Will Cain Country - Cain On Sports: Why Are There So Many Busts At Quarterback?

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

On this edition of The Will Cain Show’s Friday sports episode, Will sits down with former NFL Quarterback and FOX Sports UFL and College Football Analyst, Brock Huard to discuss the bust rate of quarterbacks in the NFL Draft, whether or not Arch Manning will sit two years before playing for the Texas Longhorns, and a breakdown of the smash hit UFL, which you can watch live on FOX this weekend.   Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail]   Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show!   Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Quarterback bust rate in the NFL draft plus Arch Manning plus the UFO with Fox Sports analyst Brock Heward. It's the Will Kane show that streams live every Monday through Thursday at 12 o'clock Eastern time at Fox News.com and on the Fox News YouTube channel as well as the Fox News Facebook page and always available on demand by subscribing at Apple, Spotify, or on YouTube. Today we have a fascinating conversation with UFO and Fox Sports Analyst, former NFL quarterback, Brock Heward. But before we get into what it takes to be a successful athlete, what it takes to be a

successful quarterback, and what it all adds up for Arch Manning with Brock Heward, let me talk about, for a moment, Coach Prime, Coach Clicks, and the fall of Colorado. I do have a belief that in life, what goes up must come down, and the rate of your ascent probably mirrors the rate of your descent. I've never rooted against Dion Sanders. In fact, for most of my life, I've rooted for Dionne Sanders. I mean, after all, he was a Dallas cowboy. Also, he is, in many ways, charming, at the very least, entertaining.

Still, I was a little bit skeptical last year when everyone celebrated Coach Prime, when everyone celebrated Colorado. They jumped out to a 3-0 start before losing eight of their last nine games. They set record ratings for college football, and everybody was celebrating this big moment. just have some fun, Will, but something felt off. I think that, and Oregon coach Dan Lanning's accusation that we play for wins, not for clicks, in reference to Colorado, was validated this week, not just by The Athletic, but by Dion Sanders.

The Athletic, the sports website, posted an article this week where they followed up on the 53 players that transferred out of the... of Colorado immediately after Dion Sanders' arrival with the Buffaloes. It was pretty fascinating to read where these players ended up. Fifteen of them ended up at Power 5 conference football programs. I don't know, 20 to 30 ended up in FBS schools. Minim had to drop down to FCS or even Division 2 schools to continue to play football. And look, when a coach takes over a program, this is what happens.

And in modern-day college football, it's cold-blooded. And in some ways, you could argue that it's even refreshing, that a coach will tell you, hey, I don't know that you're ever going to play here. I don't know what your future is like here. So you might consider the transfer portal. I do think there is some virtue to that level of honesty. With the transfer portal, guys can go find a new opportunity. It's rough.

It's life. But it's also honest. but you don't have to be an ass when you are honest. You can simply be honest. This report in The Athletic talks about the way these players were handled when Dion Sanders came on board. You know, many of them didn't get a one-on-one sit-down with the head coach. Many of them didn't get eye contact with their position coach. Many of them, some of them, didn't even get a meeting.

They were just removed from group texts. That's what happened to some of the offensive linemen, all the offensive linemen were on a group text with each other, and then they got a text from the new offensive line coach saying, good luck, fellas. And then they could see that they, or several of their teammates, were removed from the group text. That's not being honest. That's being an ass.

And so much of this was handled in a way. It's clear, you can say you're happy with the haters, but you deserve the haters. You know, it's like this video I saw last week around the NFL draft of South Carolina a quarterback Spencer Rattler, who before he was at Oklahoma. It's from a reality show, QB1, where Spencer Rattler took place when he was 17 when he was in high school. And let me tell you something. You watch the clips from the show, and I want nothing to do with Spencer Rattler.

Now, I acknowledge he was a 17-year-old and you continue to grow up. You can be mature. But the way he interacted with the other quarterbacks, it's just you're an ass. I mean, he was dogging them the entire practice, saying they're terrible. that we lost because of you, and one of the other quarterbacks, you know, at some point pushes back. And they are laughing, and I'm sure they are friends. But he's like, all you ever do is bring me down, Spencer.

All you ever do is tell me how terrible I am. You never try to lift me up and make me better. You're great, Spencer. Everybody knows you're great. You're also cocky. And he also come up with, you're not a leader. Or you weren't a leader, Spencer, to be fair. This is who he was in high school.

Is it who he is still today? I don't know. But, man, you can be cocky. You can be great. you can let others know, but you don't have to be that. And the truth is, I'm not even being accurate when I use the word ass. I have a long-running debate over several networks now, and I'm going to use G-rated language here. But the difference between a tool, an ass, and I don't even remember the word that I use in place of the last one.

But the last one is what this really comes off as, Spencer Rattler or Coach Prime. it's you know the man the guy who goes out of his way to bring you down to build himself up and ass just is who he is he does what he does a tool there's another word for this that's more appropriate really doesn't hurt anyone but himself but that last one that last one is the guy that intentionally brings others down in order to build himself up you didn't have to be that way you're not just being real you're not just being honest you're going out of your way to make this Something that hurts other people. It's hard not to come away from. That's how they conduct business at Colorado. And it's certainly backed up with the way that they've conducted business after this article from The Athletic. It quoted several players, one of whom ended up at like Austin P. And Dion Sanders' son, Shadur Sanders, so everybody's talking about could be a first-round pick next year,

tweeted out a reference to this player and said, And bro had to be very mid at best. I don't even remember him. Why do you need to say that, Shadur? How does that make you better? Oh, okay, maybe you're defending your dad. You don't need to do that. I still am of this belief. You don't need to punch down. In fact, punching down brings you down. Doesn't make you bigger. And so that's definitely what you think when these players get into a little bit of a Twitter battle and one him post a guy taken up for a former Colorado player with his stats. They posted this guy's stats. And who? But the big guy himself grabs those stats and tweets. Coach Prime. He reposted

that kid's stats, who plays again for Austin P. And Dion commented, LOD Jesus, L-A-W-D, Jesus, making fun of this kid. Now look, I don't know. You're entertaining. You don't mind the haters, you get ratings, you think you can do it without being? Not an ass. I think you can do it without being, I wish I could say the word. What goes up comes down and the rate of your assent probably relates to the rate of your fall. I'm not real confident that the play, the hype, the actual what happens on the field lives up to the hype, that the play reflects the clicks. I would not bet on Colorado.

The opposite of hype might be Arch Manning at the University of Texas, who's doing something that no one has done, which is willingly sits for two years, doesn't transfer, and waits his turn. Which of these quarterbacks in the NFL draft will be bust? Which ones will actually be franchise players? And is it working? The rules and the rules. ratings in the UFL.

We break it all down with UFL and Fox Sports Analyst, former NFL quarterback, Brock Heward. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy host of the Trey Gowdy podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcast.com. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. on the streets of New York City to play along.

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Forward slash TX flood relief to support relief and rebuilding efforts. Former NFL quarterback Fox Sports, UFL, and college football analyst. Brock Hewered with us now here on the Will Kane show. What's up, Brock? Man, it's been too long, Will. I think we did this a few times back in the day with our old employer, so it's nice to reunite with you and do so over the United Football League. How about that? Reuniting everybody. Yeah, yeah. I know, man. It's good to see you again. I do want to talk about UFL, but I want to ease my way into UFL by talking about some quarterbacks for just a moment, if you wouldn't mind.

And I was talking about this before the show with the team here, the Willisha, the Wilcane show. And, you know, I was just thinking, all right, six quarterbacks taken at the top of the NFL draft in the first round. And some just feels different. It feels like there's been a shift. Brock, I know the stats. It's always been like a 50-50 proposition on who works out, right?

And then I went back and I was like, well, let's look back at 2021. There's five guys taken in the first round. And only one of them are still starting. And only one of them are still with their original team. And it feels like something Brock has changed. And I run the risk of sound like an old man. But like it feels like in the 90s or even into the 2000s, if you went in the first round, it felt like less of a project. It felt like a less of a role of the dice and more like this guy is projectable based upon three years of starting in college.

And now it just all feels so speculative of who's a real starting quarterback in the NFL. Yeah. I would say my mind immediately goes, Will, to time on task. Just a term that you'll hear coaches say, and certainly over the years there has become less and less and less of it. I'll share two anecdotes with you. So growing up, my dad was a high school coach. My high school coach in our community there in Piala, had a good run of quarterbacks from Billy Joe Hobert to my older brother had a really good my dad was ahead of his time connecting with people and somehow some way is a impressionable six seventh eighth grader he had found a tape of the san francisco 49ers quarterbacks working out joe montana steve young steve bono and i wore that vhs tape out i mean

it was the off season it was them working out it was like art it was choreography, it was just beauty to watch their rhythm and their timing and their accuracy in realizing this was an off-season workout where they're working like it's the regular season. Fast forward to when I was drafted in 1999, I was drafted in April, right? And right away, I got right to mini camps. And, oh, by the way, they'd already been doing mini camps for a month, like starting in March, Matt Hasselback and John Kittna and those guys were like, it was Glenn Foley, non-kitten at that time. They'd already spent the previous month of March in meetings on the practice field, working, time on task, time on task, developing. Now you don't get hardly any of that.

Now these guys get drafted. There'll be a rookie mini camp for them like a week from now. They'll have like three days together. They'll have, I think the new CBA allows like 10 organized team activities through May and June. They're off halfway through June. They come in late July. They have like two weeks of practice before training camp. Like it's just, there's no development. There's no time on task. And yet everything is rushed with expectation they got to deliver now. So there's a huge disconnect. And therefore, you see these numbers busting at a rate that is just not sustainable. I'm going to bounce around instead of organizing this into talking about NFL, college football, and UFO. I'm actually going to merge them all because it's just

where my curiosity is leading me. I was looking at the UFL, and I was looking at the records of various teams and the stats of various teams. And it's interesting that the UFL, I feel like, in a lot of ways, has organized itself from a rules basis to try to enable offense. I mean, it's, in many ways, you know, it's reduced to enable offense in scoring. It's reduced the role of the kicker to some extent. But one of the things I noticed, Brock, and I want you to help me understand this, staying on the topic of quarterbacks is that the passing stats aren't through the charts when it comes to the NFL. I mean, we're not talking about, you know, run and shoot style passing yards being racked up or passing touchdowns. I mean, from what I saw,

top quarterbacks are thrown about, like, A.J. McCarran, everybody knows who A.J. McCarran is from Alabama and Cincinnati. And, I mean, he's in the range of like 200 yards a game and two touchdowns a game. And I would have thought for something that is, you know, prioritizing offense, I would have seen a little more, you know, fireworks from the passing attack. Why is it not that way in the NFL? Yeah, two reasons why I will. Number one, the clock moves. So the clock runs faster than any other college pro football game. And that, you know, it's somewhat of television to keep these things buttoned up to three-hour windows and make sure these games are played a little bit like Major League Baseball with the rules, right? Like this game

is moving, it's moving fast. So you don't have the number of possessions. You don't have the number plays college games you can get 13 to 16 possessions NFL games you can get 10 to 12 possessions you're not getting that simply because man if the offense controls the ball and executes they can have the ball with this running clock for 10 to 12 minutes is not unheard of and take up a whole quarter so I think that's number one and then number two is back to what we just got done talking about it's here's a three-week training camp everything is rushed together Everything is trying to put in, try to get everything in the playbook put together. And then you jump right into week one.

There's no preseason. There's no real OTAs, right? It's training camp and games. So it's going to take the offense from a rhythm, a timing, an anticipation, an execution standpoint. It's going to take them a little bit longer. You see that in the NFL. We talk about it every September. Like, oh, the NFL product.

Oh, man, brutal offense. It's hard to watch. Well, it takes a little bit of time. And then by right the end of the year. when those defenses are worn down and the offenses are in great continuity and rhythm, that's when they tend to explode. So you'll see the same thing here near the end of the year. I think these offenses will heat up with the weather.

Defenses will get worn down. And ultimately, probably Birmingham and St. Louis with A.J. McCarrin and Adrian Martinez and Matt Corral will be the last one slinging it. So my sister-in-law, Brock, is visiting right now. And my nephew, her son, I've mentioned this to my audience, so they know. He plays offensive line for Clemson. And he is in his freshman year, but that also means he's been there for over a year now because everyone does the mid-year thing where they start in January. And they just had spring break. And he and all of his offensive line buddies went on spring

break together. And I was asking my sister-in-law, like, well, who hangs out with who? I'm kind of fascinated by the dynamics of a football locker room. And, and, you know, she's like, well, like the offensive line guys. They just kind of always are like a group that run around together. And I said, and I think he rooms with one of the quarterbacks, not club Nick the starter, but one of the younger guys. And I was like, well, who do the, like, who do the quarterbacks hang with? And I know who the kicker's hanging with, nobody. So, like, in, and my son's a kicker. So I know, I know what's going on. So who did you hang with, Brock? Like, I know, like, the images of the quarterback's hanging out

with the offensive line. But I mean, is that always the case? Are you relegated to just the dudes in the quarterback room? Who'd you hang with? Yeah, you know, that greatly varies, I think, Will. Kind of team to team and locker room to locker room. My two years in Indy with the Colts, Peyton was really wise.

He put his locker right next to Jeff Saturday and the rest of the lineman. So he was anchored there and I was hanging with Hunter the Punter and Mike Vanderjack, the kicker over there on Baltic Avenue, not quite Park Avenue. So a little different. Seattle, we were really close, close group with Kitna and then Hasselback and Dilfer. Man, my last year in Seattle,

how about this QB room, Jim Zorn, Matt Hasselbach, Trent Dilfer, and myself. I mean, for like-minded, ideologically, relationally, it's just so many ways, so connected. So we were really, really close. So I would say it kind of varies across the different demographics, but the really smart ones like Peyton put themselves and anchored themselves right around the guys that are going to protect them. What about college

though? But pros are kind of a different beast altogether as well. What about in college? Like how did it roll in college? Yeah, that's a good question. That was a free for all.

So the college locker last century were not the college locker rooms of today. So when I was there in the 90s, I look at these locker rooms today, Will, all across the country, and they're just Taj Mahal. And it's pretty cool. Like, quite honestly, back in the day, it was pretty segmented, right? It was not a, I guess, somewhat like these work environments that you see with Google and all the rest of these tech companies where they want everything open.

So you go like into these college locker rooms now, and it's just like this big open and everybody sees everybody. you're not really trying to have any clicks here and clicks there and offense there. So back in my day, we were still pretty old school. I think it was the quarterbacks, but it was a free-for-all with the 100-plus dudes in the college locker rooms trying to survive the NFL and the U.FL, a little different entity. I don't know if we talked about this back at the old network, but I wouldn't say we're friends, but we know each other.

I went to high school with Hunter the Punter. He's from my small town in Texas. as well. And Hunter Smith, who was the punter for a long time at Indy, I mean, he was not simply a punter at Sherman High School. I mean, he was quarterback. He was stud athlete at everything. Never was he just the kicker. No, he was just too hairy. That was the problem, right? He had that, he had that human fur. So you couldn't see the six-pack and everything else that was underneath there. Punter the Punter won the Notre Dame freaking slam dunk contest when he was in college. So, yeah, And he chased down Dion Sanders, too.

I don't think Dion thought for a second, that hairy little punter, and he wasn't even that little. That hairy punter would have any chance of chasing him down, but he did. And Hunter is just a great guy. It's funny you bring up that locker room, and it is a little bit will of what I appreciate the most about the UFL, about what Fox and now Disney partnering with us has done, is providing access you don't normally get. And, you know, for me, I am super spoiled as an analyst down in the field and have kind of tried to really engender and gain the trust of these players over three years together now where they know like, hey, man, we're in relationship together. It's not you're an outsider, right? You are in this together. And when you're on the sidelines, you feel everything.

There's no cover. Like, I don't think the NFL or college could ever do this because you get exposed. We've got a young producer that works on the sideline with me. Great guy, Kyle. Kyle usually works at Fox in the basement, doing all the graphics and stats for NFL games. He had never been on the sideline. He never experienced any of this.

And Will, that first game, his eyes were like this. He was like, oh, my God, this is a great to see everything. I hear everything. I hear everything. You could just feel everything, you know. And for better or worse, you see these teams that are a dysfunctional mess. and you can feel like they're frantic and they're chasing and they're caught up in the emotion. And then you watch Skip Holtz and Birmingham, who is so buttoned up and so professional that you're like,

you know what's going to happen. You could just stand on these two sidelines and get as close as we do to all the action. And it really does expose, you know, almost that locker room environment. You get that exposure to it on the field. And that's great. That should be a startup environment. like you're what you you may not by the way giving me 900,000 I think 950,000 viewers it's up 29% over last year on television but also bringing the television into a more intimate environment than you know you may not have 100,000 people in the stadium but you can make it one on one for me on the sidelines I can see who these people are hey what do you like so far like um I've always liked you know the not the spot foul on pass interference. I like college.

I like a 15-yard pass interference. And you guys, the UFL, you have that or shorter, depending on if it's a spot foul. I like that. I'm not sure how I feel about like the kicking game. I don't know about like the coffin corner punt. Again, now, my son's a kicker and a punter. So I'm like, if you pull off a coffin corner punt, be rewarded. Don't make that thing come out to 25.

But what rule changes are you really like and that you think is advanced together? game. Yeah, I love that Pereira and Dean Blandino have, you know, and all the officials always have a critical role. And they're so good by and large on the field, Will, they really are. I mean, when you watch these college and pro referees and officials do what they do, there's a different appreciation when you're field level, watching them work. But I love just having that extra net that Pereira and Blandino can come in there on just about anything and everything. That's not roughing the passer. I like these one challenges, these super challenges, these coaches get won a game where they're like, that was a blatant hole. That was a blatant pass interference. That was so

blatant. And we get one of these a game because none of these officials, and we know this, are perfect. They're human beings. So I love that it's not unlimited. You get one of them. Their strategy to when you use that, they try to sit on it, right, and wait until the fourth quarter, but with as fast as these games move and as big as any one play could be, You got to, boy, you got to think through that, too. There's real strategy to all of that. So more than anything, I love the safety net that Blandino and Pereira are in a hurry. And then when you're in the stadium, Will, when you're at the stadium and you see

Bladino or Pereira on the big screen, like it is broadcast in the studio. So they're seeing that across the whole jimbo screen. They're listening to the dialogue. And you can hear the fans scream and like, go. That's awesome. You know, so just that really cool interaction that makes those fans feel like they really transparently know everything and anything that's going on. Yes. I love the transparency, the great word.

And I think the NFL would benefit from some transparency because we spend way too many Mondays talking about the officiating. We spend way to, and maybe that's a perk. I don't know. Maybe it's a feature, not a bug. I don't know. But I know that conversationally, it's way too much of a game. I'm going to go back to quarterbacks for a minute. Here's another theory I have.

Back to the whole speculative nature of the draft. I almost feel like this is a Patrick Mahomes effect as well. Patrick Mahomes, what people don't appreciate or remember is he was a project. There's a viral clip of me, you know, from first take the day after he was drafted. I was like, I don't know. You know, all the things you read and I watched him play at tech, nothing in there said he would be what he is now. He was a project, and he's a project that worked. out. And you could also make the same argument kind of for Lamar Jackson. And so now I feel

like, as opposed to time on task, what you've talked about earlier, it's like everybody's looking for, you know, the qualities and elements to add up to a potential home run project. And now all that means is your success rate, your batting average is going to go down because everybody's a project. That's right. That's right. You know, Adam Gase, it's funny. You're bringing up all these stories and great questions, Will, and I appreciate it. It's making my mind. My curiosity is also kind of run wild. And I just come back to anecdotes and people. And in 2020, during COVID, I flipped over from college to the NFL because the Big Ten and

the Pac-12 all freaked out and canceled everything and tried to shut everything down. And so I got to do the NFL, which was a blast, and got to talk to a lot of these coaches and be exposed relationally in ways that I'm really thankful for. And I remember Adam Gase late in the year, crazy-eyed Adam Gase, right? But he was so astute with this. And this is four years ago before even Mahomes won even more Super Bowls. He said in our production meeting via Zoom during COVID. He said, you know what?

Mahomes is going to screw so many people in this league. He makes it look so easy. He does things nobody else can do. And so many coaches are going to get fired and organizations are all going to be chasing. This was four years ago and he was spot on. They're all going to be chasing to find the next one. and there just are not many Patrick Mahomes around. I mean, he's that, that good, and he's elevated everybody around him.

So you're 100% right. It has become way, way more speculative. And they know if I hit, if I can hit on Josh Allen, I can be around a decade. If I hit on Mahomes, I can set my future. I can hit and have job security. Now, it's speculative, and there's a lot of risk, but they'd rather take that risk than sit on the sidelines and miss out on it. So one more on the NFL quarterback, kind of merging everything we're talking about then.

Like I said, six taken in the first round, the bust rates more than 50%. Would you, as a guy, if you were in a front office, would you value what you just said to as time on task? And therefore, would that push somebody like J.J. McCarthy up for you because he seems to have had, he has experience. Now, whether or not that means time on task, he has experience. And you would argue more projectable then. I think people say the ceiling's lower, but more projectable. Yeah. The unique thing about this class is you had some serious grownups.

Nobody started more games in the history of college football quarterback than Bo Nix. Michael Pennix is 24, six years. He was humpy-dumpty, totally broken. Right. And put himself back together at Washington, right? Then you've got the young guns and Caleb. Jaden obviously transferred. I mean, it is Baskin-Robbins of experience.

It's crazy. And then there's JJ. And many people were like, I don't see it. He doesn't throw it. There's no volume. He can't anticipate. And all the way along, well, I'm like, man, there's just something about the makeup of that guy. I love.

And I knew once we got to this draft process, other coaches, other GMs, it's beyond the arm. It's beyond the footwork. It is the stuff you're made of. Because that, too, is like a huge part of this bust rate. You know, and that's a whole other show you and I could do someday on youth sports, one-dimensional athletes, all the stuff that in grit that's not being built in many of them, this dude's tough as hell, man. He was a hockey player until eighth grade in South Chicago.

Like he grew up playing hockey in South Chicago. Like that's a lot of the makeup. That's why when it was big and it was Ohio State, nothing overwhelmed him. And there's a lot of value in a young guy like him, to me, having so much of the grit for me, the inside out. I'm fascinated by hockey guys. I went to breakfast this week and I ran into, I didn't meet him, but I ran into Marty Turco, former goalie for the Dallas Stars.

And there's just nothing about him, Brock that screams. And I don't mean this as an insult. I just mean physically you don't go, oh, there goes a professional athlete, right? Because hockey guys are kind of normal-sized guys. And then the goalies, you think are giants under all those pads and mask, but they're not they're kind of normal sized guys again um and it's just especially when you come from the world of football not that i do but we all come from the world of football when we talk sports it's a sport of physical freaks it's just what it is you know um and so then you see a hockey player

and you're like normal dude i'm sure a great athlete but not a physical freak at least in the naked eye yeah their legs are a little more developed right those legs man they're flexible and fast and dynamic and JJ right is really benefit i think from some of that training we have a funny clip on my morning show in seattle 15 years later that still plays right you know how this media works and especially radio where like you say something it's going to live forever and i was covering my first spring training with the mariners were the flagship of the mariners and um i said to my co-host salk i said where are all the buff dudes at like i'm in that club Like, where are the buff dudes?

Because in the NFL locker room, there's freak shows, right? Like, we talked about Hunter the Punter earlier. Yeah. If he was a hockey player, if he's a baseball player, that dude's an athlete. You know, in a football locker room, he's just another guy. So, yeah, those hockey guys, but there's a grit to him now. There's a toughness to him. There's an unselfishness to him.

There's a spine to him. There's a lot of things. I know why you're intrigued. I am the same way because they have so much makeup that is so easy to root for and fall in love with. all right back to the ufl so let's let's tie these things together and i have i have a personal um curiosity i think i ask you about but the um so back to the ufl if we merge these conversations together and we're just kind of following this conversational path time on task projectable projects um guys like a j mccaron and there's there's other guys in here is this

is the UFL, and I know there's been various conversations about this, where Dwayne Johnson has said it's going to be a great feeder for the NFL, and Daryl Johnson said, we're not looking to be a minor league. But I think we could safely say this, that a lot of the players want it to be an opportunity to get back to the NFL, is do you see any guys right now this season who've put themselves on path? It doesn't have to be McCarran, I'll just bring him up, but any guys put themselves back on path to the NFL.

Yeah, the key word there. of all that you used will is opportunity i mean that's what it is it is a lead it's not a development league it's not a feeder league it's an opportunity league and now it's been around long enough right with the usfl the last couple years with our company and now with the ufl and the merger this is the best the spring has been by far like you watch these games and i test you're like okay yeah i don't know if it's 16 teams when it was eight in the xfl eight in the usfl um it's probably more than eight. I think you can expand this a little bit more in time. But now we have poster children of opportunity. It's Brandon Aubrey, the kicker for Dallas. It was a soccer player from Notre Dame and

it never played. And I think my favorite interview in three years is still Brandon Aubrey when he tackled a guy and I grabbed him up off the pile and he's like, I don't know what happened. I just closed my eyes and blacked out, you know. It's so transparent and real. And now he's, you know, it was 45 of 46 for the Cowboys. And unbelievable, right? Cavante Turpin ran into some problems off the field, had some real immaturity and issues in college, kicked out of TCU. He needed this league to showcase his special traits.

And once of the Pro Bowl is a special teamer with the Cowboys. So this is a league of opportunity. There will inevitably be 5, 10, 15 guys that I think go to camps and have a chance to make those teams. And that's what you need, man. That's the coal that fuels the furnace, right? That's what you need more of those guys, more of those opportunities realized. Because Adrian Martinez, as a Birmingham is fascinating.

I mean, he was broken. I had him in college probably eight times at Nebraska and Kansas State. He was scarred. He was beaten up more emotionally than even physically. And he needed a reboot and got away and now he's getting a chance to play. And you see rare speed. I mean, he is fast fast. He's a leading russell in the league, which NFL guys will love.

and now he's developing his feet and now he's finding fun and he said it to me after the game the other night like this is the opportunity I need to just breathe life and the joy of football back into me and inevitably there will be stories like that making the NFL

is he by the way Adrian Martinez as you pointed out Kansas State Nebraska I believe 5 and O Birmingham Stallions quarterback and leading the league in I believe passing yards and rushing yards

I believe I'm right on that for the NFL. Is he the early or mid-season NFL? Is he the MVP of the league right now? I'd say probably McCarran is because Adrian has had to split his time. He's only played really two and a half of the five games because Matt Corral,

former third round pick just two years ago. Again, back to all this time on task, development, bust rate, all that stuff. Super talented dude. I mean, could spin a football better than guys that are making money in the NFL doing it. But there were other just maturity issues and grown-up issues that he had, that he's taking advantage

of this opportunity. But I'd say right now, AJ, you just see him playing at a level that's like, yep, there's a reason that guy had success in the NFL. He's playing for his kids, his family, his community, loving it, loving the environment, and loving the opportunity. All right, so this will be the final thing. And I think it actually is a perfect thing to tie everything together we're talking about. So this is my own indulgence here. I want to talk for one second about Arch Manning, University of Texas, backup quarterback. Brock, I was reading an article in The Athletic that what we're seeing with Arch Manning is such an aberration and we may never see again in college football. The reason he's such an aberration, we may never see it again,

is not so much about his talent, which he's incredibly talented. But he's right now on pace to sit for two years in college football. And we may just never see that happen again. For a prospect at this height, there's a recruit. I mean, he was, if he wasn't the top quarterback, he was the number two recruit with the most famous name. He could transfer anywhere. He can make whatever he wants in NIL. And nobody does that anymore.

Nobody sits. Nobody waits. They will transfer after one season. And there's no rumblings, zero rumblings that Arch would transfer. He's happy to wait out Quinn Ewer's 10 years to Texas quarterback. And then get his turn, which may only end up being a year or two, it'll probably be too. I bet I'll bet you the same advice that is telling him inside the Manning family, hey, don't transfer. We'll probably be telling him, do two years at Texas before you get to the NFL.

I just wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. And all this adds up to such a unique thing that we may never see another situation like Arch Manning. No, I think that's fair. Also rewind back will just a little bit. You said your son's a kicker and you're around these high school sports and around a lot of these different athletes. And everything, everything, everything is so sped up. It's all, can you throw 90 miles an hour? I got a 14-year-olds, right? Big old kid.

And, you know, I got to throw 90 by the time I get to high school. You know, next year or ninth grade, I got to throw 90. I'm like, no, you don't. You need to develop, you know. I need to do this camp. I need to go do this exposure camp. I need to go get rated. I need to go do this.

I need to do it. And for me, like, no, you don't. But I understand the push. So go back to Arch Manning. He didn't do Elite 11s. He didn't do seven-on-seven circuits. He didn't chase all that stuff. The hype came to him, and so he had enormous advantage with that, certainly with the last

name. He played at a small school down there in Louisiana, the dad and uncle in play that, uncles. He played three sports in high school, right? He just didn't chase like everybody else was just chasing, and you're seeing it now in college. Like, I don't need to chase a transfer. I don't need to chase. It will work out. Let the process evolve, grow, develop, go through the journey, right?

You'll be better for it in the end, but we need it now. We need to, two of the 21 guys drafted two years ago. All right. Moved on. We need it now. You need to produce now. You need to get it now. No, I need to grow.

I need to develop. I need the process and the journey. And then when the opportunity comes, maximize it. And more than likely he will. I wish it would be a case test. example for every other youth parent, for every other youth program, for every other multi-sport athlete, but it won't because people will say, well, he could do it. Look at his last name. He can do it. I would challenge parents so he can do it too. You can do it too. Well, I was going to

say, here's a better test case. And I just got done watching Texas' spring game like last weekend. people will hear what you just said and to be honest they're going to say your son's last name is Heward and he'll be fine and when he needs to be discovered he will be discovered because some scouts can be like

you know who his dad, his uncle were, you know everything, he's going to have some lineage and obviously the same thing is true for Arch so the question is can your random kid out there afford to play it slow and let the process come to him and I honestly don't know the answer to that Brock

but I will say the real test case Real quick, real quick, the test case for me will be the quarterback under Arch. So in that spring game, Trey Owens, who was not a big five-star quarterback, he came to Texas knowing I'm following Arch Manning, which means he may have to sit for three years, right? He lit it up in the spring game. He was awesome. And he's the one that I am worried about transferring. He's the one I'm like, will he wait three years?

When I think all of your arguments apply to him, stick with Sark, stick and assist. system, wait your turn. It'll all pan out in the end. But he'll be the better test case to your sermon. No, I think that's absolutely. Nope. I think that's 100% spot on. Wouldn't disagree with any of that. We're kind of seeing it, and we saw it in one bowl game last year at USC, and I'm blanking on the QB's name, and I shouldn't. But remember, Caleb didn't do the bowl game, like most of the top guys don't do bowl games. And then the kid came in and no athleticism, very little arm, but he'd observed, he'd grown, he'd developed, and he threw six touchdown passes. you know, to beat a pretty good team in that bowl game.

So a Louisville team in that bowl game. So, you know, it can happen. And I totally get it. Totally get it. I argue with Salk, my co-host, all the time about this. He's like, that's fine. Like, if you have manning genetics, that's fine. If you're 6'6, that's fine.

But as you said, for the kid that just has to maximize every last ounce of his, and fiber of his being, because he's not, you know, the world's greatest athlete. You understand why they go into one sport, why they train it year round, why they develop their skill, but you're just missing out the trade-off because you're missing out on so much of the other grit that comes with being a multi-sport athlete. Yeah, man, it's always a great conversation.

I'm glad we're doing it on this network as well. By the way, you can check Brock out. It's week six in the U.FL. Birmingham Stallions, Memphis Showboats. You got Houston Roughnecks, St. Louis Battlehawks. That's on Fox. You got Arlington Renegades and Michigan Panthers on Fox. and San Antonio Brahma's D.C. Defenders, that's also on Fox.

And it's going to be a fun, as you mentioned, intimate experience to take in some football. Brock, awesome to see you again, man. Thank you so much. Well, let's do it again. I love the way your mind works. I appreciate you and the stands that you take. And, yeah, let's not wait like 10 years next time around. Let's do it again. Okay. Sounds good. All right. Thank you, Brock. There you go.

I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Brock Heward. You can check Brock out in all the UFL lineup, which we just laid out for you by checking into Fox Sports this and every weekend over the next month, month and a half. All right, that's going to do it for me today. I will see you again next time on the Will Kane Show. Listen to ad free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcast, and Amazon Prime members. You can listen to this show, ad free on the Amazon Music app.

I'm Janisteen. Join me every Sunday as I focus on stories of hope and people who are truly rays of sunshine in their community and across the world. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com.