Will Cain Country - Maximum Chaos: How Duke Could Blow Up the Entire College Football Playoff (ft. Crain & Company)

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

In this Friday sports edition of ‘Will Cain Country,’ Will is joined by the Hosts of 'Crain & Company,' Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone to break down how Duke could blow up the College Football Playoff seeding with an upset win and tests his arguments for why the Texas Longhorns deserve to be in the College Football Playoff. Will and the Crain Crew also share their thoughts on how to streamline the Playoff committee’s selection process, before going over the Top 25 and comparing their thoughts on which teams have a shot at the title. Subscribe to ‘Will Cain Country’ on YouTube here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch Will Cain Country!⁠⁠ Follow ‘Will Cain Country’ on X (⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠), Instagram (⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠), TikTok (⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠), and Facebook (⁠⁠@willcainnews⁠⁠) Follow Will on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Texas, BYU, James Madison, Duke, Alabama, Miami, the ultimate college football playoff debate with the hosts of Craning Company from the Daily Wire. It is Wilcane Country, normally streaming live every Monday through Thursday at 12 o'clock Eastern time at the Will Cain Country YouTube channel, the Will Cain Facebook page, the Fox News Facebook page, but always available, as is this edition of Canaan Sports by following us on Apple or on Spotify. It is a happy Friday. It is tinfoil pat and two days, Dan, a flannel Friday, as is the case throughout December with our friends from Buffalo Jackson. What's up, guys, you got your flannels on, looking good. A flannel in a visor. Interesting combo. Visor says, I'm ready for a pinia clotta. The flannel says, time to chop wood.

Nice tinfoil. I can only wear a visor because my head is too big, and regular hats don't fit. He's just too smart. Yes. Big brain. You are... You got too big of a heed to even wear a snapback hat? You can't extend the snapback to, like, two and put it on?

No, this is the only thing I could ever find that actually fit my head. And then I'm going hoodie flannel because it's like 10 degrees in New York City. And this Buffalo Jackson flannel is fantastic for the cold. So I love it. By the way, Dan, the one you're rocking might be my favorite. I like the look of that. I hope I have that in my goodie bag from Buffalo Jackson. That might be my favorite.

My wife tried to steal this one. I said, no, no, no. It's for rugged men. This is not for you. You cannot have this one. It's like red with like a faint greenish gray flannel pattern or something like that. Is that what that is? Black, faded black.

That's nice. Yeah, it's faded. Has that faded. Pat's got the red and blue. Yellow Borland special. Yours is tucked in. Mine is tucked in. What do you mean by that?

What's wrong with tucking it in? You know, nothing? I don't always tuck it in, but. But it's a choice. It's a Texas thing. You got to show off your cool belt buckles. Well, I'm wearing boots and jeans today, all right? I got the ostrich boots on.

And I'm not big on the untucked shirt with the boots and jeans, at least an untucked long-sleeved shirt. It's like a tuxedo for Texans. You know, tennis shoes, I would be more, okay, I'm going to untuck my flannel. But it feels like, you know, it feels like you're dressed up a little more when you put on leather shoes, A.k.a. boots, and that's when the shirt goes into the tuck. Do you never tuck, Dan? Not a flannel. Flannel's usually tucked out for me. But, you know, if I, I'll tuck in if I go suit. Never in jeans. I've never tucked in a shirt in jeans. I'll tell you that. Really? Never. It's just not a thing we do.

I'm sorry? You don't tuck either? I don't have a pair of jeans. What? Are you wearing shorts? Are you wearing shorts in your flannel? No, I only wear dickies. Oh, yeah, he's a punk, punk guy. I forgot about that.

It's so wild to me that you don't tuck anything into jeans. I mean, like a nice crisp Oxford boots and jeans tucked in. It's a southern thing. That's a good look. That's where we're put together down here. Yeah. I'm still fascinated by the giant heed on Patrick. So if I were to buy you a fitted cap, Patrick, what are we talking here?

I mean, seven and seven-eight's? Eight. Eight? Eight and a quarter? What are we looking at? Probably close. Probably an eight. I don't know.

Do they make more than eight? Not for regular humans. Yeah, I don't know. Probably eight. I don't know. Maybe it's a big and tall. If I'm lucky. Mars, maybe they make them.

And God help me if I grow my hair out. at all. It's just game over. That's great. Next week, Dan, we'll meet Patrick in person for the first time at the Wilcane show and Wilcane Country Christmas party. So I'm expecting, you know, from Game of Thrones the Mountain to walk in. Six foot five, eight and a half foot size head. I mean, known the guy now for three years, never met him in person, but self-described giant tinfoil Pat. I've never said I was that tall, but my head is that big. I don't know. Proportions, man. Okay. What do you got size 18 shoes? No, I think 12. Yeah, what's your foot size?

Just 12. You're 12? Jeez. This is an interesting, interesting picture that's being painted. I can't wait to see in person. Not to post this on social media. We've got the host of Crane and Company from the Daily Wire coming up today with what will be an absolutely awesome conversation. on the college football debate. We're going to talk about who should be in, who should be out. What happens in maximum chaos? Maximum chaos. Alabama loses the SEC championship game, becomes a three-lossed team.

Duke beats Virginia, wins the ACC. James Madison wins their conference championship game. And the winner of North Texas, Tulane. Now you're talking about two group of five. No ACC. It's incredible chaos. We're going to go through maximum chaos here before championship weekend. with the host of Cranny Company.

But I wanted to ask two days, Dan, and Tenfo, Pat, all decked out in their Buffalo Jackson flannels, this debate. Last night, the Dallas Cowboys lost to the Detroit Lions. They just chased the whole game. They chased the whole game. The Lions put up 44 points. It was tough, yeah. I mean, a lot of ways in which the Cowboys lost, the Lions had, yeah, I don't think the Lions had a drive over, like, 55 yards. Like, they had incredible field position the whole game.

offense just not ran because now the Cowboys can now, well, you say Jamir Gibbs, but the Cowboys control Jamir Gibbs. They totally control him on the ground. He had more receiving yards than rushing yards, which is not usual for him. Right. So the Cowboys did what they said they're going to do, which is reform their run defense. Unfortunately, now their past defense is terrible. But the story of the game, to me, is George Pickens. So George Pickens, the wide receiver that has looked like the best move of the off season for the Cowboys, sending a third round pick to the Steelers. He's been incredible. He's been Randy Moss-esque. He's not Randy Moss. But, you know, tall, skinny, can grab the ball seemingly from any position.

And, you know, I'll tell you, there was a legitimate debate that I've heard in Dallas, like, hey, should we pay George Pickens and consider trading CD Lamb, like, especially with the drops. that Lamb has had. It's not a big debate. I've just heard it discuss because there's a part of a conversation. What do you do with George Pickens? Do we pay him? Because he's only a one-year guy. And the way he's been playing, you're talking $30 million a year. And the no-brainer answer for the whole season has been, yeah. I mean, CD and George Pickens together, that's awesome. And then last night happens. And last night looked like, I guess, the George Pickens from Pittsburgh. A guy that doesn't really run his routes very hard, doesn't snap off his routes.

didn't reach out for an inside slant that resulted in a bounced interception for DAC. And I know I'm the ultimate DAC defender. He threw two picks last night. Neither of them were on him. Neither of them were on him. I'll agree with that. He literally hit the – I mean, he incredibly under wild pressure. He got sacked five times, but he was getting hit every time.

And yet still he was putting that ball on the money. on both those interceptions, hit the receivers, like, we're the only place you could catch it. And then the bad body language, and you sort of wake up today and you go, do you tie yourself to George Pickens for five years at $30 million? And I've got to be honest with you right now. I don't know. I'm leaning towards still yes and hoping for the best, but that could be a massive headache, you know, a year end of the deal.

What do you guys think? It's like he showed his true call. a little bit. You know, you're so right. It was that snap that just changed. I mean, dude, after last week, I would have said, absolutely, sign him up. But you're right. I mean, you also got CD Lamb there. You don't really have anyone on the other side of the ball, other side of the field. No, I like this guy that's emerging, Ryan Flannoy, for the record. I think that's going to be a name that continues to emerge. So they do have either, whatever we want to call him, a third or second receiver. Yeah. Jake Ferguson's,

you know always a viable option for deck i mean i'm i'm very unhappy with him right now he's probably cost me two games i was pissed at pickings because i have c d lamb in fantasy well i have pickings of fantasy was ruining the one of will cane ruthless country league and he might have cost me against smug this week so i'm not very happy i would have traded his butt but no i don't think you picked you sign him to that no no you don't pay him dan do you pay him patrick not right now no i'm i'm very upset Nope. I understand how Jerry Jones feels like that.

I'm not caring about your fantasy team. I don't care about your fantasy team. The real team is newsletch. Nobody cares. That sounds racist. I can understand what Jerry Jones is going through. I would not pay him. I want no part of this.

You're going to have to learn that breaking news. Nobody cares about your fantasy team. All right, guys, looking good in your Buffalo Jackson. Check them out at Buffalojaxon. All right. Now, what an awesome conversation would totally break down every aspect of college football. I'll ask these guys as well about George Pickens. Let me introduce the host of Crane and Company, Jake Crane, Blaine, Crane, and David Cohn. This is Ainsley Earhart.

Thank you for joining me for the 52 episode podcast series, The Life of Jesus. A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort, and understanding of the greatest story ever told. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Jake Crane, Blaine, Crane, David Cohn, the host. of Crane and Company join us now on Will King Country. All right, fellas, what's up? Let's just get into it. We won't waste any time.

Is there really no one sitting on that set? Is there not one amongst you, not one of you three, that believes Texas should be in the college football playoff? Well, Will, I think Texas should make the college football playoff. Look, I think circumstantially, it's sitting here right now, to me, it's a harder sell. But I agree with the committee moving Texas ahead of Vanderbilt. I've always said if it's within one game and there's a head-to-head and the strength of schedule is remotely close, and in this case, Texas's strength of schedule is better than Vanderbilt.

If it were to come down to a 9-3 vandy, or excuse me, a 9-3 Texas and a 10-2 Vandy, I would have no problem with Texas getting that last spot. The problem is I don't think it's going to come down between those two. And that's not saying that Texas, when they play well, if they play like they played against Texas A&M, isn't a top 12 team in the country. But it's just so hard, especially in a year like this, when you look at two undefeateds, the amount of 11 and 1s, the amount of 10 and twos that are also playing in the conference championship game, that a nine-win team that's not going to win a conference that automatically gets you a bid to get in.

If I'm Texas, I'm never scheduling anybody good in the non-conference again, though. I can promise you that. Well, I mean, that's a problem that's going around all the college football where we're talking about scheduling in the non-conference. The problem for me, though, Will, is that not only does Texas have the three losses, but also in a lot of the wins, you don't look great either. And you can just say like, oh, well, you still won the football game, but then if that's all it comes down to is wins and losses, then you also have the three losses, not like an undefeated team who maybe didn't look good when Kentucky takes you to overtime or Mississippi State takes you to overtime. then obviously the Florida loss really just did them in so they can pound their chess about going on the road to Columbus in week one which was an awesome football game you played great competition but then you also have a loss to Florida and really got drummed on the road at Georgia like at the end of the day that's what's keeping you got that Florida loss just kills you it just kills you and I agree with Jake I mean there's no reason to schedule anybody out of conference that's worth anything that's worth anything I'm going to go play Charlotte and they can have as much money as they want and we can go on it from there but I will say this maybe not in our eyes but in the committee's eyes right what are they what are they what are they What do they harp on? I test, right?

And down the stretch, Texas has looked like one of the best teams in the country. You go beat Oklahoma, you beat Texas A&M, and trust me, if it's about ratings, if it's about getting eyes to TV, Texas is one of the biggest brands in the country. And who do you have playing a quarterback? You have Arch Manning. Do I think they deserve to make the playoffs? No. Would I be surprised if somehow they did?

No. Well, Will, this is what I want to kick back to you then on the point that they're making about not scheduling any tough teams in the non-conference again. One, teams shouldn't be allowed to make their own schedules. So Dallas Cowboys just can't say, you know what? We're going to play the Jets 16 times this year, right? Like your schedule needs to be delivered to you. Second of all, Texas versus Ohio State in week one was must watch television.

You're going to tell me that Texas wants to trade that in so that they can play Charlotte? Like, that is a huge game that's good for your team and your program and for the sport. So I just don't understand this idea that you just don't want to play any more stiff competition. Because if everyone does that, now all of a sudden there's 10 and 2 Notre Dame, 10 and 2 Miami, or 11 and 1 team that also scheduled weaker competition, you're going to run into the same problem, but just with better records. Okay, I'm going to acknowledge at the outset that I am a hypocrite, that last year I did not believe 9-3 Alabama should be in the playoff.

But I am going to argue now that 9-3 Texas should be in the playoff. Now, I will say at the outset, I don't consider this a great injustice. If Texas misses the playoff, and they will miss the playoff, I don't think this thing is in doubt any longer. The debate seems to be settled. By coming in at number 13, there's no real power. to the playoff for Texas or for Vanderbilt at 14. But I don't consider that a great injustice.

Still, when we do this thing that we do in college football, which is part of the fun, let's all acknowledge this argument is part of the fun. When we do this legalistic argument, strength of record, strength of schedule, head to head, it all really amounts to not. It's all contradictory. It never makes any sense. And the debate will be endless. It's already been endless on the Will Cain country this week.

I've set out to do two 10-minute segments and they've been two, 30-minute segments with 10 full patent to a day stand. Still, when you do the legalistic argument, you do come back, I think, with a very, very strong argument for Texas. The wins and losses thing, both the Crane brothers brought up wins and losses. Here's the thing. I don't think either of you guys think that Troy should be in the playoff over Texas. I don't think you think James Madison should be in the playoff over Texas.

You probably don't think Tulane should be in the playoff over Texas. So it's not simply win-loss. We talk about who you played, who you beat. then we play the game of what's more important, wins or losses. And right now I think what everybody's doing is punishing Texas. Yes, for Ohio State, I agree with you. This is totally disincentivized the idea of scheduling tough opponents. But penalizing Texas mostly for losing to Florida.

And I think that was Blaine. You invoked the Florida loss. Fine. Okay. But is that how we do things? Do we look at your worst moments? Do we look at your losses? Or do we look at your best moments?

And nobody had better moments. I hear you on Kentucky, Mississippi State. I'm going to land this plane and tie it all together with a ribbon. But nobody had, nobody else in the country had three at the time top 10 victories, three now top 15 victories in the country. Nobody else has that. And then finally what we realize is when we do this BS legalistic argument and everything contradicts each other, we can't get to an answer that makes sense, certainly not one that makes sense and we all agree on.

So I think it was a plane that said, ultimately it's the eye test. And that's right. Like, let's just, I think we all need to take Xanax and realize that these dudes get in a room and feel it out. That's what they do. They feel it out. And they like who they like and they don't like who they don't like. And they use the eye test. And my final argument would be, but Texas passes that eye test.

I can't argue against Mississippi State and Kentucky. But I can't argue that over the last month, Texas has looked like one of the 12 best teams in the country. Largely because Arch Manning looks like a different quarterback and the offensive line. has gotten better. But Arch looks like a different dude than he did against Florida. And it really started against, I believe, you know, Mississippi State, carried over into the Georgia game. I don't care what box score readers may believe. Arch was actually really, really, really good against Georgia and continued in through all those victories. And so you come back to that feel it out, I test. And I don't think there's a good argument that Texas is not one of right now

the 12 best teams in the country. I think they're better than Miami. I think they're better than Notre Dame. I think they're better than Oklahoma. I don't know if they're better than Alabama, but that safely puts you in the 8, 9, 10 range and definitely one of the top 12th. Well, and Will, to me, I agree with about half of what you've said in there,

and the part that I think is the most nail hit on the head is the contradictory nature of this. It's contradictory because they make it contradictory. It's contradictory because they'll put Oklahoma in front of Alabama that beat Oklahoma, but yet they won't put Miami in front of Notre Dame who beat Notre Dame. There's a lack of consistency at what should be the highest pillars. The fact that we put strength of schedule above head-to-head when you look at principals is nuts to me.

It's nuts to me. Head-to-head is a gift. Miami playing Notre Dame is a gift of the committee. It should actually make it easier. You're not having to go find ways to say, well, they ran the ball better down the stretch. Probably the part that I disagree with the most of what you've said is in the last month, Texas has looked like the best thing. Well, then why don't we just play one month?

Why do we even play these other games? Say the same thing with Miami and Notre Dame. Why would Miami go play Notre Dame ever again now if they get left out after having beat them and have an equal record at the end of the day? I test to me should be when all the other variables don't match up and that's the last thing you have to go on. Well, that's when scoring margin and scoring differential comes into it. Who's looked good lately?

See, we really don't have this problem in basketball because you know the formula that gets the team in. So they know the formula that gets them in so they can operate. We say we have rules, we don't have rules. We did a whole show breaking down the bubble and reacting to the rankings, and in the clauses will, they've added this after they left an undefeated Florida State out because Jordan Travis got hurt.

They say, also, that last call is coming, what did it say? It can change if you have a player injury or head coach leaving that affects the regular season or postseason. Y'all kept Florida State out of the playoff. Lane Kiffin just left Ole Miss high and dry before the playoffs starts. And Ole Miss went up in the poll. It's like the time that on the campaign where the vice president shot the guy and went up in the polls. So you don't even follow your own rules. And the last and probably the most egregious thing.

If you're going to go in the room and feel it out, if you're going to go in the room and go on eye test, How about you have people in there that eyes work? How about you don't have a hundred euro check who Arkansas hopes never comes back, be the head of the committee and go out there and tell me about Alabama's run game and stuff like that? If we're gonna go off feel, let's put some people in there with instinct and feel,

not people that are tied to universities and are getting paid by institutions. It's the reason North Carolina made the NCAA basketball term. Well, yeah, with Bubba Cunningham, but specifically on Texas, Texas passes the eye test if you only watch them beat Oklahoma and Texas A&M. two incredible victories, right? Like awesome, awesome wins.

But I think this sport has a serious recency bias where the committee will just look at Texas's awesome win over Texas A&M there in Austin, but somehow they got neuralized from Men in Black about Miami beating Notre Dame in week one of the season. And to Will's point about, well, no one cares about the win losses when it comes to Tulane or James Madison

or the group of five teams. I think Will brings up an important point, but those teams aren't in consideration for the college football playoff because they have better records. They're in because there is a criteria to include a group of five team in a mandatory way, which I mean, we've been going off about that.

Yeah, a group of five should have their own playoff. So I mean, I'll say. Well, no, no, see, that's wrong. And I don't think so. Because a group, I watched a group of five team should not be in a college to fall. I watched a group of five Cincinnati team make a four team playoff.

I watched Boise State get a buy last year as the top four. See, if Duke beats Virginia and James Madison beat Troy, we're going to have two group of five teams in a 12-team playoff. And it's not to your point about them having their own playoff. I'm sick of hearing them crying about having to automatically have a spot. How many times can't we have both of these?

This is what I was explaining to my brother a week ago. Will, I'd like for you to weigh in. Why can't we have a G5 playoff, right? Just like we have different classifications of state championships in high school. You have a 1A state championship, you have a 5A state championship based off population. Why couldn't we have a group of five playoff?

But then if a G5 team is ranked high enough to make the 12 team national playoff. I agree with that. I agree with that. Okay. So I want to start with what I agree with wholeheartedly. The nonsensical nature of this is maybe not best illustrated by Texas, but it is best illustrated by the fact that Notre Dame is over Miami. The head-to-head should be the ultimate decider in any of these rankings. And that, to me, Notre Dame over Miami just is the best illustration of the absurdity. Me bringing up the group of five teams was really a rhetorical point to point out when loss records aren't the end-all be-all.

And I understand how intoxicating when loss records are to just simply scribble down. Well, you have three losses and this team has two losses. Therefore, the two-loss team should be ahead of the three-loss team. And I think that logic fails pretty quickly when you start throwing in the group of five. Now, to the group of five, I don't, so I don't mind the group of five. in the playoff i don't mind the mandatory bid and here's why this is why i don't think it's a great injustice to texas it's because we're really debating 11 versus 12 and the price of getting it wrong is fairly low and the four of us will illustrate this in just a moment so the price of

in this case it will probably be texas it may ultimately to your point in but also being miami left out of the playoff for a james madison and i don't know a north texas we'll talk about the group of five more in a minute. It's fairly low. I'm not, I don't think it's a massive injustice for Texas to have been left out. I just think it's totally illogical. And in the, in, in what I get in paying that price of getting the group five in is some semblance of meritocracy, some semblance of the potential for a Cinderella. I like the idea that a Boise state, that a North Texas, that a, that a, that a Tulane really actually could go on a run and win the national championship, no matter how improbable.

So I don't mind it. And by the way, if we expanded it, which I think we should, to 16 teams, the price goes even lower. It's like if we're really having a big debate about 15, 16, and 17, we have to recognize at some point it's not that big a deal, dude. And so I don't mind it. I will say on the group of five, you guys know more about college football than I do. What does happen here? I mean, we're band. about a lot of names. I have the championship games here in front of me just on the group of five front, okay? You've got, hold on, I've got it right here in front of me. You've got North Texas versus Tulane in the AAC. You got Boise State, UNLV in the Mountain West, and you've got Troy at James Madison in the Sunbelt. Those seem to be the three that matter.

Who gets into the playoff? Well, it's a lot depends. Look, the winner of the American, North Texas and Tulane, if you look at the college football playoff rankings, they're going to get in. They're going to get a spot. What happens next is if Duke beats Virginia in the ACC title. Remember Duke's what, seven and five? Yes. If Duke beats Virginia and James Madison beats Troy, James Madison will go and Duke will not. Because the rule is it's the five highest ranked conference champions, not the five highest ranked conferences. So in that situation, Duke.

Jake, in that scenario, real quick, in that scenario, that does. totally pushed the ACC out of the playoff, right? Because Miami would be your highest ranked ACC team. What if Miami gets an at large bid, though? But Miami could get an at large bid. But right now, I don't think Miami gets it. Sitting right now at 12, they'd be the first

team to get pushed out. They're not playing this weekend. Why would they go up? See, you have to presume that Miami and Texas are stuck. They can't move up when you don't play. See, you say that, though. The committee might flip them. Here's the thing, though. BYU is sandwiched in between Miami and Notre Dame right now.

Regardless of what happens this weekend, BYU will move. If they beat Texas Tech, they will move up. If they lose the Texas Tech, they will move down, which we can get to BYU at another time. I think you want to talk about injustice. But that will put Miami and Notre Dame right next to each other. The worst case scenario for what the committee wanted to happen.

They didn't want to have this problem. So now you do have a chance to flip Miami over Notre Dame in this last reveal. That's probably the biggest question we're going to have if it works out like that. But the group of five point, Will, and I want to ask you this because, again, you covering as many things as you cover broads your perspective and allows me to ask this question. What is the difference between a DEI hire in the workplace and the group of five getting an automatic spot in the playoff? Is that just not college football's postseason versions of DEI? Yeah, I'll tell you, I'll tell you, no, I don't think it is.

I don't think it is at all. So I think it was David that said, why don't we have a group of five playoff and then a Power 4 playoff? Because at some point, look, we can all acknowledge reality. And the reality is that the Power 4 teams are on whole and average better than the group of five teams. But we also all know that there are upsets almost every year of Power 5 teams by teams outside of the Power 4. So I don't consider that DEI. I consider that anti-elitism. I consider that you don't get to just say we don't belong.

We get a chance to prove that we belong. It's not DEI, it's meritocracy. Well, but again, meritocracy to me is the top 12 teams get in because these group of five teams schedule power four teams. Like, look at USF. But real quick, but to that point, we've already acknowledged that the committee is a group of soothsayers at the top of the mountain that Leonidas goes to see before he fights

the Persians. And they ask for a virgin and a bunch of dope, and they sit up there and get high and tell you who is the best 12 teams in the country. We've already acknowledged they feel it out. So if they're going to feel it out and say James Madison's just not as good as Miami, we have to understand that's not meritocracy, that's elitism. Okay, let me jump in here real quick, and I want to frame this through two things because your listeners might not be aware. One, I was on a Michigan team that lost to Appalachian State. That hurts. I've seen this firsthand where David can upset Goliath and it has massive implications. It looked like Tulane beat Duke this year.

Tulane's on a better football trajectory. It doesn't matter if you put a G5 or a power five by their name, whatever. And the second thing is I come from Statesboro, Georgia, where Georgia Southern University is. I watched Irk Russell and Paul Johnson win national champions there. But they were winning national championships in one double A. We didn't think anything less of the one double A championships. They were winning just because they went to Athens every other year and they lost to Georgia. This gets back to my high school analogy.

We won the class 4A state title in Georgia in 2005. We didn't win the 5A state title, and we didn't care because it was based off population. Why don't we do something in college football where it's based on the amount of revenue and money that you're spending on your roster? Teams that have $40 million a year to spend like Texas shouldn't be fighting for the same national championship

against North Texas. They should have a different championship, and we don't think anything less of that just because in one specific game, North Texas could go and beat Texas. that underdog scenario in that doesn't change the fact that we're doing it wrong. Yeah, that's good point. Let's take a quick break.

Let's continue this fun conversation with Jake Crane, Blaine, Crane, and David Cohn, the hosts of Crane & Company at the Daily Wire here on Wilcane Country. Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holidays. treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindest community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at Canada's wonderland.com. No, that's really interesting, David. I really, when you put it that way, it's not elitism. It's just, it's logic. And it also, by the way,

I'd want to hear what they want, the group of five schools. If they're good with it, like, just described, they're not. Look, I kind of keep up, Will. I'm telling you they're half and half. The coaches are half and half. We've interviewed them. Half of them, it's like an ego thing, right? Like half of them, like, we can, no, I can sit here and coach and winning it. And the other half's like, look, we're not. A lot of it's the older of coaches that are like, look, we can have our own playoff. Like it just, I think it's an ego thing. But again, we could have both, I think. This is why I don't understand why we don't use the top 25 ranking for the power four and a top 25 group of five ranking and whoever finishes number one in the group of five

gets an opportunity. If we're going to mandate somebody getting an opportunity, how about that number one overall team in the group of five gets that opportunity to play in the playoff? And everybody else gets to play in their playoff. When David first started laying out his vision of comparing it to high school football, my mind first went to population. Because in Texas in high school football, and by the way, different states do this different ways. California doesn't do it the way I'm about to describe. It's done in Texas. but it's largely done by your student body.

How big is the student body? Because that's your population of players you get to pull from to put a team together on the field. California does it sort of like you can win your way up and down the classification brackets, I believe. I don't know how you do it in Georgia. But let's just stick with David's scenario for a moment. We're going to do it according to revenue. I'm just curious as we're sitting here talking. I wonder what is the lowest power for program?

in terms of revenue, and what is the highest group of five program in terms of revenue? I wonder how close it gets. Would it be something like a Northwestern or a Vanderbilt? And then you have academic standards to consider with Northwestern, too. Well, I mean, I could probably tell you the group of five that has the most money. Yeah, like to me, Memphis should be power four and Wake Forest should be group of five. To me, if we're going to look at it, because look at the money FedEx just gave Memphis. Yeah.

Like there are some group of fives that we always talk about this will when this super league's going to happen Where is the line of who gets called up and who gets sent down like to me Boise State should be called up to to the big boys? The Boston colleges maybe are the Wake Forests are some of these quote-unquote power 14 why do you think nobody took Oregon State right? Why do you think nobody took Washington State as and I got a ton of respect for both of those programs I've watched them have success I would rather have Memphis I would rather have have Boise. So where is the line of who would get called up and who would get sent down? That's the, I mean, to me, that's, that's a fascinating question. Like, where's Rutgers in this? Like, where does Rutgers fit in, right? Like, schools like that as compared to, you know, I just watch Michigan State get a $401 million donation today. What is it? Like soccer where teams

drop in? The relegation. That's what I was a system, right? That's what you want in college of well? Well, I don't really watch majorly. See, that's the thing about America. Really. really quickly on soccer, we hate that. And this goes back to the meritocracy conversation. And we are, as Americans, going to change the world of soccer, for example. What I mean by that is everybody in America hates the idea of promotion and relegation. And when I say everybody, I mean every owner and every university president. Because once you get into the top, you want to stay in the top because that's where the money is.

You know, in the English Premier League, if you're in the Premier League, you get massive revenues from television. If you get relegated down to simply the second division, your revenue plummets because of the loss of television revenue. And so what do they do? They talk about in soccer, they talk about a Super League, a European Soccer League. Let's take the top four teams from Italy and France and England and let's create a Super League and there'll be no promotion relegation and we'll all get rich. And so that's what we're dealing with in America, not meritocracy. We'll never have promotion relegation. We have elitism and corporatism.

Yeah, it's unfortunate because college football is one of the few sports that could pull that off right now. Well, but that's why I think, and I'll say this till I know, I love football is my favorite sport. I want to argue that. But that's why to me, the best postseason sporting event on the planet is March Madness. Now, I understand basketball and football are different sports. You can get away with things in basketball that you can in football because it's five on five. And an individual can win a basketball game. An individual cannot win a football game.

But to me, it's being able to marry up that amazing Cinderella story that we've been talking about while also understanding whether you like it or not, this is a business. That's what it's just like whether you like it or not college is a business. It's built to make money. In reality, a lot of churches operate as businesses that create a lot of money. But college football is a billion dollar industry. And just like anything, they want to make the most money. You make the most money by getting the most. views. That's why when you look at these TV contracts, that's what's ruining the day right now. That's who's dominating college football. If you're not on ESP and or Fox, you're cooked, buddy. You know the best example, Jake, and I have to give him credit, he makes this point he has for years, is Colin Coward has said, look, we all sit here and talk about, talking about the NCAA tournament and basketball that we love the Cinderella stories, but we don't. We don't. We don't love it when, you know, who's a great Cinderella story?

Gonzaga in the beginning and whoever else made the final four. And you know how we know we, George Mason, you know how we know we don't love that story? Ratings. The ratings plummet when the Cinderella makes it basically past the Sweet 16. And we want to see Duke, North Carolina. That's what we want every year. We want to see Cowboys Chiefs. Even though they were two 500 teams on Thanksgiving Day, 57 million people watched Cowboys versus Chiefs. Highest rated regular season game, I believe in history because we want brands, we want recognizability, we don't want Cinderella. Yeah. Well, that's why I call it the Santa Claus theory. A lot of fans of college athletics

don't realize it's a business. They still believe in Santa Claus. They still believe it's all purity. And it's all about the players and it's all about the communities and just giving back to the people. No, it's not. It's about making money. The town that I was born and raised in in Auburn survives off of the football team and home games. It survives off the athletic department. That's what brings in pretty much all the businesses, pretty much all the revenue, but a lot of fans still think that, hey, guess what? Santa is somehow going to come to your house and come down that chimney, and he's going to put all those presents there. It's not Santa. Turns out it's really just your parents. God, can you imagine hating on San? I'm sorry. Yeah, look, Indie Denver. I'm sorry if I

What's spoiler? Three weeks a day, Jay. I'm sorry if I spoiler alerted day. God, I don't know how many kids are listening. I'm going to have to put a warning on this show. Yeah, I'm on the 90 list, so I'm got a meeting with that right now. My goodness. I was speaking of all months.

My son visited Auburn this weekend, went to the Iron Bowl, has been accepted to Auburn. It's high on the list, Jake. Oh, he loved it. He loved it. It's going to be hard to pull the boy out of Texas. Yeah. Well, it's called God's country for a reason. Well, no, the dude from the walking dead went there.

He can maybe see him. Auburn, I've told you, you guys, is very popular right now in the state of Texas. Well, I'm talking about from high school kids choosing where they want to go to college. Auburn is really, really on the rise. In a way that it isn't the case. Which, by the way, which I just think is fascinating, which isn't the case necessarily with Alabama. You know, I don't know what it is or why, but Auburn has become a popular school. of choice much more so than Alabama.

I want to do a little bit more college football because I hinted it at this a moment ago. Okay, the price of the debate that we're having is really low, I think. Because even though we're living in the age of parity, I don't think Texas can win four games in a row and win the national championship. I don't think, I don't think Vandy can do that. I don't, honestly, I don't think Miami can do that. I don't think this is going to be probably where we all diverge. I don't think Notre Dame can do that. The question is, how many can actually?

In the past, I think you guys would all agree. We probably lived in a world with, what, three teams, maybe four? Maybe four every now. But probably really two that could win the national championship every year. How many, I don't know if we need to go step by. Let's do that. I did this with the tinfoil patent, two a days, Dan, a little bit earlier. We can go quickly, the four of us together.

I'll name it. We give yeas or nays and if they can win the national championship, okay? We'll go quick. Number one, Ohio State. Yes. Yes. Okay. Two, Indiana.

I think yes. Yes. Yeah. All right, four, that's unanimous on Indiana, which, by the way, I watch ESPN. It's in Fox. It's not necessarily unanimous on Indiana. Three, Georgia. Yes, yes.

All yeses. Yeah. All right, here we go. Texas Tech. I'm yes. Yes. I'll say yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, but Morton's got to stay healthy. Well, Morton's got to stay healthy.

Yes. In a four-game stretch. If it was one game to win it all, like yes. But you got to, I mean, Morton's basically humpy-dumpty. He just always falls off the side of the fence or whatever. Five, Oregon. I'll go yes. It's getting close for me now, but I'll go yes. I'll go yes. Yes. I'll say yes. Yes, barely. Okay. All right. I'm just going to warn you guys. Now I'm out going forward. Pretty much, I'm done. I think those are your five.

I'm curious what we have left for you guys. Number six, Ole Miss. No, no, no. All right, we're unanimous on Ole Miss. Number seven, A&M. Yes, yes. What do you think, Blaine? Yes, barely.

I don't trust her defense. Oh, I'm the only one. I don't think A&M can win four games in a row in the national championship. Eight, Oklahoma. No. Offense just saying, yeah, we're all no.

Yeah, Mattier's a problem. He's also a solution. This is what I said. He's a solution and a problem. And in four games, I can't see him being a solution all the time in a row. He will turn over the ball. They can't win four games with the way he plays football.

Number nine, Alabama. Yes. Nope. Really? Nope. It's a no. It's a yes for Georgia, but a no for Bama for you.

Yeah. I think Alabama is two one-dimensional. I don't think you can win four games with being one-dimensional with the teams that you're going to play, the balanced teams that you're going to play. No. It's a fair point, but I'm going to say yes, they can do it. They probably won't for the reasons you said.

All right, so we've got two noes and two yeses on Alabama. And Notre Dame, number 10. No. I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say yes. They could win the national championship. Oh, interesting. Notre Dame's defense, the way they've come along, is the difference.

But, like, the way they've come along against who? Yeah. Like, come along against who? Stanford and Syracuse. I'd go find eight other guys, the Daily Wire, right now, and we can hold Stanford under 30 points. And we'll run peanut butter and jelly, dogs. I mean, over, under, we'll blitz every night.

It'll be Pro Bowl rules, and we'll hold them under 30. Syracuse's quarterback is a baker. Like, what was he, like, he just made bread or something, or played the cross? You want that guy? I think what you're saying is fair. I look at a team that I think could go on a run. They went to the national championship a year ago, and I think this team is better.

I think they got the high trophy winner at running back. And, you know, look, I think that Miami, the head-to-head victory over Miami, I don't care if it happened in week one should matter, and they should get in over Notre Dame if those are the two teams it comes down to for one more spot. I had a conversation with a Notre Dame fan yesterday. He said something interesting. The committee has alluded to the fact that the two teams haven't been close enough for Miami to jump Notre Dame. He said, I don't know if that language necessarily means close enough in the rankings or close enough in the way they're playing football, which I said, okay, that's interesting, but it really shouldn't matter.

And also look at Vegas right now, Miami plus 400 to make it, Notre Dame minus 400 to make it. I think Vegas would have some inside information. That part aside, if Notre Dame were to get in, right, if Notre Dame, and I don't like this argument from Notre Dame fans that, oh, that loss happened at the beginning of the year, like we should just forget that. No, this is a college football season, and you still did that. At the same time, I do see a young quarterback in C.J. Carr, who was making his first road start at Miami, and he's gotten better every single week, and that offense and that team has gotten better every single week. And I don't know why you're giving Jeremiah Love the Ball 10 times in that game. Remember, we did a live stream of it.

We're like, what in the world is going on in this game schematically? Could they win the national championship? They look like a team that could do a lot of damage in the playoff, at least. Let's take a quick break. Let's continue this fun conversation with Jake Crane, Blaine, Crane, and David Cohn, the hosts of Crane & Company at the Daily Wire here on Wilcane Country. Okay, is there anybody else that I have not mentioned? Is there anybody that believes Miami can go on a four-game run?

Is there anybody that believes in BYU should they make the playoff or Texas? Is there anybody else that thinks I should throw another team into this mix? No, I mean, BYU know for the same reason Oklahoma's no. I actually think Miami would have a better chance than Notre Dame because I think they're better up front on both sides of the ball. That's what I think. I think they have the line of scrimmage to be able to do it. They are.

And with Carson Beck, you know, and God, I mean, Malachi, Tony, he doesn't get to talk about enough. You're counting Carson Beck as a pro. I'm discounting Miami because of Carson Beck. Quinn Ewers is technically a pro if we're going to go on that. Carson Beck's just a more Ice Age-looking version of Quinn Ewe. Are they as good of a, are they good enough of a team to win it, though? See, this is where there's an interesting distinction here. I think BYU is a really, really good football team.

They're probably a better football team and play more together than the University of Miami. But Miami has better football players, and that makes up for a lot. And when you're in a four-game stretch, they're trying to win a playoff, how much of that is going to rear its head? And again, to your point earlier, for the 10 years we had a 14-playoff, there was never more than three teams that could win the national champion. until that last iteration, and all of a sudden you had three power five teams go undefeated. You had a one-loss Alabama as the SEC champ, a one-lost Texas as the big 12th champ who had the road win in Tuscaloosa over Alabama with the head-to-head, and the playoff committee got put in a spot, and you had a one-lost Buckeyes team that just lost to Michigan.

The playoff committee finally got put in a spot where they're like, thank goodness we're going to 12 because there's too many teams that could win the national championship. And what happened in the first iteration of the 12-team playoff? The Buckeyes, who lost to Michigan again, not only didn't, wouldn't have made a 14 playoff, they were barely hosting a game. They go on a four-game win streak and win the night. Because of a talent. We knew they had the talent.

And by way, to your point, David, so I'll just summarize what we did. We had five unanimous could win the national championships, one through five. We all were on the same page. We all together discounted Ole Miss. We said no unanimously to Ole Miss. then we together had four teams that we were, I think, I don't know if we were evenly split two, two. There might have been one in there, A&M. I can't remember, Blaine may have been the only guy who voted for A&M.

But there was four teams that got at least one vote after that. So I don't know how you read that. Is it, do we average out the split votes? But that's six or seven teams, we'll call it, that we all believe, to some degree, have a chance to win the national championship. That's pretty interesting. But it also tells me, okay, so, okay, so Texas is out, or even if it's Miami that's out, not that big a deal. No, yeah, because, again, it's almost hard to screw this up because, like, there's, there's, it's, college football is so popular and so many, there's so many big brands that are still in it. I just, again, it fascinates me.

I'll never understand why in a sport that makes so much money, in a sport that is so important to us and that we love so much, when it comes down to the way the calendar is structured and the people we choose to make the biggest decision in that sport in the postseason, we have totally dropped the ball on this whole thing. But still,

you look at the numbers and the views are through the roof. What is college football? Up 9% this season? Hell yeah. 10%. It's impossible. It's like screwing up a Victoria's Secret show. It's impossible to do.

They did that for a while. Just make sure everybody gets to the runway and it's going to hit. Okay, three quick things together really quickly. So let's just play chaos for one minute. So chaos is BYU beats Texas Tech, Duke beats Virginia. Honestly, chaos is even, chaos is coming from the ACC no matter what, because the committee's going to have to decide if Virginia is good enough.

I guess, so what we're looking at is at least two teams outside the top 12 will make the playoff. Those two teams will be one group of five and the ACC representative, right? Virginia, Duke, I'm talking about maximum chaos here now. I don't know what matters that Duke. You guys explain to me if you think it matters when not Duke beats Virginia. And then it's BYU being Texas Tech because Texas Tech will stay in. Texas Tech will stay in. BYU will be in.

So maximum chaos does what? It pushes out, what, Notre Dame and Miami? Like, what is maximum chaos where most programs are really upset? Add Georgia beating Alabama to at least force the committee's hand on a three-loss Alabama. If you have, so the craziest thing that could happen, in my opinion, and you listed some of it, well, is Duke to beat Virginia A. Because one of North Texas and Tulane are going to make it out of the American. You can go ahead and pencil one of them in. We'll see who wins the game's actually night.

I can't wait for it. Take that over. Alabama were to lose to Georgia. Duke were to beat Virginia and James Madison were to lose to Troy. So who would be next? Do you know who would be the team that gets in right now when you look at it? UNLV. UNLV.

I'm still, I'm still counting my chest for Navy, first of all. But UNLV has to beat Boise. They have to win the conference. Yeah, they have to win the conference. Now look, well, if Virginia beats Duke, I'm under the strong belief that an 11-2 ACC champion Virginia gets in. I think Virginia does get in. But if any of that stuff that we said just happens,

it's not just Miami that can be in trouble because if BYU beats Texas Tech, they're both going to be in. And the argument that Texas Tech is six spots ahead of BYU right now is assinide. It's assinine and it makes absolutely no sense. But if BYU were to beat Texas Tech, Georgia were to beat Alabama, James Madison were to lose to Troy, Duke were to beat Virginia, we've got a massive situation on our hand. Is Alabama?

And to your point, I think, David brought up, is Alabama in at that point? Or is Alabama in? I think they're in. I think they're probably, but to your point on what creates the most chaos, that creates chaos for the committee. I think what saves them at the end of the day, of course, just being the SEC championship game loser obviously means a lot, but you will have lost to a team that you beat in the regular season. I think that would bode well for Alabama at the end of the decision making. Yeah, I can't, that's so much chaos. I can't even wrap my head around exactly how that works out. It's basically a plot to a bad movie. It does start Friday night.

All right, two quick topics here with you really quickly. I wrote it all down, and maybe for the audience's sake, I can just list it off really quickly. These are your top coaching hires so far this season. It's Lane Kiffen to LSU. It's Pete Golding to Ole Miss. It's John Summerall to Florida. James Franklin to Virginia Tech. Brian Hartline to South Florida. Interesting. Will Stein to Kentucky, Oregon Offensive Coordinator. If you look at this, there are others, Pat Fitzgerald to Michigan State, Bob Chesney to UCLA. Which one, I'll give you mine first, guys. Let's avoid, unless you really, really, really have a take that I want to hear on Lane Kiff in LSU.

Which one of these do you think we look back on in five years and go, damn, that was a good hire in that coaching site? because I think my answer is Pete Golding at Ole Miss. Oh, wow, wow. Sneaky Pete. Well, let's make you bring that up. I'm kind of in the same boat as you. My best. Higher, I mean, outside of Lane Kiffin, give me John Summerall, to be honest.

I mean, Florida needed structure. John Summerall has that edge about him. The closest thing to save him from a process standpoint that you can really find, defensive guy, absolutely detailed-oriented, doesn't give a damn about anything other than his team and winning football. games, and that's what Florida needed. My second one, and a close one, to be honest, is Will signed from Kentucky. Kentucky, you want to talk about a gutter program? That's what Kentucky's been in the last couple of years. You bring in a guy that knows how to do what,

one, run an offense, two, develop a quarterback, Bo Nix, Dylan Gabriel, right now with the Browns. That's Monta Moore? Yeah, that true, hell, what he's done, even as freshman year, the games that he played in. I just think those two, and I like what you said, Pete Golden. Look, I know you lost Lane Kiffin, but I think Pete Golden is going to do well at Ole Miss, And hell, I wouldn't be surprised to watch Ole Miss win a couple of podcasts. Well, the peak golding thing, I think Ole Miss kind of had to do that because they're in a position that nobody else is in and you want to keep continuity as much as possible.

I think it's going to be similar to the Zacharnett, Mississippi State situation when Coach Leach passed away. I think even though he's the permanent head coach now, it's a one year you've got to show me because they're not going to drop a bag on them. You can put some gold in the vault if it doesn't work out. You guys know this as well as I do. That dude has been a defensive coordinator that basically everybody's fought over for like, what is it, five, five.

plus years, Alabama, Texas, Ole Miss. So we obviously know he can coach a defense. Ole Miss has been pulling transfers in and mainly on the defensive side, pulling, I don't know mainly, a lot on the defensive side. What says to me, it suggests, I don't know this for sure, but it suggests to me the guy can recruit. So that's kind of interesting to me. The reason Ole Miss made the playoffs is because of Pete Golden. It's not because of Lane Kiffin. I've watched Lane Kiffin score 60 points a game and still find a way to lose. Pete Golden brought that defense to a playoff level. And that's the difference between Lane Kiffin and Lincoln Riley.

Lane figured it out. Lincoln still hasn't. To me, when I look at coaching hires, I look at which school got the best deal. Not which, like, coach, like, wow, I'm shocked that he got the job. There is no way outside of what Penn State did and the craziness we had that Virginia Tech would ever get James Franklin. I think Virginia Tech hit an absolute grand slam. on an O2 pitch that they were fooled on.

That's what I think. I think the stars aligned, James Franklin, and we talked with T.J. Pittenger, who covers Florida State yesterday, James Franklin wanted to wait on Florida State, but obviously Florida State wasn't moving on for Mike Norvell. So I thought, I thought Virginia Tech got the best deal. To me, the best combination outside of Lane and Ole Miss, to Blaine's point, is Summerall in Florida.

Because at the end of the day, coaching is a personality. attitude reflects leadership. And Florida hasn't had that dog in them in a while. It's been very ho-hum and name any time that Florida ever had success when they didn't have a coach that had a little bit of arrogance and had that dog in him. Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, that's the two times that I've seen it. Everybody else that didn't work, John's got that in them. So I actually, I agree with Jake here.

Virginia Tech hiring James Franklin was the best hire this cycle because LSU landing the most sought-after coach in the cycle is not surprising. LSU is one of the best programs in the country. Virginia Tech really punched above their weight to be able to hire James Franklin, a coach who has done something that Lane Kiffin hasn't even done, which is he won his conference. He won the Big Ten championship game in 2016. But this is less about that and more about Virginia Tech,

just being able to punch above their weight and actually land a coach like that. I'll tell you the most underrated one that no one's talking about is Ryan Silverfield from Memphis going to Arkansas. And I heard that Arkansas students and fans were in Fayetteville, protesting this higher. I'm not sure what you're protesting. It really can't get much worse. You're at the bottom barrel of the SEC. And here's a guy who beat you this year at Memphis, beat Arkansas. If that was the job interview, then I think you passed. You passed, bud. Well, let me ask you guys about a name and a program really quickly, because you guys know more than I do. The guy, I'm a little surprised, wasn't a hotter commodity, is Brian Hartline from Ohio State who ends up at South Florida.

Like, every wide receiver in the nation from every state seems now to go to Ohio State, at least in part because of Brian Hartland. He's been doing this. Has he been calling place? I think he has been calling place, right? Ryan Day turned that over. Isn't it to him? Yeah, he's been calling place for two years, three years now at Ohio State. I don't know his personality.

That's what I don't know about. But here we are sitting here today, and Penn State doesn't have a head coach. Like, that's a little surprising to me. like Heartline's best job offer is South Florida and Penn State still open? Yeah, it's, you know, Penn State was the first guy to buy a suit and the last guy to get a last got to get a date to the prom. That really doesn't work out typically in that order. And look, we'll see what happens with Matt Campbell. If Matt Campbell ends up going to Penn State, I think Pat Kraft kind of saves face a little bit, but as this far, it's been an abject disaster.

As far as Hartline goes, Will, it's very interesting because, again, Heartline hasn't really been coaching for that long. I mean, I remember him playing pretty decently recent. And I think some ADs at big places like Penn State need you to show them you can do it as the head coach if you've never been a head coach before because it is a totally different job. It's like being the president and the vice president. Yeah, they both have the word president in their name, but they're two totally different jobs. Is Brian Hartline going to be the play caller as a head coach when he goes to USF? But now you are responsible for everything, not just one side of the ball. That's why you look with the Will Mushchamp theory.

Some guys are amazing coordinators. They're not great head coaches. So I think USF is actually a perfect, perfect starting ground for Heartline because it's not a low level G5. You're not going to Rice. You're going to USF who you can recruit there, you can win there.

If he does well at USF, he'll be there for two years. He'll be there for two years. The 80s will see, okay, you understand this role, you can do this role. Now we're gonna call you up to the big leagues. It's like drafting a player out of high school and setting him straight to double A because you think he's that good.

You give me 150 good at bats. We'll move you up to AAA and then go ahead and bring you up to the Biggs after a while. Do you all think just being the head coach at USF real quickly, Will, is a better job to be an office of coordinator Ohio State? If you want to be a head coach. If you want to be a head coach, I mean, like, Chip Kelly clearly got to a point at UCLA where he's like, you know what, let me just go be a coordinator or win a national champion.

It's just what you want. I think that's an interesting question, Blaine. And I think the answer is Jake's. I think he's right. It is a prove-it job. It'll probably last two years. And in two years, if he does well at USF, it won't be Lane Kiffin level, but he'll be the Lane Kiffin of some cycle down the road.

He'll be never one's number one target in two or three years. All right, last thing, you guys are my GM. I need to help not only because I don't have a GM, because I think this is a really tough debate, especially after last night. The guys and I just debated this before we brought you guys into here, Will Kane Country. Okay, you're the GM of the Dallas Cowboys. do you give $30 million a year over a long-term contract to George Pickens?

Two weeks ago, the unanimous answer would have been yes. And I don't know if you guys watched Thursday Night Football last night, but basically what you saw from George Pickens was the thing that everybody complained about in Pittsburgh. It was a bad performance from Pickens. It was not reaching to catch a ball on a slant that ends up in interception. It was weak, lazy routes. It was horrible body language. And for the first time since he's been at Dallas Cowboy, I've been like, ugh.

I mean, it was a no-brainer before last night. It was like, do I give this guy $30 million a year over five years? Well, you know, actually I have pretty decent inside knowledge of this. You know, George went to Hoover, which is in Birmingham, followed his recruitment, know the type, his personality type. Go watch his draft video. It's pretty funny when he's standing in the living room with a mask on. Shisty. Here's the way I look at it if I was the GM.

Do you know what I don't just pay for greatness. I don't pay top dollar for just greatness. I pay top dollar for consistent greatness. That's what I pay for it. And to me, at the end of the day, you know, C.D. Lambs dropped some balls, right? But when I watch C.D. Lamb, it's balls to the wall all the time. When I watch George Pickens, I don't think you can count on them. You've already, it's not like you just came in the league and you've got to learn in the locker room and eventually you'll get it.

We've seen that happen before. I just don't think you can count on George Pickens to make that big of an investment in because, yeah, you get sprinkles of greatness. But if I'm going to pay you top dollar in a franchise that has been incredibly inconsistent when it's mattered the most, I'm not going to reward incredible inconsistence based on the thought of occasional. greatness. And I think that's gotten the Cowboys in a lot of trouble in a lot of ways, to be honest with you. And I think if they did that with George, when you have CD, hell, I like Flournoy. I think Flournoy can play. I'm watching this do go out. I think Florenton. I agree. Like, I would rather get two guys that are consistent that may not have that ceiling, but I can pay 15 million apiece that'll go out there and play like some of those other guys do. And I don't

have to worry about them buying a Batmobile and trying to take over the city in six months. Think about it like this. How long did the, how long did the Pittsburgh Steelers put up with Antonio Brown in his shenanth? It's almost a decade, enough to have 7,000-yard seasons, and yet George Pickens isn't in Pittsburgh? There's a reason he's not in Pittsburgh. It's not even. I don't even care if he had it. I don't even care if he had a great game last night's game. The Cowboys are so bad in the secondary, and they are so bad at both tackles position that if you,

you want to waste $30 million on a receiver just to lose 41 to 55, then congratulations, that's fine. You are not going to win a Super Bowl when you can't stop the pass. You got Quentin Williams obviously you're stopping the run better, and you can't protect your quarterback. You're paying DAC 20 million to get his ass kicked for four quarters and try to find a way of win. So no, do not pay $30 million to a divo receiver, even if he's receiver won, when you can't cover anybody or block anyone. And that's coming from a receiver. Yeah, he's a receiver. Hey, three points. If I can remember him, I'm going to pull a Rick Perry here. How great was Dak? To your point, Blaine?

Like, my man was delivering passes, to your point, getting blown up a micro second later. A micro second later, he was getting blown up last night over and over and over again. Two, luckily, we have a lot of first-round draft picks coming up to pick an offensive tackle and some cornerbacks, thanks to the Michael Parsons trade. And number three, David, I think you just solidified the debate for me. If the Steelers, who put up with Antonio Brown for a decade, said no to George Fickens, we might want to consider that. We might want to consider that. That's incredible. It's perfect.

All right, you get more of that incredible stuff. You get more of that incredible stuff at Crane and Company. David, Blaine, Jake, great to hang out with you for 45 minutes to an hour. Thank you guys so much. Thanks, Will. Appreciate it, buddy. Thank you. There you go.

I hope you enjoyed that conversation today. Happy Friday. Enjoyed championship weekend in college football and check out Crane and Company at The Daily Wire. Follow us on Apple or Spotify, and we will see you again next time. Listen to ad-free with a Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcast,

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