Throwbacks with Matt Leinart & Jerry Ferrara - Throwbacks LIVE: Matt and Annie are joined by Urban Meyer and Mark Ingram II| from The Block

Episode Date: February 8, 2026

College Football Hall of Famers Urban Meyer, Matt Leinart and Mark Ingram II are joined by Annie Agar as they discuss their championship experiences and discuss the paths the Seahawks and Patriots took to get to the Super Bowl. They wrap with their Super Bowl picks as well as their favorite to be named MVP. The Triple Option x Throwbacks was presented by NHTSA. We all get distracted when we drive, but how we handle these distractions can be a matter of life or death. Please put your phones on silent and take a mental note to focus on driving. Learn more https://nhtsa.gov. Thank you to our additional sponsors Verizon: America's best and most reliable network Kraft: Learn more and find retailers near you at Kraft-Natural-Cheese.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Light it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome in to a special crossover edition of the triple option and throwbacks live from the block in San Francisco. Please get on your feet and get excited. Here's the host for festivities, Andy Agar. Privy of this time. Now for the college football Hall of Famer, starting with the 2009 Heisman winner, the first ever do it at Alabama, a national champion, Mark Ingram the second. What's better than one Heisman winner? How about a second?

2004 Heisman winner, two-time national champion in 2006 first-round big Matt Liner. Last but not least, the man that won three college football national championships, two at Florida and won at Ohio State, Urban Meyer. Yeah, man. Yeah, coach. Coach has some bad knees, you know, getting old. For the record, guys, those Florida national championships, that was back before the club need to expand to the SEC in.

But, you know, sad to the point. All right, guys, as they said, I'm Annie Agar. I'll be your host today. We were doing some trivia earlier. Now we're going to get into some NFL and college football talk. Guys, welcome to Super Bowl 60. You made it to San Francisco. How are we feeling?

Good? Yeah. As someone who has traveled in San Francisco this whole week, I know that the roads out there are not easy. So congratulations on making it here. Those roads are not easy to get to the Super Bowl, unlike the Patriots. Okay, let's get started. She's already a banger.

She's already banger. We're going to talk some Super Bowl first. Let's start with Matt as the only one up here that made it to one. But don't feel bad, guys. Josh Allen hasn't either. Let's start with, it's going to be a long day. That's all she does. Shots.

It's fire. It's so bad, you guys. It's so bad. But first, I do want to say, before we get into the Super Bowl, this is a crossover special edition, live of throwbacks and triple option. Matt and I are on throwbacks. Mark, obviously, and coach are on the triple option. This is sponsored by NHTSA. We all get distracted when we drive, but how we handle these distractions can be a matter of life or death.

You guys, please put your phones on silent, take a mental note to focus on driving paid for by NHTSA. Okay, let's get into the game. As I said, I want to start with Matt here. Pretty big Super Bowl. Your Cardinals did lose to the Steelers back in 2009. Man, whoever won that as a coach, is a great coach. You should never let him go, Pittsburgh. Okay.

I want to get to this game. What from that game stood out to you, experience? wise and kind of how like what do you talk about this super bowl week what was what stood out the most in that game yeah i mean i think just as a football player your your goal like in college is to win for a national championship in the nfl's so to win a super bowl or be a part of one and that year in oh eight i was in the i was playing behind kurt warner in Arizona um we went on an epic super bowl run we barely won our division i think we're nine and seven um and we hosted a first round playoff game against Atlanta. I think Matt Ryan was a rookie that year. And then the dominoes just

fell perfectly. So the second round game, we played at Carolina, and we had beaten them earlier in the year. We're like, it was Jake Delome and all that. We're going to, we're going to beat that. Like, we knew that. And then we won that game. They were the one or two seed. And then we played the Eagles, and we hosted an NFC championship game against a wild card because the Eagles went on an epic run, too. So it just all kind of fell in our favor. We beat the Eagles. And then we play Pittsburgh. And two things stick out in that game for me. Larry Fitzgerald, who just got in the Hall of Fame, which is awesome.

So congrats to Fitz. He took an under route for like 70 yards. I don't know if you remember that. It took an under and split the safety. And me and Brian St. Pierre, I was the backup. He was a third thing. We were hauling down the sideline. That's going to win.

Nothing else to do that game, but like hype up our guys. And then I was telling, I didn't tell the story. So Ben Rothesberger was great. He goes down. San Antonio Holmes has a catch in the end zone. You guys are probably seen it a million times. Just toe taps and we're like devastated. We get the ball back with, maybe it's a minute, 30 seconds.

Kurt Warner gets sacked by Lamar Woodley and he hurt his shoulder on the play. Oh. Coach, they said, liner, warm up. I was about to throw a hell Mary to try and win the Super Bowl. The last play of the game. I think, I don't remember. if it was like we ran out of time or stuff. Did you warm up? Yeah, I was about to warm up on the sideline. But I was like, I hadn't played the whole game. Kurt was like banged up. And you need to throw

Hail Mary. They needed me to throw in to throw like a 60 yard just to keep it up there. Thank God I didn't have to go in. We ended up moving. But anyway, all that being said, we lost. It was heartbreaking. But to play in that game is just special. It was in Tampa, Florida that year. And just to be a part of it, it's pretty, it's pretty amazing. So excited for both these teams tomorrow. Let's talk about, we got some 49ers fans out here, right? I saw some earlier. You guys here. Oh, yeah, there is.

Yeah. Did you play, you played in the trivia earlier, right? Didn't win, though, man. Rough year for 49ers fans. Okay, guys, let's talk about Levi Stadium because Mark up here is no stranger to Levi's Stadium, unlike Brandon Ayuk, by the way. Lord. Mark had one hack of a game.

I'm just going to read off the stats here in the 41 to 23 win, 171 total yards, two touchdowns. You had one of your best games in your pro career back in 2016. Do you think there's a guy on Sunday that can live up to that height production-wise? 170? Yeah, 171. You know, I can't tell you the yards to carry, receiving touchdown, you know. But yeah, yeah, it was a good day.

But, yeah, I'm kind of being on Seattle. I think they have a lot of juice on offense. I think their defense is how they rush for. I think it's going to be a problem, especially Drake. May has been sacked, I think like 15 times in the playoffs. So anytime you can rush four and drop seven, I think that's a great recipe. But offensively, they just got a lot of juice, and I'm big on Kenneth Walker. I think Kenneth Walker, the third, I think he is a playmaker, like one of the best backs in the

court, I mean, one of the best backs in the league. Obviously, he has this time to shine with the injury to Charbonnet, but I think his ability to run the football, his ability to come out to backfield in the screen game, contribute like that. I think he has a chance to be very very. very productive and have a chance to go be an MVP for a Super Bowl team. We're going to do our Super Bowl picks later, too, guys. If I gave that away already.

No, no, I'm excited. No, it's good because you could change last minute. Yeah. We got a Russell Wilson jersey here. Is that a Russell Wilson jersey? Yeah. He was great in the Super Bowl, wasn't he? Okay, let's talk to Coach about we, before we came on here, you guys,

we were sharing some stories, and Coach has obviously a ton of stories. But there's one in particular about Coach Mike Brable. not verbal, as some may say it. Coach Mike Brable, and he was on, did anybody get that reference? Did you get that reference? Did you get a question? Anyway, coach has some stories about coach Mike Brable,

who just won coach at the year because he was on your staff at Ohio State. So why don't you share what, what do you think, first of all, Brable is telling these guys to get them prepared, but also share your insight on what you know about coach. Yeah, I text with Mike all the time, and I text him one about three weeks ago.

and he always shares his messages, and I won't get it because he probably doesn't want me to share, but he's a violent guy, man. He's one of my favorite people I ever been around, and I grew up in Ohio, so I knew Rable is a great player at Ohio State, one of the best players ever played at Ohio State. So I get hired in 2012 at Ohio State,

and the AD asked me to meet with Luke Fickle, the defense coordinator, and I meet with him, no intention of keeping him, but he does such a wonderful job that I said, I'm going to hire this guy. I mean, him and his wife, they're great people and they're good on defense. I hire him, and I start walking out of the room,

and he said, one favor, coach, could you meet with Mike Vrable about being on our staff? And I was like, Luke, I'm not going to do that. Mike Vrable is a great player, but this is Ohio State. This is the time for training wheels. I need guys that, I mean, we're going to make a run at this thing. And he goes, would you do it? And I said, okay, I'll do it.

Let's go 7 a.m. on Friday. So I come walking in, and I'm so old school, I come walking in. There's Mike Grable. I mean, he's a giant guy. And I met him a few times. He was at the Patriots. I used to go visit Coach Belichick all the time.

And, hi, Mike. How you know? I'm looking, he's wearing jeans and a T-shirt. And I'm thinking, what the hell? And I had a couple of coaches with me. I asked him to come with and just hear this because I, you know, I got to make a big decision here. And so I said, Mike, I sit down in the front row.

And I said, all right, Mike, I'm a freshman defense alignment. You recruited me. You signed me. It's our first day of practice. This is our first meeting. meaning teach me your expectations, tell me your expectations, give me your core fundamentals that you're going to teach me, and then take me through your pass rush, your past rush fundamentals,

which for the coaching profession, that's like 101. That's not hard. You know, if I said, give me your third down package or something, that's a little more complicated. I look at Mike, and Mike's full of sweat. He's never done that before. And he's his t-shirt, I'm looking at me. I mean, he's sweating like a,

mule and he's he's like drawing circles like like my daughter what you know he's like doing this and i was like what the hell and i look at luke fickle and the coaches like this and i stop him after about 10 minutes and he's glad i stopped him i said mike i said all due respect you you want three super bowls you're alleged to oh ha ha ha stay but we we you know you might need to go coaching the mac or something and get a little experience and then come back and but i'll tell you what i'll do mike I'll go again tomorrow at 6 a.m. And we'll give it one more shot. I walk out the door.

Mike tells a story. He goes home and sees his wife and she says, are we good? And he goes, no, we're not good. Matter of fact, we're probably out. But I'm going to go back to the office with Coach Fickle. They got back at 7 o'clock at night, stayed up all night, slept a little bit in the office. I come walk in and he's got a shirt and tie on,

but he looked like he's up all night, you know. And he did a much better job. But the reason I tell that story is because great players at times, my experience is it's very rare that a great player because they spent their whole life playing. When they're done playing, they want to go enjoy their life. And coaches don't enjoy their life now. I mean, it's at times awful. You're 6 a.m. to midnight. And I wanted to make sure, Mike, he proved to me one thing, and you're seeing it on display with the Patriots.

He's a man's man's, he's a player's coach. He's tough as shit. He's one of the great dudes ever been around, but he also proved to me that he wanted to learn to be a great coach. Did you see that in him once you hired? Instantaneously, yeah. But even the teaching and practice? Oh, much better.

And he was one of those guys that he would come in our meetings and say, how do you do this? Because I had really good coaches on our, obviously, on our staff. And he learned within two years. And last story about Mike Rabel is we're playing, we don't, do we have, I guess we're far from Ohio. I saw all this USC stuff. No Ohio people here?

I got one. You're the smartest-looking guy in the room. So the big robbery game, obviously, the Wolverines, and my first... Wow. Lord. Wow. Fighting words. Lord.

So we're playing in the rivalry game. It's about 10 degrees in the Ohio Stadium. And I come in a locker room and give the last final talk before we go out and play the game. And the game starts. And I look over and Mike Rable. He's got like a beanie on, and there's like a large cut with like crusted blood around his eyes. And I look and I'm going to go, what in the hell? And I'm not going to ask because I'm busy to coaching the game.

And the game is, oh, we win the game. And I go to go to the locker room and everybody's hugging each other. I go, what the hell happened to you? He goes, he was like, I got carried away, man. All the players are headbutton everybody. I just started a head button everybody. I thought it was a player. He forgot he didn't have a helmet on.

Oh, that's Mike Brable. He might head butt a little bit tomorrow. That's the kind of coach. Love the guy. Great, great coach. Tennessee should look for getting a coach like that. There we go. Shots.

It's these little things. I have to get the... Yeah, you've got to get it. You've been getting yours off, for sure. You know, they've got the history to back them up. I have nothing but jokes, so you guys are stuck with me. We're going to take a short little break, and then we're going to get into some more college football talk,

because obviously we have some experts up here on that. But we'll be right back in a second. Thank you guys. I'm U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. We all get distracted when we drive, whether it's from our phones or kids in the backseat bickering. But how we handle these distractions can be a matter of life or death. Before you get in the road for your next road trip, please put your phones on silent and take a mental note to focus on driving. Paid for by NHTSA.

It doesn't anymore, dude, they're hard. I have to order them through like 9. Nike and all that stuff. All right, guys. There we go. Now we're back. That's a quick break. Man, I hope those commercials are like that in the Super Bowl. Welcome back to the triple option.

It's time for Crossroads presented by Nitz. As I said earlier, we all get distracted while we're driving, you guys. But how you handle these distractions can be a matter of life and death. Please put your phones on silent. Take a mental note to focus on driving paid for by Nizza. Let's focus a little bit on college, okay? As you know, where we're probably going with this, Indiana. Insane year.

I genuinely can't believe it. As someone that grew up in Big Ten territory, this has got to be the wildest turnaround for a program I've ever seen. I think you guys just talked to Signetti recently. So I want to break down maybe just fill people in on what he's like. For the people that don't know, hurt Signetti. I mean, explain what this man is, what this man has done to this program. He recruited Mark Bama.

Yeah, he did. So he was the first person I saw from the University of Alabama. He flew to Flint, Michigan, and he came to recruitment. Yep, yep, yep. He came and recruited me. And, man, he was just always like a straightforward guy. He kind of always had like a plan. And he told me, like, what he thought about me as a player and, like, where I would fit in.

And shoot, I went down there. I took a visit. I ended up going, you know. He started the recruiting process. But he's just always been, you know, a straightforward guy, kind of like trying to get, trying to be the best, like, always had a plan. like always like followed the right instructions, was always learning and shoot.

He was with us for three years. He took a gamble on himself, started being a head coach, I think, at like Elon or something, right? Like some small school. He just worked his way up. He's been a winner ever since he's been a head coach and just a straightforward dude,

but he thinks he has like a little sense of humor too. He'd be like cracking jokes here and there, you know what I mean? So, but he's a good dude, man. He's a good guy and, yeah, he just recruited me, man. So that's kind of like some history there with Coach Ignati. I'm happy for him that he's doing such a good guy. great job in India. Did you reach out to him after?

Of course. Of course. I haven't seen him in person since. I haven't seen him in person since. We saw him. We did a big ten championship. Yep. Yep.

Yep. Yep. We saw a big ten championship. Yeah, Big Ten championship. Yeah. But super excited for him and his family and he deserves all the success he's getting. Matt, you want to talk about? Yeah.

I mean, I still think we still joke about it. Just like Indiana football is your national champions. And it's wild. But I don't know. Coach could speak more. on this as a coach, but I feel like he has this plan and this process and how he goes about, but it's one thing to have it, and then it's one thing to execute it. And obviously, coach executed at a high level winning multiple national championships, but for Signetti to have that

and to get the most out of his players, because they aren't the most talented team. There's, there's no doubt about that, but they were the most fundamentally sound with the talent that they had, because they had good players. And the way they played football, it was, It was kind of old schools. Wow. It was just like the offensive line perfectly moved in motion, the defensive line. They were always in the right place. And that's just, that's a direct reflection of coaching.

I think we have great coaching in every position. So we covered them a couple games last year. They were fun to watch. They're going to have the number one pick in the draft, which is crazy next year or this year in a couple months. But, um, Signetti's a different Catholic. He's a different. He's just, yeah, no nonsense, which I love.

I first met him 30 years ago. I was at Notre Dame and he was at Pitt and kind of a strange guy, you know. And we became friends. And then he was on Johnny Major's staff. He reminded this on the pod and they offered me a job and I didn't take it. But we talked and laughed about it. But we covered him Big Noon, which were all on Big Noon, Fox Big Noon. We covered them two years ago.

And they started winning in my history of Indiana is that you usually hammered them pretty good. Yeah. It just weren't very good. Yeah. And I remember watching the first half from the green room. And this is when they started winning. I was thinking, wait a minute. Now this is his well-coached team.

Their back-shoulder throw. Remember they were the doctor of the back-shoulder throw? You never see their defense give up big plays. They're great tacklers. The perimeter blocking is elite special to everything was working. I was like, I left these guys. I went out, and I stood right next to Cignetti. He'll kind of go wherever we want.

I stood right on the sideline. I wanted to watch them. You know, as a coach, you can tell if this is an organization. organized process what's going on and it was unbelievable and that was a year ago and then I was like a lot of people so this house of cards has got to fall there's no way that's in the end is Hoosiers right and they were so much better even this year and he it's a credit it's and I can say this I'm almost 62 over 40 years that's the greatest coaching job I have ever witnessed in my lifetime what him and his staff and it's not just him he has two coordinators been with him for

nine years and the challenge will be and you know all this. Pete Carrow went through it, Nick Saye went through it, I went through it is when you start losing your coaches. Because those guys should be head coaches. What they've done?

Yeah. If they're not, the, was it Mike Shanahan, and then Brian Haynes, the defense coordinator, who by the way, worked for me in Ohio State.

Those guys, what they did, I'm telling you, the best coaching job I've seen. 100%. Brian Harlan just got hired too, right? So that's kind of the same thing we see.

Brian Hartline? Yeah. Well, that's what made, I think, Nick Sabin and Bama as he was turning over guys every year and still winning, which is incredible. So it'll be interesting if Cignetti can do that once he starts losing these guys. Yeah.

Yeah, I want to talk about Fernando Mendoza a little bit. We'll start with Matt on this because Fernando Mendoza, you know, won a Heisman, also won an Addy. Probably, most likely, will be the number one overall pick. And these guys kind of wanted to know, they said we want to see what you do. So I'll give you guys a look into what I do on social media. Okay? So he was in an interview the other day, and he said that he, since he won the Natty, he's now addicted to winning.

So I, of course, quote, tweeted that. And I said, well, the Raiders about to help the kid beat an addiction. So good for them. Poor, poor Fernando. He's about to get roasted. But I do want to ask Matt, where does he rank in terms of number one overall picks? Like, his success that he's had and where he's going to go in the NFL, where do you think he ranks? I mean, it's too hard.

It's so hard to tell now. But I've seen the narrative of a lot of guys out there saying, like, oh, he doesn't look like a number one pick and this or that. It's like, I just, I kind of think that's BS. You know, one, it's really hard when you're a top pick. You're going to the worst team in the NFL, and there's only been probably a handful of number one picks that can really just kind of transcend the team. You know, Andrew Luck was won.

I mean, like, there's a couple guys, right? That's it. And then I think the thing with Fernando, though, and he's such a different kid. Like, he's so smart, and he's just football, and he's kind of like this innocent mindset, you know, but he's a hell of a football. player. And I think what makes him so good, at least in my opinion, is he's really physically gifted

now. Like he can, he moves well, he can throw. He's a big kid. He's like six four. But, you know, I played with, and probably similar to Drew Breeze, who Mark played with, I played with Kurt Warner. And Kurt Warner was, he's a Hall of Famer. He wasn't, he's 6-2, 215 pounds, didn't have a great arm. But he was so great here. And that's where he, that's where he just beat you. And he was accurate and he knew where to go with the football. And I think Fernando, that That's like the strength of his game, the way he processes before the snap, the way he can see the defense, because he has the tools too. So I think that, to me, is why I think he's going to be successful. It's just hard.

I mean, you look at Sam Darnel. He's the perfect story. That's been the big narrative. Didn't work out in New York. He was the third pick in the draft. And now look at him. Does anybody work out of New York? Exactly.

So, again, Fernando going to Vegas. Brady is there, which I think he's going to help probably more than people. would think, but he's a hell of a player. He's a great kid. That kid is going to be successful. There's no doubt in my mind. And I think they can build around him. Yeah.

Yeah, people don't have success until they leave New York. Yeah, yeah. And they do well. Geno Smith did well when he left. It's just, the Jets are just, oh my goodness, man. Yeah. Both, yeah, Jets and Giants. The Raiders were so bad, though, this year.

So bad. Well, they're just their roster. Their roster is bad. I mean, like, I've been watching football for a while, you know. And, like, That was one of the worst football teams I ever see. Are there Raiders fans here?

No? No. I had Ashton Gentian fantasy and I'll be watching the games and it was like sticking pencils in my eyes. It was just so bad. I'm like, oh my goodness, man.

That's your fault for drafting them though. Well, I believed in the kid. He's good. You believe in the whole line though? They suck. They were bad. I'm going to add this and I just think the quarterback and Matt knows

it's the most difficult position in all of sport and they get blamed and they get all the glory and they deserve neither, you know, because there's one great common denominator of a great quarterback. You've got great players around them. Great team. And there's one common denominator of a shitty quarterback. They got, you know, it's a shitty team.

And Alex Smith played for me at Utah. That's like my son. He goes to 49ers, and they were awful. And here's Alex Smith's a bus. He's a bust. No, he's not a bust. Go let him play for Andy Reid at the Chiefs and see how much of a bust he is. Orwin Harbaugh went to the 49ers.

So I worry about him. I wish there was, I think the ultimate quarterback factory has been the Green Bay Packers is the way they've done it. They draft a guy, they let them learn from a monster from an all pro. Because the game changes from high school to college to the NFL is just giant leaps and bounds and nothing. There's no other position in a sport that's more experience focused than the quarterback position.

Yep. What a great program. Whoever's a fan of that program. Great fan. Packers? Yeah. You are? I am.

He's a diehard. Yes, you missed it earlier. He's a crazy cheese. Is my friend down here? No, he's not here anymore. I got to F the Packers right when I stepped on stage. I'm not even in Chicago anymore, guys. Why don't you tell the story about when your Packers lost to the Bears and you walked down the street?

I don't remember that. Look, that's for my therapist only, okay? Okay. Well, we can't talk about college football without talking about NIL a little bit. Coach and I were talking about it earlier. And I asked him, and I want to ask him. And I want to ask you guys this, too, because it's changed a lot since you guys. Does that make you frustrated to see all?

I mean, not frustrated, but like you missed this huge wave of NIL. It's just. I mean, well, they were paying Bama players back on the way. They were paying. They were paying USC. We know how USC get down. So don't be throwing stones from a glass house, dog. They'll be throwing stones from a glass house.

What do you mean? What do you mean, bro? I'm kidding. I think, you know, it's funny. I get asked all the time about, gosh. You would have made a ton of money, though, bro. Yeah, no, I would have made a lot of money in college, that's for sure. I don't know.

He would have broke the bank. Golden Boy Lefty in L.A.? Yeah. Him and Reggie. Ritchie already had that money. You know, Mattie had that money, too, you know? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I was going to ask, like, oh, what would have been like?

I don't know. Like, I don't know any different, you know? It had been nice to make money, of course. But, like, I don't know if that would have changed me. I've seen, you know, we've all seen it, like money can change you, especially at that age, and now these kids are chasing money, they're going to teams left and right, and it's just, it's, there's a lot of good in college sports now. I think there's a lot of good in college football, and there's a lot of good in the NIL,

I believe that, but it is different. And, you know, my son, gosh, my oldest son is at SMU, and he's a scholarship athlete. Just dropped them off. Just dropped them off. Just dropped them off. A lot of applause for my man, you know what I mean. It was, uh, my nephew out there, SMU. Yeah, Uncle Mark, man.

Uncle Mark, my son Cole loves Uncle Mark. He calls him the du wreck. What do you call it? The du rag God. The du rag God. And he's, I mean, he's making money. The dewy God. Yeah, he's making money, which is crazy.

It's like my 19-year-old son can't even do his own laundry. And now he's getting rev share every month. And it's a good thing. Like, it's cool, but it's just different, you know. So I'm happy for these kids. I hope that they all can find good representation. around them to help them make these good choices. But, yeah, it's just a different world.

You know, it's a different world. Yeah. Yeah, when we were upstairs, I asked coach, and you can elaborate on this, I said, would you give an opportunity, would you come back and coach now? Because we know Sabin pretty much wanted out because of NIL seemed like. Would you come back and coach with all the NIFL stuff and having to recruit dealing with all that? No. Coach is not coaching no more.

He lives a good life. He's playing all the golf. But I remember we did the can. Kansas game and Bill Self, the great basketball coach. I didn't know. It came out, put his arm around and he said, man, you'd love this recruiting. I looked like, I go, what? He said, you would love the style of recruiting because back in the day, you had to write letters, you had to text. I had a guy, a full-time member of my staff, everywhere I went, he went for 24-7. Other than when I got in a car to drive home and I came back, he'd be waiting my office. He would text 400 people a day,

recruits, non-stop, and he'd be sitting there. I'd be doing my film, being the staff meeting, and he had carte blanche. He could interrupt me. Zeke Elliott just texted you coach. And he's asking about, you know, whatever. And I would have to tell him stuff. And then when I drove home at night, he would hand me 10 phone numbers and all the stuff said, you talked, you texted him yesterday,

and here's what it said. And I'm driving home. I'm trying to read this nonsense as I'm driving home. And I guess that's all gone now. Because now it's simply, what's the number? Transactional. It's transactional. We don't have to go to dinner with your parents.

We don't have to meet your girlfriend and talk to the principal. What's the number? What's the number? So it's... What's the number? Yeah, it's crazy. Which is amazing. And these kids will never know that.

The difference in that is something like that. I think it's good for them. You know, I'm happy that these young athletes can make money, you know. And obviously, there's a lot of things that need to be fixed. But I think it's... The NCAA has generated so much money over all this time. You know, they had free... labor. Like, you know what I mean? So I'm just glad these young guys are, you're seeing, like,

there is a lot of good NIL. You see some of these young kids who have the right people, the right support system, they're impacting the community. They're, you know, learning how to invest it. Like, these kids are going to be wealthy younger. And, you know, so I think there's a lot of good in it, but there definitely needs to be something. I'm anxious to see the residual. If there is, if there is, I've always been a believer in education, a life after ball, like Sabin. And, you know, this is all about a 40-year plan, not NAL runs out when you leave college. I hope they know that. Yep.

And then most of them aren't going to play in the NFL. Right. If they do it, not for long. That's why they're trying to get six and seven years. And then they're 26 years old and they're going to say, where's my NIL? None. Now you got to go to work. And you can't leave.

You can't leave because this boss gave you this job. You know what I mean? I can't just go to this corporate. You can't just bounce around. You've got to learn how to like fight through adversity. Go through the ups and downs. And usually when you do those things, it makes you a better, you know, better person in life. And remember on the triple option or on Big Noon, they said 40% or 35% of all the transfer

portal people that are promised by agents we can get you a better deal they don't get a better deal and they're left with the worst deal or out of the scholarship right it's almost like the media and people aren't covering that but at some point that residual if there is residual damage is going to start surfacing well there was 40 percent of like like close to 40 percent 30 something percent of college football in the portal like every single person in that portal is not going to be on a roster one out of three well most of them don't most of them they stopped because they don't have a scholarship waiting for them, which is ridiculous.

I think it's great in the sense of, unless you're like a guaranteed first round pick, I mean, like all these, especially as a quarterback, like the going rate, and I'm, you know, embellishing numbers a little bit, but like if you're starting quarterback in Power 4, you're making like a minimum of $1.5 million, probably. Like at a rut curse or something,

you're making a million and a half. Now if you go to Bama, you're making three, four, maybe five million dollars. Carson Beck. That is crazy. And a lot of these kids aren't even first round grades. So it's like stay in school as long as you can't possible. That's why they appeal in this long as you're for seven years.

I'm like, you got to go to, you got to go somewhere. Sometimes we laugh for like six year. I'm like, I don't know. First of Beck said he had been in class in two years on TV. That's a pro. And he's making five million dollars. Like even that, I mean, that's life changing money for a kid if you do, even if you don't make the NFL at that point, you know.

So like it's a lot of good. and I hope Ty Simpson is interesting because he's the Alabama quarterback he had a great year he elected to come out he turned down a $5 million offer to go somewhere or stay

or whatever he's not going to make that and he's projected a first round pick Yes the quarterback class is The quarterback club But still it's like

I don't know You know I don't like that would have been tough to turn down like but But are you weighing And you're potentially better quarterback class Next year You know, now you're not...

But then you make the five minutes. I don't know. Yeah, it's an interesting, I guess, dilemma. It's not a dilemma. It's a good thing. You go first round. I mean, you got to go, you got to slide, man. Because I don't know if they wanted, you know, him to...

They got some other quarter... You know what I mean. You know how this college football thing is now, but I don't know. Yeah. It's a weird time. Well, we always know that the good thing is Michigan will always need football players. You just have to be able to read the other team's signs. Okay.

Let's get transitioned back into... That was for coach. We'll transition back into the NFL here. On this stage, you guys, there are combined six championships. It's pretty impressive. I've contributed zero. That's okay, though. I'm just here to host.

The show it's yourself now. You know, I'm working on it. We want to discuss championship performances. This is powered by Verizon, America's Best and Most Reliable Network. We're going to play a little game. What I want you guys to do is give me your best championship performance. Now, this could be NFL, could be, college could be a specific player, specific thing you remember,

best championship performance as a Packers fan. I don't know what that is. So I'm going to sit this one out, especially NFC championship. You know, Brett Farberra. Farberra. Which Hall of Fame quarterback was that? Coach already talked about that. No, best championship performance.

Mark, do you have one all start? I can go NBA. Anything. Whatever you think is best? NBA? Yeah. One that comes to mind is LeBron James. 2016 they were down 3-1 to the yeah yeah yeah come on man you're a warriors fans here

I'm sorry man but everyone know that that was a 3-1 you know the best team and you know the NBA he was down 3-1 he goes for a triple double in game seven yeah he goes for a triple double in game seven and and he finishes the 3-1 comeback on the Warriors that was ridiculous that when he pinned the ball and the backboard on the defensive It's all good Is that the year of Cairo Hit the shot?

Kyrie hit the shot. Kyrie, yeah, one of the bad ones. He was here on the road too. Yep. Here, yeah. 3-1. Come back on the Warriors.

All right, Matt. Oh. That was an ass kicking to the sooner. Yeah, let's get that. I got a bunch of those. 20 years ago. Oh, my God.

So the people, coach. A boat ride? You're so stupid You got to show the people You're going to show the people man Yeah I got to show the people man Baby Matt

That's NIL all over I was just going to say How much NIA would you gun? Wild That boy had that flow going That boy You know Yeah I had a lot of hair back then

I would say I mean that was That was a great game That was a fun game To be a part of I hate bringing up But Vince Young When he beat us in Texas

was 20 years later, and I love VY. He's a great dude, a great friend. He was one of the best college football players I've ever seen. I played with Reggie Bush, who in my opinion is one of the best, maybe top two of all time, maybe best. VY is right up there.

Just to watch him in person, I mean, he's single-handedly beat us. I mean, that was back-to-back Rose Bowl games, because I think the year before it was Michigan, he had like 600 yards of offense. The gear against us, he had 500-something, run and throwing. He, that was as impressive as I've seen.

And then, I mean, the Brady comeback against the Falcons to me is just still, like in the Super Bowl being down 23. 28 to 3. I don't care who you are. That's like, you know in the NFL, you have only three or four possessions and a half if you're lucky. And that, that to me is still the greatest comeback I've ever seen in football. The Falcons are so booty cheese. It was like a comeback of his career too.

Like that change. Oh, it was just ridiculous. It all started. Dante Hightower. Back fumble. Yeah, Bama boy. So those two stick out. I'm going to go back for guys on the stage.

So, 08. I was at Florida, and we were number, no, we were number two. Mark was number one, right? Yeah. No. At Alabama. Yeah.

Because the next year we flipped it. Yeah. And Tebow put on, Tim Tebow on coach Tim in Florida, and he put on one of the greatest shows in that game. And we beat whoever won that SEC championship game, Alabama, Florida is going to win the title. Yeah.

And we won. Two years in a row. We beat Oklahoma the next year, the next game. Killed them. But then, 09, your championship performance in that game. Every time I see Mark with the Heisman, I feel like sign in the side of it because we gave that Heism. He had 200 plus all-purpose yards against us in that championship.

I appreciate you, coach. Sure. Sign that thing. We were back to back, man. You got us in 08. I needed my get back in 09, you know? Then we played in 2010, but you said you allegedly didn't coach that team. I always tell them I'm 2-1-1.

versus him. He says one and one. I'm like, I have footage you're coaching his team. He did. He did coach him. He doesn't claim his team. He doesn't claim his team. We lost our whole team. So it doesn't count. That sounds like an excuse. No, it doesn't count. So it doesn't count. So one in one, we're one and one. Yeah, but I appreciate that coach, man. Yeah, you're a good one, man.

You hurt my feelings. You said away, but you brought me back. As his big asses running down the field and I never thought we'd be partners like to. Yeah. Yeah, man. So I get, when I get on Big Noon, I get hired at Big Noon, you know, the news breaks, I get this text. This is from Coach Meyer, he's like, man, he's like, we're finally on the same team. I said, damn right. Finally. Finally, we're on the same team.

I got a great story. You got to tell him the Heisman night? Oh, yeah, tell him. So in 2004, it was me. So I won the Heisman, Adrian Peterson finished second. It was Jason White. It was Alex Smith. So he was there with Alex for Utah.

And back then, there was no real cameras, no nothing. Like, if you won the, and maybe with you two, I don't know, you were 09. Yeah. So, like, it was like you got a limo and you got like the keys to the city. You got the limo? They upgrade you to that big suite. Yeah, they upgrade you to that big suite. A limo all night, any club, anything you wanted.

It was like a free night in New York. And it was, it was awesome. It was. we get in the limo and it's me I think my brother it was Herb Street it was AP I think Fowler was in there

it was coach it was Alex Smith yeah a couple other guys and maybe a couple other guys couple of the Heisman guys I wasn't in there right away remember what happened? So yes what happened

so I go see Alex Smith I just take the Florida job and Herb Streets text me hey we're going out we're going to some club in L.A. or we're in New York. New York. We're some club,

and I'm not going to some club in New York. And so I'm going to meet Alex Smith's family after the Hysman's over. And so I'm walking to go meet Alex's mom and dad. And her street's like, yeah, we're out back. Come on, you got to come with us, or I want to see you and all that. So I'm walking. I'm not even thinking. I'm headed to see Pam and Doug Alex's parents.

And I'm walking. All of some, the door swings open to this limo, and it's like a frat party. You guys grab me. I'm a grown man, and they grab me and yank me, and they close the door, and I'm like, leaning over like this. I look up and like, what the shit? There's student athletes in their drive. I'm going, get me out of this.

Student athletes. Student athletes. And I'm thinking, I just got hired at Florida. So, and there was some guy named Guido in that. Remember that guy sitting there? And so they pull up to some, like, big club in New York City, and there's a long line of people, and these guys are all five. fired up and I said, yeah, you're going with us, yeah, I'm going with you.

And they all started going. I walk around back in an Uber and go back. That was the first time I ever met you, I think, yeah. What an intro? There's such a fun night. There's a student of athletes in there drinking. The next year, the next year. How old school does that say?

Not anymore. The next year, Reggie won, and it was me, Reggie and Vince Young. Wow. I knew I knew I wasn't winning. So I was like, I was just there to party with the boys because I was like, I had, I had no shot. And so I was just riding Reggie's coattails all night. So you won the first, Reggie won a second?

Yeah. Back to back. And Carson won it. There was a year in between. So we had won three out of four. But I just remember. That New York night is fun. We were at some club.

Yeah, we send it. And it was me. Send it that night. Send it. Send it. Send it. I was at a table and a little small table. I think it was Club Butter at the time.

Remember Club Butter? I don't know if anyone knows. It was Gregi, me, and Jay-Z. And I was like, what the hell am I doing at this table? That was it. And like two other guys in this little tight-ass table, and I was just like, man, Reg, this is awesome, dude. We had a blast, man.

They can't really do it anymore. I think they allow you to do whatever you want, but they just can't get involved anymore. It's just too much liability. I think a couple of the Heisman winners might have ruined that. It's a A, I think. It's a full send. Yeah.

The full send. You don't know what that is. I'm sure your kids can tell you what that means. Okay. We're going to transition in back to Super Bowl here because we've got to make our picks, you guys. Then you can go party and a little bit of a full send. Okay, Super Bowl picks.

This is presented by Kraft, you guys. The cheese stands alone. Protein cheese sticks. We have some up here. Look at this. We'll be passing these out. Here's one lock. Craft, Natural Cheese, Prote.

He sticks, 17 grams of protein bowl flavor. The cheese stands alone. Thank you, Kraft. We're going to make our Super Bowl picks up here, guys. Now I want, because unlike Tom Brady, we actually pick a team, okay? Jeez. Hey, he changed back. He changed back.

What do he say? He commented on Robert Kraft's Instagram. Oh, you showed me that. Yeah, he did. Good. He kind of, he was feeling the heat, I think. Yeah. For someone who clones dogs.

Go win one. Coach, go win one. Okay, we're going to make our picks. I want your Super Bowl prediction and your MVP. Who wants to start? Mark? MVP. MVP is a tough one, I feel like.

I'm going with Seattle in this game. I just feel like they have a bunch of juice. I respect Mike Vrable a lot. I respect the Patriots and what they stand for as a team. But I just think there's something special by the Seahawk team. I feel like they got a lot of juice on offense, Jackson Smith and Jigba. I think they made one of the best trades at the midseason

getting Rashid Shahid. Kenneth Walker's playing extremely well. The defense, like I said earlier they could rush for and drop seven against Drake May and that team, they've given up like 15 sacks already this postseason. So I just think Seattle has too much juice. I think their defense is strong. I think they're going to get it done.

And my MVP, I would like it to, as a running back, I'd like to see Kenneth Walker, Jackson Smith and Jigbaugh. But usually when a receiver has a good game, the quarterback gets the award because he gets all the numbers too. So I think Sam Darno would be the MVP for Seattle Seahawks winning Super Bowl. I like it. Matt? I mean, I was going to say the same thing. Yeah, I just, I don't know.

I think this game is interesting. I think it's going to be a low-scoring game. Seattle's defense is just the difference maker. I love Drake May, too. I think he's great. I just don't know if they have enough firepower. And Seattle's so good on that side. And the way Sam has played,

and they're just, they're explosive with JSN and then Kenneth. So I like it to be a low-scoring game. I think Seattle covers the game. And again, Sam Darnold, USC Trojan is your MVP, which is not going out on a limb, but I'm just trying not to overthink it. Just thinking Smith-Egibba was the second over,

he was overlooked at Ohio State. He covered him all those years. He was a number two. You know, number two guy. But I'm going to go with Mike, Braybill, just I know I'm very biased, but he's been a part of back-to-back Super Bowls as a player.

He learned from the best organization at the time, the Patriots and he's got him back. One of the great turnarounds in NFL history. And I just think it's to be a low-scoring game and lowest-scoring games. You know, guys like Mike Rable, his player is going to play like him. They're going to be a tough outfit on Sunday. So I'm going to pick the Patriots and Drake May as the MVP with his legs. I think he's going to run a bunch.

I think he's going to get scrambled out. You're going to have to. He's going to be a first down guy. In those kind of games, he's going to be the first down guy. Yeah. Scramble around. In that Denver game, called his own number.

I'm glad you said that because it would have been a clean sweep because I, too, I'm going Seattle, I think. I've been saying by two scores, which everybody's kind of getting on me about. Two scores. Yeah.

I hope it's not. I hope it's a, no, not very confident out of guys. What's the number? Is it four and a half? Yeah, one and a half.

I hope it's a closer game. We deserve a good game. We deserve a good game. We deserve a good game. Like, we don't want to watch no blowout? It's been one of the best NFL seasons. Yeah. Just storyline wise,

drama wise. Halfway through, we had no idea who was going to make to the Super Bowl. We knew it wasn't going to be the Bills. But other than that, we did know. All right, you guys, that is all from us. Thank you for joining us live for this amazing show crossover between throwbacks and triple option. Again, like I said, if you had a great time at the Super Bowl experience, share it with the Bills fan because they may never see it ever in their life. Thank you guys so much.

Thank you guys for coming out. Thank you. Appreciate y'all. Good job. You killed, man. Lady