me think of this. That's not how I would look at it. Gardner Minshew is another one who I'm a big fan of. I think Gardner is a guy that you can win with in this league. And, you know, it's just can't, you don't build your franchise around them. They're on your team because they add massive value in the week of practice. and if they're asked to play you feel like you can win with them yeah look there's some good throws out there this is not the one side of the field you know totally limited system thing like that bowers throw that he throws and he times it up where bowers is breaking behind the defensive player and there's

a crowd there that's not like i felt like that's the kind of throw you go okay there's more to this than just here's the recheck down here's the recheck down that we see with so many of the prolific offenses which you know again i don't blame teams for running some of these systems because they're putting up points but i think that's always kind of that that thing that you're looking for like is this guy really going to play on sunday like the lad throw was sick the ad throw was sick. The AD throw was sick. I think there's some good throws in there. Anyway, go ahead.

No doubt. And I'll go on that. I think it's a really interesting thing for the fan. If you want to really get geeky about this as we get into pre-draft, I think you can get this on PFF. I think this is available to the fan out there. You may have to pay for it. But get a quarterback spray chart.

Get a quarterback. And then a spray chart equals throw catalog. And it's pretty revealing every year when I do that. Now, this will be the first year I haven't done pre-draft evaluations since 2008 because I'm doing my own thing. But every year, kind of my final thing that I would do after I did the intangible evaluations, the production evaluations, the traits, talking to GMs, talking to college coaches, blah,

blah, blah. It was, I'd go and look at the spray chart and it would tell me what their throw catalog is. And it's pretty revealing sometimes. Sometimes these guys are like left 12 yards and under right 12 to 20, very little in the middle of the field, very little in the middle of the field, very little runaway stuff, you know, where receivers are crossing the field and running away from your arm.

Stetson's going to have a massive spray chart. He's going to have a massive throw catalog because Ton Monken demands it. Like that offense, you have to attack every place on the field. It will be better than most. It'll be better than the other guys. And then conversely, I'll bring up the kid from Kentucky. His is going to be very small.

You know what I mean? Levis is going to have a very small spray chart. He did not make a lot of the same throws. And frankly, can't make the same throws that Stetson Bennett can make and has made at the highest level of college football, basically semi-pro football. So again, I couldn't be more bullish.

What the NFL scouts are going to say is what I started this with is can he stay healthy with the physicality of the NFL game? What about Duggan on the other side? I mean, I know it was a bad night. Yeah. His story is incredible as well. But your thoughts on him? I actually think he's a really good prospect.

He's grown a lot as a passer. He's physically, again, he's got that physicality to him. He's a thick-jointed kid. He's got the stature. He's got really good movement traits. He's a very good thrower of the football. Having Riley as his offense coordinator, he's been exposed to a pretty decent amount of transferable offense to the league. I actually think his stock may rise. That last night may

hurt him a little bit, but I think anybody's going to look at the contextually at that game and be like, Ooh, yeah, that one was, that was a tough one. And you know, Tom Brady had stinkers, Aaron Rogers had stinkers, you know, all these greats, my homes had stinkers. So, uh, don't let one game, um, affect an entire career. And again, I think there's a lot of, uh, stuff, internal stuff that you like about Duggan. His resilience, again, his toughness, the type of leader he is. I was even looking at the cutaway shots

with the frustration on the sideline, and I thought he handled it with a great deal of poise. In fact, I thought the entire TCU team, they were shell-shocked, obviously. That thing got away from them fast. You cannot criticize how they handled it. And sometimes it's hard to handle a beatdown.

And you get, you know, you throw temper tantrums and people start pointing the finger. And there wasn't a lot of that. And it started with Duggan. He really handled that butt kick as well as you could. And I think there's something of value there. I know after, it might have been

halftime of the game because it was so lopsided. And you know, Pollock's not afraid. He was sitting there next to Saban and the clip comes out. He's like, Georgia's taking over the college football world. And if you know Pollock, he's actually not doing it to mess with Saban, but he's totally unafraid

at the same time. And he's like, I'm just going to say it. mess with Saban. No. But he's totally unafraid at the same time. And he's like, I'm just going to say it. And, you know, it turned – and here's the deal. You win back-to-back. You do what they've done. You lose one game in two years. He's not necessarily wrong. I guess I just still resist the idea that I will look at Bama

as now no longer able to contend with Georgia. I don't buy that. I mean, if you tell me all of a sudden the good players are going to start going there and don't want to go to Bama, okay, now we can have that conversation. If you look at the recruiting rankings for next year's class, Bama's actually ahead of Georgia. It's one, and then it's number two. I refuse to believe that Saban with the staff, the way he challenges himself,

the opposite of what Belichick wants to do in New England. New England wants comfort. Saban wants new. You know what I mean? I used to think about the turnover with Bama as this negative, and I'm like, honestly, I think it's almost a positive because at that place, you have to bring your A game. And so here's the end of my statement. Georgia's got it rolling right now no doubt but there seems to be this rush from some media members to act as if the baton can never go back to tuscaloosa i don't think anybody actually in football thinks that alabama is not going to be in contention next year i mean i i see those players like i i see the type of i i know – I just hired a coach from their staff

as my office coordinator, so I know how it works. Alabama is going to be – you're crazy if you think that it's Georgia and everybody else in Bama isn't in that mix. They're going to be just fine. I think the interesting thing is both have to change quarterbacks. It's hard no matter how good you are, no matter how many stars your backup has or how many reps he got to jump in and

play at the level they expect with a new quarterback. So both of them will be breaking in new quarterbacks, whether that's a portal or whether that's a guy on their roster. But yeah, I do think that the top tier of the sec, George, Alabama,

and whoever else you want to put in there is so much better than everybody else. It's, it's alarming. Um, not just from a talent standpoint. Now don't just hear me from a talent standpoint, from a coaching standpoint too. Um, they're running NFL stuff and you watch a lot of college football and they're running college stuff, which is cool. Uh, it's good stuff, but it ain't NFL stuff. And you watch a lot of college football and they're running college stuff, which is cool. It's good stuff, but it ain't NFL stuff. There's a level of sophistication, a level of professionalism, a standard that is in those programs along with a lot of talent that just sets itself apart from anything else. And listen, I get to experience live and in person, baby, as the coach used

to tell me, uh, week four. And I don't think there's no way you can comprehend, uh, what it's like until you play against, but that's, what's exciting about it. You get your players get to be exposed to it and they get to, cause they all want to play in the NFL, right? They're all saying, oh, I'm going to get to the league. Like, okay, great. Well, we're going to go play a bunch of against a bunch of guys. They're going to play in the league and, uh, I'm going to get to the league. Like, okay, great. Well, we're going to go play against a bunch of guys.

They're going to play in the league that have schemes. They're just like the league. And I'll be able to tell you what it's like, but you won't really know until you face it. And I think that's a great opportunity for us and other teams to get to play those teams. Okay, so last thing. Do you watch last night's game knowing you have them

for the fourth game of your season? thing do you watch last night's game knowing you have them for the fourth game of your season like do you do you learn anything from last night is there anything new you do absolutely you do yeah we were texting back as forces forth as coaches and it's not weaknesses you're not like oh look at their week there there are no weaknesses but you're looking for things to give you a shot you're looking for adjustments you can make um you're looking for things to give you a shot. You're looking for adjustments you can make. You're looking for decisions not to make. I think a lot of it is you don't want to go into that game and just give it away, right? So you're trying to make good, wise decisions as a staff of how do you equip your players to not make foolish mistakes. So yeah, there's actually a lot to learn.

And we'll watch both TV copy and game copy dozens of times to give our kids the best answers to the test. Now, they got to go out there and match the physicality and the speed and being at their place. And, you know, all the things that makes college football great, the challenges of it. But, you know, I'm building this whole thing on doing hard things and being uncomfortable.

So, I mean, I think it's apropos that week four is going to be about as uncomfortable and about as hard as you can find in college football. I'm actually jacked about it. I wish we had a few Georges on our schedule. You know what I mean? I think when you're building a program, you need it as hard as it can possibly be. You need it as uncomfortable as it can possibly be so that there's a standard set early

in the program of what is the best and how do you prepare to play against the very, very best in college football? Yeah, I always wonder about that philosophically where, you know, would you be better off having a really tough one week one so that that means your focus should be dialed up right i mean it's human nature hey we've got so and so on the schedule fill in the blank any of the top top programs of college football but then i'd go okay yeah but every team their personality is different so to just buy into one philosophy all the time you're going to end up getting burnt by it the years where the team needed to be built up and instead instead, they get their doors kicked in week one. And then you're trying to build them back up the rest of the way.

Like this is different because it lands later. Obviously, not being in the Power Five conference, there's going to be different ways you want to challenge yourself out of conference, which I think is a really cool part of schedule building with this. But it really probably depends more on the team, even though I'm sure some coaches never deviate from whichever one they think is better. I think what people get concerned with

and having too hard of a schedule is that your guys are going to get beat up and it's going to affect you in league play. I think that would be the common denominator if you talk to a bunch of coaches at mid-majors on why don't you just go play three power fives, you know, three big boys in your preseason.

Well, because we don't want half our team hurt. And then we can't go into conference. I understand that to a certain degree, but I also want, you want your players. Well, for one,

we're not chicken scratch, right? We're not the sisters of the poor. Right. We got some big old athletic dudes on this team and we're going to be just fine. So don't feel sorry for us. We're going to be just fine. But I think you want to see how a mid-major player

for an entire four quarters, can he continue to give you his best against the best? He can give you his best against equal or less than, but at the highest levels of this game, guys that want to play this and get paid to get play it professionally, there's got to be something inside you that allows you to keep giving your best against something that is as good or better than you. And it's a subtle little thing that isn't talked about. That's ultimately what you're looking for in your team.

If you can get a group of guys to continue to give their best when it's not easy, when it's hard, when they're losing some of those battles, when they're losing multiple battles, but they continue to come back and press against the other team that other opponent with their best then you found something so the only way you really know that is to go against the best and that's why i've always been a believer in trying to go against the best as many times as possible trent thanks uh for doing this last little episode with us. It'll be cool, man. We'll just check in with you when everything's official, getting ready for the season.

Talk some ball. Alright, thanks, Trent. Appreciate you, buddy. Bye. Okay, that'll do it. Quick 30 minutes for you. Hope you had fun. Talk to you tomorrow. Brian Russo, the podcast. Thanks to Kyle. And your Spotify. you