Hour 3 – Mike Tomlin on the Hot Seat, Andrew Whitworth

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Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.

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Speaker 2: Final Hour on this Wednesday. We are fully assembled, Fritzy's here seating back from vacation, and we have Marvin and Paulie yours truly in the brgs. Thank you for taking advantage of the autograph calendars. They're all gone, but the only place to get them now is if you go to Danpatrick dot com and click on the Tailgate Moonshine portion of the website and you get an opportunity with some of the specials that we have. You have to order by December eighth, just to make sure you get it by Christmas time. Stat of the Day is always brought to you by Panini America, the official trading cards of the program. Good morning if you're watching on Peacock, Thank you for downloading the app, and we say good morning to our radio affiliates as well. Seaton Poll Question Final Hour, Paul just sent this one over.

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Speaker 3: If you were the top high school quarterback in the country and the nil money was all the same, where would you sign today.

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Speaker 4: Penn State, Yes, PAULI I think I'd lean towards even though I'm not a fan of the program. Ohio State because of the situation with their receivers the past decade decade plus.

00:01:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that quarterback is going to be around for a couple more years. I would probably say LSU. If you're going there, they're spending money, and I got Lane Kiff in there, you know they're going to get some playmakers as well. Here's something for you. Here's the schools that are having a better recruiting class than Penn State. These are the ones having a better recruiting class than Penn State as of right now, as of this morning. This according to twenty four to seven Sports, Harvard, cal Pauly, UC Davis, Northern Arizona, Kennesaw State, Delaware, North Texas, Hawaii, Idaho, Georgia, Southern Georgia State, Old Dominion, UMass, Arkansas State, Buffalo, Charlotte, fi U, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, South Alabama, Sacramento State.

00:02:08
Speaker 5: Stand of the Day, Stand of the Day, Stantata Day, Stannata Day.

00:02:14
Speaker 2: This is the stand of the Day satur Today, broughtrey by Panini America. The official trading cards of the Dan Patrick show, the offensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes going to South Florida Brian Heartline, former receiver, is going to go and take over the program at South Florida. Penn State as of now has four commits and this is National Signing Day, still waiting to get their head coach. All righty David Arkansas. They call him Pittsburgh Dave. I believe Hi Dave, Yes they do.

00:02:49
Speaker 6: And if I'm a paraphrase Jimmy Chitwood a little bit, I don't know if it's going to make any change, but I think it's about time for me to start talking about Mike Tomlin and and well, we've got to. I think what we've got to really look at is I think there's a disconnect somewhere. Something has gone wrong. There's a short, there's a short in the system. And I do think it's time for him to go. I think he's lost the.

00:03:15
Speaker 2: Room, I think.

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Speaker 6: But I think it's still very possible he could, you know, go three and two these last five games, they end up with a winning record, and possible even with that win the division, they can even win the playoff game. Hey, they could still run it out. They're not going to, but I think regardless one way or the other, even if they were, then you win on top and let's go. But I think I think the disconnect is there, and I think it's time for him to move on. Whether or not that place is Penn State, I could see that, but I think he wants to be a pro coach.

00:03:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't see Penn State. I could see him doing TV or maybe he would take over another like the Bengals if they're open. He's I mean, there's going to be opportunities here if he wants to coach elsewhere. But you're right, if he doesn't have the Super Bowl, then I wonder if he's still the head coach there because that helps the resume. But you haven't won a playoff game since twenty sixteen, and this is a team franchise city that expects championships, not just a playoff win, and he hasn't been able to come up with that. That has to be factored in, and you know, the players change, but the coach is still there. And Ben Roethlisberger of all people said, you know, maybe it's time to clean house, and that should resonate with people in the front office, with Ben saying that I don't know his relationship with Mike Tomlin, but to say That is a pretty strong statement. Yeah, PAULI.

00:04:42
Speaker 4: They kind of remind me the Steelers of Michigan five six years ago when they couldn't find a quarterback and are using the portal and they were just a quarterback away from winning the national title and they did. It feels like the Steelers are a team that just can't find a quarterback the past five years and makes you realize how competitive Roethlisberger kept you year to year. Picket Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, a guy who's too young, two guys who are too old. How about a guy who's twenty eight years old in his prime, and I think they'd be right back in the thick of.

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Speaker 2: Things they could have their quarterback. But I mean it's just not a threatening team. I mean it used to be pretty simple. They played good defense, they ran the ball, and they could come up with a couple of big plays. I mean, go back to Terry Bradshaw. They weren't a throwing team. They were running team, and they had a great defense. I mean Ben was different, be Ben's a unique quarterback there, but it's still they were running the football, playing great defense, and then Ben would come up with a couple of big plays, but you got to win playoff games, not just get to the playoffs, and especially with a window that that's wide open that twenty sixteen. I mean that goes back to the coach. Remember they were going to change the but the gm oh we got to change. We got to change the offensive coordinator. And okay, Matt Canada, Okay, you changed it. Arthur Smith, Okay, nothing's really changed here. And I think that's where you have to start looking at this. He'll make a hard decision, and that is if you move on, who are you getting that's going to be better than Mike Tomlin as Penn State found out, you can move on who's going to be better or as good?

00:06:23
Speaker 7: Yes, Marvin, and I feel like the Pittsburgh fan base is probably telling them the national media, we've been saying this for about four or five years, but they haven't been the Steelers haven't been bad enough for us to pay attention to Mike toomlass job security.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're right, And there is that local narrative and it's different from the national one because it's like everybody's like, man, I want to play for him. Man, he's a great case. He's a leader, man, he's others. He might be all of those things, but he's not a coach who's going to win in the playoffs and he hasn't and he probably won't this year either. Yeah, pung.

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Speaker 4: And if you go back the past five years in the draft for the Steelers twenty eighteen, James Washington wide receiver didn't work out, Deontay Johnson the next year didn't work out, Chase Claypool complete bust, second round. Uh, George Pickens no longer on the team, now a star for another team. They didn't get max value for him.

00:07:13
Speaker 8: That's all.

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Speaker 4: Those are a bunch of whiffs at the receiver position in a row.

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Speaker 2: But we've also been told Mike Tomlin is involved in the draft. So it's not one of those where he doesn't have any say. It's not like he's, you know, Dallas cowboy head coach. You know where, Hey, who are we taking? We'll let you know. Mike Tomlin, you know, has been has been widely reported involved in those drafts. Uh. Andrew in Vegas, Good morning, Andrew, what's on your mind today?

00:07:38
Speaker 8: Good morning DPTE.

00:07:39
Speaker 9: First off, thank you for toughing it out today. I'm well aware it's still a laying kiff in season. But I'd like to put Michigan as a contender for the best basketball state with Michigan dominating, Michigan State undefeated and the Pistons as well.

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Speaker 2: Okay, we didn't ask that question yet. We did the best football state, we were factoring in college and pro. The best basketball state. I'll have to give that some thought, but maybe in February we do that. But Michigan, Michigan State, and of course my Pistons playing well. But thank you, Andrew, thank you. Uh, let's see Steven Pittsburgh. Hi, Steve, what's on your mind?

00:08:25
Speaker 8: First time?

00:08:26
Speaker 10: Five nine one ninety. Yes. So the way we look at it in Pittsburgh is that he essentially that' starmland inherited a Hall of fame quarterback, inherited a locker room that was built in one super bowls and that's all he.

00:08:44
Speaker 11: Won in the beginning. In he had the triple bs, they could do nothing with them. And you can just see when he drafted Kenny Pickett has no idea what he's doing on the offensive side.

00:08:56
Speaker 2: All right, Yeah, once again, as Marvin point it out, the local conversation about toilant has been this way for the last couple of years. Nationally. I don't think you find too many analysts or shows that are going to come after Mike Tomlin. Sunday Night, the pressure is on CJ. Stroud in the Texans. They face Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Which team will rise to the occasion? Sunday seven Eastern NBC and Peacock, Nick and Irvine. Hi, Nick, welcome back, Dan.

00:09:29
Speaker 12: Always in honor to talk to a Hall of Famer. I remember regularly calling and talking to Chick Hern after Laker games all the way through the nineties, and I definitely put you in that category.

00:09:40
Speaker 2: Bro.

00:09:41
Speaker 12: I buried Chick and I'll bury you, but I'll definitely be raising a pint to you if fat ever does happen.

00:09:48
Speaker 2: Listen, Bro, easy there, Nick, I turned dark quickly, not.

00:09:54
Speaker 12: Dark, that's Irish happy right there.

00:09:57
Speaker 2: Hey, you know.

00:09:59
Speaker 12: What I'm saying. Listen.

00:10:01
Speaker 8: You know we're living through this revolution.

00:10:03
Speaker 12: I mean it's amazing, you know, Like we learned about the American Revolution, the Communist Revolution, the sexual revolution, whatever, but the actual concept to see it happening. Dan. We remember when there were three teams at the end of a college football season, undefeated, and we want to see him.

00:10:18
Speaker 2: Play many times two teams.

00:10:21
Speaker 12: And you tell a teenager or a high school football player about this and they're like, are you kidding me?

00:10:25
Speaker 10: Now, we got all these teams playing each other.

00:10:27
Speaker 12: We got the NCAA, who's been kicked to the curve to say the least. We got a professional we got thirty million dollar payrolls and it's going to triple in the next two years. We got I mean, and what a revolution is and what it results in are questions that you could not have even fathomed, you know, five years ago, and now we need immediate action. And so you have people doing the wrong thing. You have people acting unilaterally on a college by college basis. It's just it's it's a revolution, and it's super exciting and it's better than it was. But we need something to happen, and it needs to be on a more unified basis.

00:11:08
Speaker 11: You know.

00:11:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know if it's going to happen anytime soon, Nick, And thank you, thank you. I'll toast a pint to you when you go as well. But yeah, you start to look at the chaos here, and if I'm college football, You're like, Okay, all right, it's not perfect, but we love You know, when you had the playoffs where it was one versus two and then we went to four. I mean they were there was always conversation, and I think they like that you were talking about their product. Now all of a sudden, you're invested in BYU. Oh my god, their coach turned down Penn State. BYU's got Texas Tech. Texas Tech may have a Heisman candidate linebacker. You know, it's interesting, but that's what you want in today's sports society. Is anybody talking about our sport? Yeah, Marvin, Yeah.

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Speaker 7: And I think if you're in any Power for or Power five conference, you're gonna say to a recruit, a we have a chance to win the national title and get into the playoffs, where twenty years ago there was no shot of BYU touching the BCS Bowl games.

00:12:11
Speaker 11: Yeah.

00:12:12
Speaker 2: I mean the fact that Texas Tech went out and spent money and they have a really good team and they're gonna be in the playoffs.

00:12:18
Speaker 8: It's great.

00:12:20
Speaker 2: Indiana. In my wildest imagination, I never thought we'd be talking about Indiana as a team that could win the national title, win football. They just didn't or a player who's gonna win the Heisman or be up there for the heisman. Just didn't think it could happen. But these things are happening in real time in a span of a year or two years. It's not like we built this program. This is a quick fix, yes see.

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Speaker 3: But part of that is what drives me nuts though, is that, like I think a story like Indiana is awesome, but it's also sort of begrudgingly happened because maybe they select your committee, like.

00:12:57
Speaker 2: We can't keep them out.

00:12:59
Speaker 3: You have to put them in because they won the you know, they won their way in. But not everybody is going to have that opportunity to do that. There's still that element of it's sort of that gymnastics thing that I was talking about before. You're still getting judged. It's not just wins and losses. You don't just win your way in. You have to do the wwe part of it too of like yeah, well we got to do it the right way, right.

00:13:20
Speaker 2: I hate that an inexact science. There's no science at all.

00:13:23
Speaker 3: It's it's judge, it's judgment and artistry rather than just data.

00:13:29
Speaker 2: Well, you have wins and losses for the data. But then there's also the eye test as well for members of the committee.

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Speaker 4: Yes, and it's funny that college football is a debated sport and it's all about opinion and what you're doing now, And the most debated sport in our country is the NFL, and the NFL is just math. Like the Patriots are eleven and two. Your opinion of the Patriots doesn't matter. They can get home field advantage and you can't decide to get them out of it, no matter if you think that the Bills are better. There's no debate really in pro football. Is like when they do power rankings, those are kind of meaning with us.

00:14:03
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean they do fill up time. Yes, But like the Bears have the best record in the NFC. Okay, I'm not saying they're the best team, but they played well enough. You know when they say, well, I haven't played anybody. The good teams beat the teams they're supposed to beat, and the Bears have been able to do that. It's not like the Bears go, hey, commissioner, can we talk to you. We want to make up our schedule here. So it doesn't work that way.

00:14:32
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, it's they're sort of meaningless. I guess, and that power rankings don't equate playoff seeds, so they don't usually line up. So that is sort of the debatable fun part. Like the Rams right now are like the best team in the league even though they're actually not, but they're playing like they are.

00:14:47
Speaker 2: So for that example, but.

00:14:48
Speaker 3: In college football, they'll actually take that and use it as that and that's why this team is in and that's garbage.

00:14:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, the open to interpretation college f fall is all power rankings. Yeah, but you know, when Chris Fowler said, you know, it's not about the brand, like I disagree with him. I think there's certain programs, certainly Notre Dame, that the brand is omnipresent and whether you like them or not, you will watch them. It's like Duke, whether you like them or not, you will watch them the Cowboys, whether you like them or not, you're going to watch them. And I think that factors in, and maybe it's subconsciously, but it just feels like Notre Dame is a really good team and they did have the home loss that cost them with Texas A and m and they open up the season, you know, they played Miami on the road and played him, you know, they went toe to toe with them. But yeah, we're always going to have these debates, and if we go to sixteen teams, we'll continue to have these debates.

00:15:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, Paul, I really don't want the sports to look like each other. Like the NFL is like an antiseptic Applebee's with the same menu, and you know what you're gonna get when you walk in college football is the dive bar with the pool table and stuff all over the place and wires hanging down and shady stuff happening in the bathroom that's not up to code. And seriously, that's what college football feels like, the CD version of the NFL, and it's great.

00:16:16
Speaker 2: Guess, tod do we believe in?

00:16:18
Speaker 13: Chris Paul refers to truth serum and we've used that before in these selection committee rooms. Is it possible that they're looking at paperwork that's trying to figure out, let's exhaust every possible way to try to figure out how to get Notre Dame, for example, in and make more of an effort for one school over another. Does that do you think that exists on any level?

00:16:37
Speaker 5: No?

00:16:38
Speaker 2: No, I don't think it's Oh my gosh, hey Tommy, did you come up with a reason to get Notre Dame Manah, Sarah, what about you, Hey, Skippy, I don't think it's that. I think it's more of just you look at them and you go, okay, can we make an argument for them? Either can or you can't, because you know, you still have to have the numbers are there, Like BYU as a better resume than Notre Dame. And if BYU beats Texas Tech, they certainly you know, will be involved in the playoffs. If they don't win, then they're not going to be in so as much as and Notre Dame is really the outlier, Like how many other schools I'd love to have USC in but their resume doesn't match up Alabama, Georgia, They're going to be in Ohio, State's going to be in. So I think that there's always those schools. I mean, nobody's clamoring, you know, for somebody out of the ACC where it's going to be, you know, an injustice if somebody, if ACC doesn't have a team in the in the playoffs? Yes, Tom, what if.

00:17:40
Speaker 13: Notre Dame was called South Bend States? The only reason I say is again we get caught up in brands and names over the years, the Alabamas and Georgias and Ohios State in Michigan.

00:17:48
Speaker 2: But they're not called South Bend State. And if they were called South Bend State, then they would have had the history of being great and we wouldn't, you know, go oh, South Bend State. They don't sound like a big name brand that'd already be a brand.

00:18:03
Speaker 13: But I think that history causes some people maybe to think one way or another. If you're totally on the fence one way or another where it's down to the wire, Notre Dame in Miami or whatever that like, there's something about the name of one school of another that could influence.

00:18:15
Speaker 8: You a little bit.

00:18:17
Speaker 2: That's why I said subconsciously that could happen. But I don't think they're going out of their way to devise a plan. You still have to answer to the critics with this. We'll take a break.

00:18:27
Speaker 3: I make the sexy name Ohio State you would choose over South Bend State?

00:18:31
Speaker 2: Be like, ah, yes see, how are.

00:18:33
Speaker 8: We gonna.

00:18:37
Speaker 2: Cowboys Lions? Tomorrow night. Andrew Whitworth, on loan from Amazon Prime, former NFL lineman, will join us next.

00:18:44
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

00:18:54
Speaker 12: Hey, it's Rob Parker and Calvin Washington from The Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio.

00:18:59
Speaker 5: And we're sitting here hearing us live week nights from seven to ten pm Eastern on Fox Sports Radio. We are excited to announce brand new YouTube channel for the show.

00:19:09
Speaker 12: That's right, you can now watch The Odd Couple live on YouTube every day.

00:19:15
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00:19:25
Speaker 2: I'm still amazed with this Chris Paul situation with the Clippers that you unceremoniously dump him in Atlanta and he's gonna retire at the end of the season, Like, can't you bring him back so he can retire in front of the home crowd or say goodbye? I don't think they have a retired jersey, do they, Marvin? Can you check to the Clippers, have they because here's Chris Paul, arguably the best player that the franchise has ever had, right, and all of a sudden he gets kicked to the curb at three in the morning East Coast time, and in Atlanta just felt like and I don't know if anything else happened in Atlanta, but still, here's the best player that you've ever had, and that's how much you think of him. Has to be something else attached to this. It just feels that way. Andrew Whitworth Amazon Prime Video, NFL analyst and won a Super Bowl Champion chip with the Rams. Big game coming up tomorrow night, Cowboys Lions, and you can catch the pregame coverage starting at seven eastern four Pacific, kickoff at eight fifteen eastern on the program. Feels like a playoff game, like an elimination game for both of these. I mean, Cowboys have to win. What about the Lions playoff portion of this?

00:20:46
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think he really does. This feels like playoff football already. I mean, you think of how hot the Cowboys are right now, win three in a row, opportunity for them to really fight themselves back into this playoff picture. And then for the Lions, it's man a season ago dominant, they were, you know, felt like it was going to be a repeat. This year, It's not been the consistency they've been used to. They've they've been banged up here recently now without Sam Laporter and possibly I'm on Saint Round for a little bit. Man, this is going to be a challenge because obviously what I'm on meant to them and everything he is to them. Who Dan Campbell's got his hands full now is the play caller, because this is the guy who did everything for this offense, and you've got to do it against a team that's hot and a team that's looking to get themselves back in contention, has a whole lot of belief that they are a playoff football team.

00:21:32
Speaker 2: And I don't know if it's this simple, Andrew that I said at the beginning of the year, and even when they made the trade with MIKEL Parsons, just have an average defense because you have a better than average offense, and if you do that, you can be a playoff team. But is it that simple that they now have an average better than average defense to go along with that offense. That's why they're so dangerous?

00:21:53
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, you look at it. I mean, I think it's one of those things. I'm sure Jerry's walking around kind of beating his chest right now. We all criticize the trade we all, like, you know, everyone had their opinion of it, and now all of a sudden you start to look at how they've been successful in defense the last few weeks. You know, they've they've increased the interior. You look at Quinnon Williams, you look at Kenny Clark, you look at these guys, how that they've played. They're kind of starting to play with these three D three D tackle looks and starting to kind of do something different, which give credit to Eberflus of kind of creating the package to use all those guys. And they've been able to slow down run games, be more efficient getting after the quarterback, and effective you know that in that regard, And so man, it's starting to show like, all right, if we could slow people downs at least not let them run the football on us, give ourselves an opportunity to get the football back to our offense and then play well on offense, we can win. And that's really It wasn't like they were perfect into Chiefs. They still get enough points and yards, but they found a way to win in those moments and give Dak one more chance. And they've got some absolute aliens on the outside right now playing receiver. And this is kind of like to me the best the Cowboys have looked in recent years, and it looks like they are built to go make a run right here.

00:23:03
Speaker 2: Would you rather block Micah? Well, rather block who would you want to avoid? Micah Parsons or Quinn Williams.

00:23:12
Speaker 8: I would say I'd always rather have the big boys. I mean the big boys. Is uh, there's at least a lot of what's the best the most appropriate way I can say this, there's a lot of body to get your hands on. Let's put it that way, all right, So I like more masks that I can get a hold of, if that makes sense. So the little guys Micah in that sense, his height, his speed, his agility, Getting your hands on those guys was always the hardest part is just finding a way to get in front of them. So at least with Quinn, and it might be a physical battle and he might win a couple of those, but you weren't gonna have any problem getting your hands on him. So I always, like, I prefer to get my hands, you know, in the mud a little bit, just get after it. So any guy that I could fight and wrestle with, I much preferred.

00:23:52
Speaker 2: Would you rather have if you have to pick now, would you rather have a smart quarterback or a tough quarterback? Oh?

00:24:00
Speaker 8: Man, that's a good one. I'm gonna probably say, since that you could possibly enter the category of having a really good coordinator, I'd rather have a tough quarterback because I feel like maybe there's some of those things we can handle from a coaching standpoint, But when they're tough and they're gonna survive down to down, they're gonna play the physicality, they're gonna extend plays. There's a self belief I think in that starts to be created around them and in that huddle. You know, when I start to think of the great ones I played with, whether it be Carson Palmer or Matthew Stafford and some of those guys in Jared Goff, I start to think of how tough they were, right, and like people talk about affecting the quarterback, I mean I never heard those guys ever complain, you know why, or even put emphasis on anything other than being at their best and their best is acquired and find a way to respond. Those were guys you'd never hear Whiper ever. I mean, Matthew Stafford always call him John Wayne. But he's like the baddest cowboy in the huddle. Everybody in that huddle wants to be as tough as that dude every single snap, and you're living to try and live up to man. I want to be tough enough that Matthew Stafford thinks I'm tough because that's the kind of dute he is.

00:25:07
Speaker 2: Okay, but what do you think when you hear Jackson Dart that, Hey, this is in soccer and I'm gonna be running and I'm gonna continue to play this way? Is he being small? I love it he be. You're okay with your quarterback doing that.

00:25:22
Speaker 8: I'm okay with what I think is gonna naturally happen. We look, we saw it with Josh Allen, We've seen it with other guys that love to get into that mix a little bit.

00:25:29
Speaker 2: Jackson coming out of concussion protocol, I mean I get extra hits. Yeah.

00:25:35
Speaker 8: But here's the thing. We can't if we want to get in the ring and swing with heavyweights, we can't control whether we're gonna get punched in the head. I mean that's just the reality. So we're playing NFL football. You're gonna take some shots. You wanna extend plays, You're gonna take some shots. Here's what he's gonna have to do. He's got to find ways that hey, like on the sideline there, all right, those are downs, get out of bounds, those are downs. Like as he plays and realizes because I think sometimes we talk about this in coverage, right, young guys coming in and figuring out. Man, those guys DB's at the NFL level. They can break on a football. Oh man, I can't throw it as a tighter windows as I used to could. It's not any different out in space. He's learning the speed and the violence of the game and saying, all right, you know what. I bet he flipped over sideways the other night and said, you know what, next time, I ought to get out the oude of the bounds a little faster. Or that's the reality. So I think I love I love the mentality. You gotta have it. I mean, that's just you look at the league right now. You gotta have it. How many true sit in the pocket quarterbacks do we have? That that exists? And it's just not true. You got to extend plays. You gotta be tough. Back to Mawmes is one of the toughest dudes on the planet, so's Josh Allen. I mean, these dudes running extend plays and they've got to live in that world. But he's got to learn how to be smarter about it, and he's got to get creative. And when do I do it? When do I not? When do I make sure I take care of my football team? But I also think that Dan we have to give him credit. Who's he playing with right now? Like does he have a bunch of weapons that he can get rid of the football and extend game plays to and get down the football field too? No, he doesn't, So some of that he feels like, Man, if I don't do it, I don't know where to go with the football, you know, I think it'd be I think I'd rather assess him a year from now when you see them add some weapons. Is he still doing some of that stuff or is he realizing, Man, maybe it's better to give those guys opportunities in these situations.

00:27:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I need twenty five percent less John Wayne with him?

00:27:16
Speaker 4: That?

00:27:16
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:27:17
Speaker 11: I like that?

00:27:18
Speaker 2: Like is that John Wayne light? Okay? Is that okay?

00:27:22
Speaker 8: Yeah? Yeah, that's okay. Hey, look at Stafford's great, He's a magician at it nowadays. You know, hey, listen, Matthew's that ball's coming out if somebody's unblocked. You know, he's out running in space. He's dirting that thing. We know that he's smart that way, right, He's lived through it. I mean, that guy if anybody's played through it and knows so, I just think it's something that we don't give him credit enough. These quarterbacks they've got to go through that process too and learn how do I stay on the football field. And I think that's the conversation. We need you on the football field because I think Jackson Dart is going to be a really good football player.

00:27:52
Speaker 2: Andrew Whitworth, Amazon Prime Football Analyst Coming up tomorrow night, Cowboys and the Lions pregame coverage start set seven Eastern. Also a Louisiana State alum. Your reaction to getting Lane Kiffin as your coach, Oh Man.

00:28:10
Speaker 8: You know, it's one of those you hate the college football system, You're mad about all that type stuff. At the same time, I mean, i'd be lying if I wasn't saying, as an LSU Tiger, I'm excited that we have a coach that I think is gonna help us be successful. But you know, Dan, I think it's tough too, because if it wasn't for the calendar, it wasn't for the timing. You know, it's more leaving your team when it's happening and what that's gonna do to impact the kids that old miss and what they had in front of them. Because the idea that you hear of, like, oh man, you promise these kids this, or you built this and you're leaving it. Like that's happened since I was in college. I mean, people forget Nick Saban. I was going to Florida with Steve Spurriy or Nick Saban gets hired as the LSU coach. He comes in and sells me that LSU is a not a four year decision. It's a forty year decision. You decide to stay in state, go to LSU. We're gonna do great things. It's gonaffec. Well, hey, three years later we've won a national championship. That's awesome. Four years later he's gone. He took a big check and he's going to the Miami Dolphins. So did he lie to all the kids that came there and hey, we're going to be built?

00:29:12
Speaker 10: No?

00:29:12
Speaker 8: I mean That's the reality is coaches have always done this and it's always been a part of it. It's just now, because of the calendar, we've ended this portal system in NIL and now players are doing it and we've entered this world now where that whole system needs to be reset when it happens and why it happens and all of that, and that's more the issue to me, and unfortunately, I think it's put Lane in a really tough position. I can say this, I can both be excited that LSU got Lane Kiffing to be their head coach and say that if I was in that position, I don't think I could have done it. I don't think I could have left the kids in that moment to not finish that season. I think I would have just waited and seen what other opportunities are out there. For me. That's me personally, but that's my personal decision, and Lane Kiffin needed to make his own.

00:29:58
Speaker 2: I have told this story before, for there was a kid who was and his dad. They were meeting with a college coach at a big university and it was a Sunday and they were meeting with him and they wanted to know, Hey, the rumor is true that you might be, you know, looking at a job in the NFL. And he goes, no, I'm going to be here. So the kid signs. Next day, coach goes to the NFL. Like, come on, I'll give you an example Dan last year, Bryce Underwood. I was at LSU when he was there, he was down there for the game, literally conversations with him, his family, everything, like hey, only places kids ever wanted to play LSU. This is where he's going to go to school, this is where like, this is everything to us. The next week is when the whole entire Michigan News came out to check everything.

00:30:46
Speaker 8: And I'm going I just looked this kid in the eyes the other like six days ago, and he told me that I would never want to play anywhere else other than be an LSU Tiger like some And that's not a bash on him, it's just that is the reality. Soon if somebody else comes in big money, it's hard to tell these people to turn that kind of stuff down. It's life changing money and people need to make their own decisions. And that's my point. Lane Kiffin made the best decision for him and his family. Who am I to judge that, but I would say that if I was in that position, I do think it'd be hard for me to leave my football team. I don't think I want to do it.

00:31:19
Speaker 2: And I this since retired coach that when NIL came out, he says, oh, who's going to sign lineman with it? They're just going to give them like pizza, and I go, linemen are going to make big money because that's where you win in college football, your offense and defensive line. I mean, look at Georgia. You win in the trenches, yep. And I mean certainly in the NFL. But I thought, how naive to think you're not going to spend money on your edge rusher or your offensive lineman just like you do in the NFL. But I mean, what's the biggest payout that you've heard for an offensive lineman in college football?

00:31:57
Speaker 8: I don't know. I don't follow a lot of the NL stuff, but I think it is going to continue to be something huge. We've seen it in the NFL, right, We've seen these teams that think, hey, you can try to go the skill route and not invest in that position as much, and you just don't see winning happening. The teams that have good offensive lines and defensive lines that want to win up front are the teams we're talking about at the end of the year. Every single year. You look at some of the best teams in NFL. This season, again, it's all teams or that's where they learn to win in the trenches. And then the other pieces, obviously are massive. Having a quarterback, having skilled players in both sides of the football, all those things are massive. But if you don't have the foundation of what creates football success, you're living in a pretty temporary building in the sense that at any point it can be cut out from underneath you. And look this Detroit team that's playing tomorrow night. It's a great example of that. You look at how good they were upfront, how dominant they were last season. You lose Zeitler, you replace her, interior, Frank ragnow retires. You got all new guys up there. The young guy Ratleigs is playing good, but he's not a veteran yet, right, and then the other guys have been baying and not has played as well. The interior pressure on Jared Goff has been totally different this year. He's been getting hit more like it changes your football team. But they still have all those other guys Jamior Gibbs and Jamison Williams and all the talents all out there. But when you start to change that group up front, it changes your football team.

00:33:21
Speaker 2: If the Cowboys get into the playoffs, what is the ceiling.

00:33:28
Speaker 8: As good as their defense can play that, I think we're still.

00:33:31
Speaker 2: Can they win a super Bowl? Or can they win a Super Bowl?

00:33:36
Speaker 8: Here's what I would say about this season, Dan Patrick, I think we have seen throughout the year. I don't know if there's a team that's unbeatable. I think Carolina beating it at LA last week shows us that. I think the parody is it truly is? We use that word all the time, we say it, but look weak to week. I mean, there's not a team that you go man. You know, if I go to Denver Broncos, great defense, bonnecks and the offense have left me like wanting a lot more for a lot of weeks. You know, I go to the Patriots, Man, maybe they're for real. I mean, Drake may you look at them? But then I go back and I go, wait, didn't they get beat by the Raiders and the Steelers this year? Like it's teams where you go, man, this team's unbeatable, but well they lost to who, and so it's tons of that this year. I don't think there's a team that you sit there and go, man, this team without questions making a run. I think we're gonna see who's hot and who's healthy, and that that team has got a chance to go win a super Bowl this year. Because if you look at Dallas, what a team's love to do right now? I mean, you play man to man this game matchup against Detroit, and you're gonna try to who's got George Pickens and Cede Lamb, which one do you want to cover? And teams are having to do that. That's one of the things that they're doing really well. They're splitting them up and they're saying, which guy do you want to lean to? We got the quarterback. People forget how good Dak Prescott is, and we'll go to whichever guy you don't lean to and we can win. And so I think, to me, how good can the defense be? How healthy can they be? That gives their ceiling because they've got an opportunity to go score with anybody in the NFL. And right now, if you look at offensive football, there's a lot of teams, even the good ones, that have seemed to really struggle with being consistent on offense.

00:35:06
Speaker 2: I think Brian Kelly's accent is better than yours.

00:35:11
Speaker 8: Uh, there's there's no question. Uh. That was probably the first moment that everybody should have been like whoa.

00:35:18
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:35:18
Speaker 10: So, you know, I.

00:35:22
Speaker 8: Get it if I go down there. Ryan Fitzpatrick always gives me a crap as soon as I go down there to a game where I go visit. We have a Saints game. We come back and he's like, wait, what happened to you? And I'm like, dude, it just it comes out. I get back around it. I have a you know, I have a couple of fried shrimp and get some rum a lot and then some metu fe and it just starts. Man, it just starts. It starts folding out there.

00:35:44
Speaker 2: Great to talk to you again, Thank you, buddy, Appreciate it. Brother Andrew Whitworth, He'll be on the call the pregame festivities for Amazon Prime. Yeah. I was waiting for the accent. But there's certain places where you go back to and all of a sudden it gets it's a little thicker. Like somebody will go back to Brooklyn or go to Long Island, Texas, certain parts of the South.

00:36:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, Seon, Yeah, I spend a little time in New Jersey that like coffee, start to taste a little more like coffee.

00:36:14
Speaker 2: You know, it comes back, it does. It'll be the Cowboys and the Lions and festivity start at seven Eastern tomorrow night, Amazon Prime. Take a break. Last call for phone calls? What we learn? What's in store tomorrow?

00:36:28
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live. Last call for phone calls, What we learn? What's in store tomorrow? Hopefully the voice can hold up for the next couple of days. Here final results of the poll question Seaton.

00:36:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got a few of them up there.

00:36:55
Speaker 3: Let's see if you were part of the College Football Committee playoff committee, which rationale would be most important? Team's resume has eighty percent of that vote. The team good for ratings is just over three percent.

00:37:08
Speaker 2: That's not doing very well. And are you.

00:37:10
Speaker 3: Comfortable with the current college football ranking system? Seventy three percent? Hard no, absolutely not.

00:37:18
Speaker 2: And Todd thinks that because Notre Dame is called Notre Dame, they might get special treatment. If they were known as South Bend University or South Bend State, they probably wouldn't.

00:37:29
Speaker 8: Not just Notre Dame.

00:37:29
Speaker 13: Just like I do believe that's in the back of mind certain brands of schools over the years that have had some kind of a success over many years.

00:37:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to have this success and the tradition. Yeah, but then we have the name with success. You can't go. Man, they got a great name, they're just not any good.

00:37:48
Speaker 13: Yeah, I'd meanted more of a brand in traditions. Maybe I spoke a little bit the name Notre Dame, but they shouldn't have fact it in.

00:37:54
Speaker 8: But I think they do a little bit.

00:37:56
Speaker 4: How about this day in sports history, Paul, I got a bunch for you, Dan teen to fifty. Tom Fears of the La Rams caught eighteen passes against the Packers. That record stood until December of two thousand, when Terrell Owens broke it with twenty catches, of course, against the Bears. George blandon nineteen sixty one kicked a fifty five yardfield goal record at the time. The Rules Committee in nineteen sixty eight of Major League Baseball lowered the pitching mound, and I didn't know this one. They changed the strike zone from knees to shoulders, to top of the knees to the armpits, arm pits, armpits. In a press release, Yep, yeah. The pitcher's mound went from fifteen inches to ten inches. Fifteen to ten Yeah, and that's when you know Bob Gibson had that unbelievable seat. Nineteen sixty eight, pitching stats were crazy. Danny McClain wins thirty Gibson, Bob Gibson's one of the more underrated pitchers of all time.

00:38:50
Speaker 2: God lean and he was on the mound. It was a big game and he was winning those big games. Barry Sanders in nineteen eighty eight, I'm interviewing Barry sam he won the Heisman Trophy and wil Chamberlain made his debut at Kansas. I didn't get to talk about the Kansas Jerseys, Paulie, that you were apoplectic about. So I'm watching the game last night.

00:39:11
Speaker 4: It's a really good game, and the Kansas Jerseys looked like I don't want to describe because I want to slight them. Good program, great fan base. They don't look like Kansas jerseys. The classic script of Danny Manning and Milton Newton and those guys, which was great and very unique. Now it kind of looks like like a font of a toy store or something like that. It's just very off putting. Marvin's you're looking at this.

00:39:35
Speaker 10: Right, I am.

00:39:36
Speaker 2: The Connecticut jerseys look great. It looks like yeah, and they won too.

00:39:41
Speaker 4: The logo, the Kansas font for their word Kansas looks like Golden Corral or some type of Oh yeah, No, one's making that comp today.

00:39:49
Speaker 7: Day's sonic.

00:39:51
Speaker 2: Yeah. By the way, the Clippers are the only NBA team without a retired jersey, and that says a lot of says a lot about the franchise. But now they don't have a retired jersey and Chris paul gets kicked to the curb on the road by the Clippers. Didn't they trade Blake Griffin right after he signed a big deal, send him to Detroit?

00:40:21
Speaker 8: Yeah?

00:40:22
Speaker 2: Man, yeah, Paulie.

00:40:23
Speaker 4: By the way, you're Barry Sanders. Note hit the year he won the Heisman, he ran for two and twenty eight yards. In eleven games. He averaged two hundred and forty yards a game average.

00:40:35
Speaker 2: I do believe he could have had he could have rushed for three thousand yards that year. I really do. He made it look so easy. Let's go around the room see if we learn anything on the program, Todd, did you learn anything today?

00:40:47
Speaker 10: I did?

00:40:48
Speaker 13: Actually, Andrew Whitworth prefers to go up against someone with more mass to grab onto, so he rather black Quinn Williams than Micah Parsons Seeton.

00:40:54
Speaker 2: How about you back from vacation. What'd you learn today?

00:40:57
Speaker 3: It feels like an admission of holding right there. I like the big guys because I can hold them better.

00:41:04
Speaker 2: That's what I love. You think Chris Fowler is tough among other things, Paul, would you learn I made to.

00:41:14
Speaker 4: Talk to a professional about my uniform issues.

00:41:17
Speaker 2: Have a great day, everybody. We look forward to chatting with you tomorrow.