It's time for Coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick Coffee.
This may be something that's been out there for a couple of days and I just missed it, but it just now came across my timeline here that it'll be Marshawn Lynch being the celebrity guest picker for college game Day as game Day will be at Cal as they host Miami, which is just I mean, if you'd have told me that Cal would be warranting a trip from
the college Game Day crew, I wouldn't believe you. Now, obviously Miami being there is a big factor, but Cal's gotten off to a much better start than really anybody would have expected. They did give Florida State their only win, which is wildly now actually a bad look for them. But they beat Auburn at Auburn, which even if Auburn's
down like that's not something anybody would have expected. And they've become like the star of social media so far this college football season, and it's it's, you know, four or five different accounts that have created all these memes and whatnot. And somebody actually asked me this, I think it might have been last week on the text line, Nick, can you explain what I'm missing with the Cal fan
base and why everybody loves them on Twitter? And maybe like, maybe you don't get what they're doing as far as the humor in it. And I'm not gonna act like it's you know, gut busting laughter, but self deprecation always plays, at least it does for me. And Cal is leaning into what you know is a stereotype about him and having fun with it.
Right.
Cal Berkeley is known to be a very woke school, very left leaning, very liberal liberal and you know, apparently Florida State fans when they were talking about not wanting Cal in the league. I don't have a clue of Florida State's fan base is mostly Democratic or Republican.
I don't care, but clearly they have some.
Republican fans who, you know, when talking about Cal, instead of just you know, mentioning that they are a subpar program that doesn't belong in the ACC in the same league with the elite, legendary Florida State program, they brought up the fact that they're all woke and they're tree huggers and whatnot, and all they did for the week
of the Florida State game. That's when it really took off, is that they were creating all these AI artificial artificial intelligence graphics of their mascot, which I don't know the mascot's name, Oski Oscy Oscy the Bear, I.
Think is the name.
And they just did all these different either Photoshop or AI to create all of these and you'd have to go see it forr tou really makes sense. But like a bunch of LGBTQ things like making fun of Florida State, it was funny, but like it's one of those things that you kind of you got to be kind of in the weeds of Twitter to understand the humor. However, I think what's made them funny is that like they're
aware of how people perceive them. They're aware that like they're not a great football program, and yet they're having more success than anybody would have thought, and they're rubbing it in people's faces, especially Florida State. Like that's when it really took off. But now they're playing Miami and uh, Woke versus Coke has been referenced a bunch this week because obviously, you know, if you're going to think of what city and you know, take away just the Miami
football program. If you're gonna think of what city in America might have more cocaine than any others, Miami would probably be in the list. I don't know if there's been any stories that I've missed out on where cocaine is involved in the Miami football program. But either way, Woke versus Coke, I thought that was I thought that's great. Yeah, it's good stuff. And you know, I don't think that they're going to be a great program moving forward in football.
And I would say of the schools that you added, Cal is easily the one that you know has the least relevance in you know, the last ten to fifteen years. I mean, Stanford's been down for a little while, but let's be real, when David Shaw was there and when Harball was there, they were good. So you know, this year,
I mean it's Cal. What is Cal's record? So right now they're sitting at three and one and their wins are against San Diego State, which was a blowout that actually was a good win for them, and then they beat Auburn, and then they beat UC Davis and then lost nine to fourteen to Florida State, and Miami is their next opponent, so we'll see, we'll see how that
one plays out. I don't like their chances against Miami, but maybe, you know, maybe I mean Miami I think is still in the driver's seat to win this league because I just think they look like the best team right now. But it was nice to see them look very vulnerable in that game against Virginia Tech, a game that you know, it wasn't for that questionable call at the end of the game, it might not have won.
And if Miami slips up before you get they get to Louisville, not saying they will, in fact on you know who they play after Heck, they might be on a byway before they come to Louisville. But like you know that that might take a little bit away from the value there, But at this point it doesn't matter. You want you want teams, like you know, you want teams that are going to be in that top tier competing with you.
Hopefully Louisville can be in that tier as well.
That looks like you've got a chance to find yourself in the top two, which of course gets you a chance in the championship and if you win that, you're in the playoffs. So, you know, I think it used to be, well, you you want your league to do really well because you want, you know, you want your wins to to look like they've got, you know, pretty good value. And I guess you still want that to an extent, but really it doesn't matter now. I mean
you could you should root. I mean again, when the ACC teams play each other, you know, one of the one of the teams in the league is gonna get a win. But like, I think we can kind of move on from when it comes to like conference play. Like, if you know there's a team that's got a shot to be in that top tier, you root for the bad.
You know, you root for the upset happen. And maybe you all maybe you always have done that, but I'm somebody that you know, like for example, it didn't really matter and it wasn't really a big talking point at that at that point, but you know, one of the first things that somebody said whenever Notre Dame lost to we were doing a postgame show on the air, whenever Notre Dame lost in Northern Illinois, and you know, one of the first comments we got during the show is
that you know, now that's going to make that win have a little less value there if Louisville can pull off the wind. So yeah, it looks like right now Miami will uh, Miami will play let's see. Yeah, they've got a they've got a week off before before they play Louisville, so they'll be well rested when they come into Cardinal Stadium on October nineteenth. All Right, it's coffee and company. Feel Beyth Thorton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Appreciate you hanging out with us here on a Thursday afternoon. If you want to be a part of the show, you can five O two five seven one seventy nine hundred. That's if you want to give us a call, you can text in on the Ellen and Federal Credit Union text line five O two six five three zero seven nine.
All right, So.
This text sextually came in yesterday, but I highlighted it to remember to go back because it's it's a fair question, but says Nick, I totally agree with you when it comes to your thoughts on recruiting high school freshmen. It's not as critical as it once was with the transfer portal. But I know Kelsey and his staff are actively recruiting a lot of guys in the twenty twenty five class and the twenty twenty five class, and it seems really really quiet right now. Do you still think they'll end
up getting some really good freshmen. I hope they will, but I won't fake outrage or great concern if they end up only maybe getting a couple of freshmen and maybe it's not you know I wanted to get. I mean, look, look, they're still in the mix for some really good players. But if you follow recruiting or you follow Trully Donovan, you know it's not quite clear if Losville is the
leader on any of those big names. So here's one thing that both Pat Kelsey and Mark Pope are going to have to show, and it's called proof of concept. These guys have a lot to sell where they are. Pat Kelsey obviously is leading a program that has a lot of NIEL money. You know, Louisville has a big fan base. You play at an NBA arena. I know kids don't seem to really care about tradition anymore, and I get it, But when it comes to the things
that kids really do care about money. I mean, that's part of it playing style, and Pat Kelsey can show them how he's coached his teams and how he could really you know, utilize the strengths of certain players. And Louisville despite being really bad lately, and it's been a long time since Louisville was nationally relevant in hoops to you know, these guys were probably really really young kids when that happened. But you can know that Louisville has
been down lately. But if you're a high school basketball recruit at at a high level, like you know, Louisville's one of the top ten programs of all time, I would assume I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but like I think if you just if you're a sixteen seventeen year old kid and you follow college basketball a little bit because you know you're gonna play college hoops, I feel like you would have some familiarity with like who the
all time great programs are. And Louisville certainly not in that top tier, but they're in the second tier, right
outside the top tier when it comes to like overall accomplishments. Historically, now that doesn't really matter when it comes to like, well, I'm gonna go to Louisville because they won a title in the last eleven years, but the brand still matters, and despite how bad they've been lately, they're you know, it'll take a long time for Louisville basketball to turn into you know, they'd have to be really really bad for a really really long time to turn into you know,
DePaul or Houston or something like that. By the way, Houston's great right now, but they went through that, right They went titles long, long ago, and then they seemingly didn't exist for a while. So Georgetown's another example. So you know what I'm getting at is like, you've got a lot to sell. But none of these coaches, I mean, neither of these coaches, Pack Hill's or Mark Pope. They
haven't actually shown that they're gonna be good here. And I think fans on both sides are justified in believing that both of these coaches could have a lot of success, and these may be very lengthy tenures that we all look back on many many many years from now and say, wow, that was a lot of fun. Josh Hurb made the
right hire, got the right guy. Mitch Barnhardt Man, he really he knew what he was doing, which will if that If that is the case, it'll be a good story because I'll remember the reaction from both fan bases whenever you found out that those were going to be the guys myself included. By the way, So if you're a kid and you're you got options to go to relatively similar schools, even if you really like Pope, even if you really like Pat Kelsey, if you if you've
got a similar role, similar nil money, similar program. But the coach that's at these other program they've made a final four, maybe multiple final fours, maybe they've won a title. Like that's going to give you an edge over Pat Kelsey and Mark Pope because again proof of concept. They've got to be able to show recruits, Hey, this is what I'm doing at Louisville. Watch us the last few years. We got a lot of momentum. You could be somebody that could come in and help us in a major way.
So I'm not making excuses, it's just a fact. Like if I was a parent of a kid who's being recruited, and I love Pat Kelsey and I really liked his energy, liked what he wanted to do, with my son as far as how he wanted to utilize him, but I knew that he'd never coached a game yet, and I've got to make a decision. My kid's got to make a decision, you know, in November or you know, January, whatever it is. Like if it's just one year, like
you know, you're a disadvantage. It's nobody's fault. It's just you've never coached at these big schools and nobody truly knows how successful you're going to be, and that matters when kids make decisions. So proof of concept, I think, you know, the fact they've already got Connie russ Is is impressive considering the fact that he's one of the higher ranked freshmen to ever commit here and he chose Pat Kelsey knowing he had other options. And you know
that's before Pat ever coached a game here. So and look, I'm not at all surprised that I've already got a few texts coming in on the text line, the Ellen and Federal Credit Union text line that you know, what are you talking about, Mark Poh, He's already got He's already got to league guys he does, and that's you know, that's that's great for him, and I'm not saying that like he doesn't deserve major credit for Jasper Johnson and Malachi Mareno because you know, he recruited him and it
didn't look good with I think Malaca Moreno was always going to go to Kentucky unless Cal was there, and I'm not sure Kylind wonted him. But with Jasper Johnson, by all accounts, it didn't look great for him. It didn't look like he Kentucky was going to be, you know, in the mix. It was going to be Bama or Carolina, and Pope and his staff, you know, they fixed that. They found more money through Nil and we're able to
convince him to come to Kentucky. So again, I'm not taking credit away, but let's also just not ignore a big factor. Both of these kids are from Kentucky. Jasper Johnson's entire family is affiliated with UK Athletics seemingly in some way, and Malachi is from Georgetown, big UK fan, grew up a huge Cats fan. So again I'm not saying, well, hey, no, it doesn't matter. Any coach could have got those guys
because they wanted to go to Kentucky. Trust me, that's not what I'm saying, but if those guys weren't right here in Kentucky with that connection, I'm not sure Pope would have been able to get them for a visit. I mean, maybe I'm wrong and we'll never know, but that's actually something that, you know, I think Pope should be praised for is realizing, hey, this is a really
good way to get some momentum going for us. I want to really prioritize these two guys who not only are from here and good players, but like they're really good players. I mean, it really worked out well for Pope to where he's got what two thirty players that have committed, and rarely do you get two players from the state that are that good in the same class, and it worked out well for him. So again I'm not saying, like you know, but let's put it this way.
I would say, right now, if Kentucky's going head to head with Baylor, meaning Scott Drew, Bill self at Kansas, even John Shire at Duke, who else I'm trying to think of like the elite obviously Hurley at Yukon, and there's other programs that recruit really well, but like Pope and Kelsey like, I think you're gonna be at somewhat
of a disadvantage with the other elite programs. One because you know, you can be in a perfect situation and loser recruit to Baylor or Duke or Kansas, because you know what, if you're going head to head with them, you're gonna lose a lot more than you win, unless your name is John cal Perry. But until you show proof of concept that what you're selling there's actually some some proof and results that it's working, I think it's just you know, and again that's nobody's fault it. It's
just gonna take some time, all right. Speaking of Louisville Live, which I said, I don't think we've talked about louis Alive, but I guess speaking of Louisville Basketball, we now know the participants in both the Dunk Contest and the three point Shootout, and I don't I don't understand whether there's only three people participating in the three point shootout. Do they give these guys the option that you have to qualify?
I have questions. There's only three in the three point shootout and four in the dunk contest, So in the three point shootout, you've got Caseon pryor Rain Smith and Noah Waterman. I would say, I mean Rain Smith statistically is your best shooter because he was one of the best shooters in college basketball last year. I mean, that is what he does. That is what he's out there
to do. Not to say he's terrible at everything else, but like the tool he's got in his bag is really really efficient three point shot that can change a game. I mean, he can knock four down in a in a in a few minutes and completely flip a game. I don't want to say he's Ryan McMahon, but like that's what Ryan did. Ryan would have games where he gets hot, he got a nine point swing and a
matter of three possessions at times. But with Cason, obviously he's a guy that can stretch the floor and shoot it. But I went a little surprised to see that he's I mean, look, if if these are the only three that wanted to do it, then you know whatever. But Noah Waterman is a really good shooter. In fact, I'm gonna I'm gonna pick Noah Watt. So that's that I picked yesterday. When it comes to the three point shootout,
I'm going I'm sorry. The dunk contest, I'm going with Cater Treira, and then the three point shootout, I'm going Noah Waterman. But it wouldn't be shocked if the other two potentially win, because three point shootouts that kind of you know, that that that way of doing it instead of just catching and shooting or in a real game situation, like.
There are guys who are elite shooters.
In game that just aren't great at picking a ball up off a rack five straight times and then moving to the other side, like it's a different thing. I mean, technically, you're still shooting a basketball and your form is, you know, relatively the same, I would imagine. But Reggie Miller, one of the best shooters of all time, I don't know if he ever won a three point shootout, and Reggie's
my favorite player ever. Therefore, I feel like I would I say that not knowing it, and now I got to look it up because I feel like if he if he would have won one, I would remember because again he was he's to the stay of my favorite NBA player of all time, But I don't think he was. If he did win one, it was probably if he did win one, that was probably just that one, and he was He's a great shooter, but I don't think he ever was great at that.
Take a guest, John, you think he ever won one? Let's just go with yes, he didn't.
Oh so he participated in the eighty nine to ninety ninety three, ninety five, ninety eight, so in five different three point shootouts in the NBA, he never won one. He fared well, but never actually got to the final two. So yeah, I'm gonna go Noah Waterman for the three point shootout and Cater trail Way for the dunk contest. We shall see. All right, let's get to a quick break. How about me keeping this thing on track better than
you know I usually do. We are gonna have a guest coming up here in about twenty twenty five minutes or so. That's doctor Eric McElroy from pro Reaf Physical Therapy. What I want to get to. On the other side, there is a very unusual suspension that's been laid down by Eli Drinkwitz. He has suspended one of his staffers for the week, and the reason is, I feel like a very rare occurrence. But I gotta say, if I was Eli Drinkwitz, I'd probably do the same thing. So
we'll get to that and a lot more. It's Coffee and Company feel about Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. So it looks like there are a total of, let's see here, five teams that have got off to a five and oh start BYU Duke Indiana, Miami in Texas, and Brett McMurphy has a rundown here of the last time each of those teams started five and oh and what their record ended up being in what their final ranking was.
So the Hoosiers, do you know the answer to this, John.
I know their best start was eight and o and now believe it was nineteen sixty seven.
They ended up going to the Rose Bowl that year.
Yep, you're right.
So in sixty seven they started five and oh, finished nine and two and their final ranking was number four. Texas did it last year, of course, and went twelve and two and finished number three and made it all the way to the playoff.
BYU did it.
In twenty twenty one. They finished ten and three that year and in the top twenty at nineteen. Miami did it in twenty seventeen. That was the one year where Mark Rick was very successful. They went ten and three, finished number thirteen. That was Miami's last good season, at least at that level. And then Duke Duke went eight and four after starting five and oh in nineteen ninety four, but they did not finish the season ranked. Were they playing acc football in ninety four, I mean, I guess
they would have. I don't know of them ever being in any other league, but yeah, of those, I mean, clearly Duke in Indiana being five and oh is not something that you know and apparently to say very often.
Apparently Indiana has a chance to be the first team to reach six and ode based on the time each of these teams play this weekend, which is wild to be the first Bowl eligible team of twenty twenty.
It's Northwestern, right, Yes, they're gonna win. I mean they're gonna Kirk Signetti is gonna be Bowl eligible by October fifth. I mean say it out loud like that's it's crazy.
It is weird.
But and we'll go into the bye week.
Are you finding yourself at times like not? In because again, like let's like we all know that that part of the reason that they've been able to do this is because you know, they've yet to play like a really good team, but either way, there's still waymore.
They've had schedules too, mentioned this yesterday that have been favorable that they don't take advantagey exactly.
And you know, they beat the hell out of Maryland. They beat the hell out of every CLA. Yeah, they've covered every spread. So they're not just beating teams that you know aren't great, They're they're beating them down. But as an Indiana fan, do you ever find yourself in the last couple of weeks kind of thinking like is this real?
Yeah?
And I think I think once they'll they'll have a bye week after this weekend, and then they'll face Nebraska the following week at home, and I think depending on how that game plays out, we'll really determine where you can set the ceiling at for the rest of the season.
And that's a great test because Nebraska is a team that I believe actually has good players and they're well coached. I don't think they're elite. They ended up who they lose to, that was Illinois, Yeah that was but Illinois, you know, is a pretty good team.
Is that their only loss this year so far?
Yeah? Yeah?
And they really had to. I mean they they're freshman quarterback, who's great. He had a freshman moment late in that.
Game, annihilated in overtime.
Yeah, I mean it was. It was bad for him, but that's what happens.
You know, He's still worthy of a starting spot considering all the good plays that he's made. But yeah, it was not good for him in that one. All right, it's coffee and Company Field about Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you hanging out with us here on a Thursday afternoon. So I found this to be a very interesting story, and I found myself wondering what I would do if I was Eli Drinkwitz and wondering
how I would feel if I was this staffer. So Missouri's going to visit Texas A and M on Saturday, ABC noon, same time Louisville plays, and it's I mean, it's it's a big game, especially considering how light the schedule is this week. As far as you know, well, I guess it is a matchup against two ranked teams because A and M is ranked number twenty five. So but maybe are they not ranked in one of the poles or something I don't know either.
Are there in the coaches Paul believe they're unranked in the Gotcha they're tied with UNLV.
It's kind of weird gotcha.
Okay, So Marcel Reid is a red shirt freshman for Texas A and M, and he's their starting quarterback. He came in for Connor Weekman during A and m's win over I think it was McNee State, and he really got that offense going, and A and M has not looked back since then. I mean, in three starts, he's thrown for five hundred and fourteen yards, six touchdowns, no interceptions. He's rushed for about two hundred yards and also has two scores on the ground. So he's I mean, he's
really really good. However, they've said at A and M that they're going to go back to Weekman and Eli Drinkwich I think is right here.
He's not buying it.
He's saying that that's just semantics. I mean, he's highlighting that this team has been way better with the backup who's now the starter, Marcel Reid. So I guess it's just some gamesmanship here. But the reason I bring this up is because one of the things that Drinkwitz learned about Marcel Reid, the you know, the quarterback who honestly probably made A and M fans feel a lot better about their season after he came in and ignited the offense.
But he was unaware until Reid led A and M to a victory at Florida, meaning drink Wits, because he has a staffer on like Missouri has an assistant coach meeting the coach that works for drink Wits that is the brother of this quarterback. So yeah, it's the assistant director of on campus recruiting. I'm sorry, it's a sister, is Bria Reid. So he's he's decided to suspend her for a week where she's not allowed around the team
at all. She's not allowed at practice. I don't even think she can show up to the team facility because you know, coaches are super paranoid. Coaches are super you know, paranoid. I guess that's the best word to use. I mean they're weird and and you know, just do weird things. And I don't really know if this is weird or not. Do you think this is like a well, I mean, he what he is thinking is that he does not want his staffer who he hired to be sharing secrets
with her brother and or her family. And her family could maybe tell the brother, like have a hard time seeing that happening, But again, you know, it's high level, high competition here, maybe that would happen. But he's playing it safe and just making sure she's not around at all to hear anything about the game plan that Missouri has for this A and M game, because her brother is the quarterback for A and M. I wouldn't even
think to do this because I would feel bad. But then again, I guess it's not crazy, right, Like she's getting paid. It's not like he's telling her she's being punished. A suspension is probably not the right way to word it.
That's the article, That's how they worded it. But like I kind of get it, to be honest with you, if I was the employee, I don't know if I would be as understanding because I would probably be worried that you think I would, you know, sacrifice my job, maybe my career by giving my little brothers some you know, some tips.
I think that's the thing.
I bet there are people out there, maybe it's not this person specifically, who were if they were in this exact same situation, they would take advantage of that.
Yeah, yeah, that's true, and you really would never know. But him keeping her away, I guess is his best way of saying, well, at least she's not going to be around anybody that you know is in practice when we are installing the game plan and what we're going to do to try to try to win this game. And it's a big game for Missouri, big game for both teams. To be honest with you, but I would be willing to bet that that's a rare thing in college football where the head coach has decided to and again,
she's not an on field coach. She's she's the director of on campus recruiting, but she's still embedded within the program and the team every day. I mean, it's it's a full time position and you know your your office is at the facility. I'm sure, so just a rare, unusual situation, But if you think about it, I kind of get it from Eli Drinkwitz's perspective there. All right, So before we get to our next break and bring in doctor Eric McElroy of pro Reap Physical Therapy, a
text that I referenced earlier. I'll just read it directly. It says Nick, I'm actually going to start pulling for Kentucky for every game here on out, because the better they are at the end of the year, when we lose to them, it won't look as bad. And I can accept us losing to them when they're good much more than I can accept losing to them when they
stunk like they did last year. I mean, that's a lot of mental gymnastics there to try to, I guess, prepare yourself for a potential loss to the rival again, and look I get it, Like I mean, I'm not even thinking about that game right now one because I mean, if Louisville would have beat Notre Dame, I would still feel as if Kentucky is going to cause some matchup problems.
Not to say you.
Can't win and you won't win and there's no chance, but like Kentucky's so big upfront, like even against some SEC teams, they're defensive front. I mean they look I mean not to say these guys are all NFL caliber players, plenty of them are, I'm sure, but like they look like an NFL team physically on defense, and their defense
is really really good on offense. They made some plays and they've got some play makers, but clearly they're not lighting it up this year, and they may not need to if their defense is that good and their offense can you know, do just enough like they did against Ole Miss. But like, I don't believe you, Like you're lying to yourself and you're lying to me. If you are the type of fan that's already putting this plan in motion as far as how you're going to accept
a potential loss, then you probably hate Kentucky. It's clearly bothering you two months out that you're you're already trying to find a way to you know, deal with it if it happens. So that means it would be impossible for you to want them to win any game. I mean, I hear what you're saying, because if they are and look, I'm not pulling for them, I hope they lose every
game they're not going to. But yeah, if you end up playing them at the end of the year, and let's they upset Tennessee, lose to Texas and then be all the other teams they're supposed to beat, they'd be a pretty highly ranked team and I'm not saying they're going to do that, because I still think they could have dud games and get beat by anybody on their
schedule outside of Murray State. So I'm not saying this is going to happen, but like, if that was the scenario that would make it to where rivalry is side, which it is hard to put aside, you would know you're playing a really good team that like at that point would have shown that they can beat really good teams, and like it's going to be a really tough matchup. So just calm down, try not to think about the
Kentucky game until we get closer to it. I mean, I'm not here to tell you that I'm overly confident, but you know.
Here's the outside of that, though, is that if they're confident coming in, then all you're going to hear going into that week is how good they are. Whereas last year, and I know the payoff wasn't there because Louisville didn't win. They hated their team, as you've said multiple times.
And like called into the show, my show, a Louisville based show for the most part, to let me know that, like we don't respect Louisville we don't think they're any good but we but we suck. Like that wasn't the word for word call, but like many people kind of said the same thing. Yeah, you all still think despite being ten win team, but we're just we're just really bad, Like I don't So anyways, let's get to a break. We'll come back on the other side. Talk to doctor
Eric McElroy of pro Reap Physical Therapy. I want to get his thoughts on this Christian McCaffrey thing. But you're starting to hear some noise that like maybe he has finally had an injury that he won't be able to fully recover from. I have no clue and nobody knows really, but we'll get his thoughts on it in a lot
more right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. That's right, it's coffee and company fueled by Thornton's Here on Sports Talk seven ninety A beautiful Thursday afternoon, and our Thursday afternoon just got better because we can now welcome in doctor Eric mccelroy from pro Reap Physical Therapy.
How we doing this afternoon, Doctor.
I'm doing great.
Nick, I'm not sure got any more beautiful. Oh, come on, but maybe a guy a little better. Hey, you know what, well, it can't get it can't get more beautiful.
It's a gorgeous I like to gas my guys up. And you're you're you know, you're a big part of the show. You have been for for a long time, so it's always good to bring you in. But you're right, today's weather is beautiful, warm, warm enough with a nice breeze. It's it is damn near perfect if you ask me, So let's get right to it. Big injury in the NFL that has been probably talked about, maybe more than any injury so far this season is Christian McCaffrey uh
and he now is dealing with bilateral Achilles tendonitis. Recently, he made a trip to Germany to get some type of I guess, you know, get some feedback from some doctors over there as far as how he can get healthy. And there's a lot of noise out there. It's just speculation that, you know, maybe this could maybe be the injury that he never fully recovers from. Maybe he doesn't
come back this year. But when you hear bilateral Achilles tendonitis, meaning it's in both of his both of his legs, I mean I would say that it doesn't look great for him, but I could be totally wrong.
Oh it doesn't, No, it doesn't.
I'm a little I'll be honest with I mean, I'm not sure why you get go to Europe unless he's doing some some experimental procedures over there that they don't necessarily allow in the United States. I mean, we treat Achilles tendinopathies ten and is tendinosis, which is more is.
More the chronic version all the time.
And yes, it can be very convenated, especially the more chronic it gets.
It can be difficult.
Uh, it's also that much more challenging when you're dealing with, you know, professional athlete at the level that he is, and both sides, So a lot that goes into that be interesting to see what all. You know, there's a lot of background information I would love to know as to why it's lingering, continuing on how it happened in the first place. Generally don't see it both sides. Uh,
So you know, I could speculate a lot. There's a lot of things that would go through my head as far as when you see something like that come about, you know, you know what he could be or couldn't or not doing what he's taken or not taken. Uh, you know that could contribute to having it on both sides and it being to the point where it's it's hard enough to treat that he has to feel like he has.
To go to Europe.
Yeah, and I think the trip to Europe as well as you know now hearing that it's in that it's in that, it's it's it's worse. It's not just one, it's it's both achilles. I think that that's made people just think, Okay, this guy's really in a bad way. And he may be, but you know, I found it very interesting and I don't have the exact quote in front of me, but his father, Ed McCaffrey, of course, is well known in the football world, he came out
and said that he believes. In fact, I found the quote he said, tendonitis is an overtraining injury, meaning you're training too hard or doing too mote too much and it turns into tendonitis. So that was on the Ross Tucker Football podcast. What do you make of his father, you know, maybe not saying hey, it's all my son's fault. Don't have sympathy for him, but saying, hey, this is
something he got from overtraining. He's obviously been injured before and he's miraculously always gotten back to a really good elite player with some big time injuries that have happened. And also he's an a position that guys just kind of fall off the clip when they get to his age. So you know, I just curious feedback when you hear that. You know, some people, you know, his father even thinks that it's that overtraining could have been a big factor here.
Well, it absolutely can be. And most of the time it is overtrained for sure. I mean that that is one hundred percent accurate.
It's not.
Sometimes it's trying to train too hard too soon for some people, so their body is not prepared for the forces that they're placing upon it, and that'll create an iis tenonitis.
So it's definitely overtraining. Most most tendonitises are overuse, you know. But he's a pro athlete with all the resources in the world, the.
Best you know, medical staff, rehab staff, you know injured you know, prevention, nutrition, everything you could possibly imagine.
So I don't love that as the reason.
I mean, it absolutely is but you know, he should be getting he's likely getting treatment anytime he wants around the clock that while he's training, should be able to mitigate that.
You know.
It's it's one thing if you're an amateur, you don't have.
The resources and the means or the you know, education to help guide you.
But he has that.
Now, whether he listens to him or tries to do it on his own, that's a whole other animal. Also, you know, it makes me just think, and I don't want to start the whole thing on this show, but you know, what else could he be doing or taking that to contribute to a higher risk of an achilles cinonitis where his tenons are more likely to have problems, you know, And it wouldn't be out of the realm
of possibilities and athletics as we all know. So you know, just those are things that I would start thinking about. Given the circumstances and given the resources that he has. Those are just red flags for me. But he's right, I mean, it is an overtraining issue. But again, if you're at this level and at the level player he is, you ought to know how to help manage that or have help managing that.
Yeah, fun balance right all the time, right, absolutely sticking.
With the NFL too.
Tuga below is probably the other NFL player who has been discussed more than anybody when it comes to injuries, and it's because of the fourth documented concussion that he that he suffered earlier this year September twelfth. It's been reported that he is now free of concussion symptoms. He has met with neurologists and he's not received any feedback
that has dissuaded him from continuing to play football. That was a big topic for a few days after that happened, like, hey, should he still be out there playing despite you know, having this, you know, because he's had these many concussions, and I think he's he's he's gonna want to keep playing until somebody tells him, hey, you probably shouldn't. It sounds like I guess that hasn't happened just yet. But the Dolphins have been a mess without him. His value.
I think it's pretty evident when he plays, but man, it really stands out when they don't have him. I mean, and I'm asking you just to guess and speculate here, and sometimes I hate doing that, but getting him back out there would have sounded crazy a few weeks ago, But is it you know, I mean, I mean, if he gets the green light, I mean, he could get a concussion on any play, just like anybody else can.
But like I guess it's you know, maybe it's not crazy that he comes back this year at some point.
Yeah, you know, I don't.
And you remember having a doctor Seifert on here, uh, and he on the show, and uh, he's one of the best here in Louisville, and he's one of the best in our.
Region when it comes to concussions. And he said many times that you can have one concussion and you should end your career, and you should you could have ten concussions. Fine, you know, it's like like a lot of different injuries.
But Nick, I don't know, Like the way his you know, the look on his concussions, the posturing and all those kind of things that he gets every time is a huge concern for me.
You know, right the medical.
Staff is going to tell you know, I kind of approach it this way too, to be honest, is that these guys are professionals.
He's an adult, he's a grown man.
He knows the risk and if he is capable and able to come back based on all the testing. And that's what he chooses to do. It's on him and we can't you know, I hate to say it this way, but you can't. So sorry for him now if I'm his family, you know, that's a different conversation. You know, it's it's sometimes you got to step in and try to hope that you can give the advice or help support somebody to think through something, you know.
And make better decisions. You know, he's set for life, uh, and.
He's got a long life to live and you would hate to see him struggle with that later on in life. And but I think that's those are things that he needs to talk. You know, hopefully his family can step in and really make him think twice about what he's doing. So but you know, those are two different conversations, uh, you know, the doctor's conversation and the and the rehab staff and everybody just basically like it is what it is. You're going to try to be as objective as you
possibly can. And and we do that all the time and give people the you know what, you know what the risk is.
And you know they have to understand that risk.
And then give them the best advice we can give them, and then they can make the choice for themselves.
Doctor Ereg McElroy, Proriat Physical Therapy is our guest joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety when it comes to college football couple of injuries, I wanted to get
your thoughts on. Kentucky had a running back transfer in from Ohio State and Chip train him, and he broke his hand as soon as their camp started, and the expectation was that he'd be he'd be out for you know, the first few games maybe, and then last week was cleared to return, then it was doubtful, then he was listed as out, and now there's talk that he could potentially have a procedure done that might shelf him for
the rest of the year. Again, I mean, you're going in blind here as far as the situation, but I mean a broken hand would usually be something that like if you I mean again, maybe I'm way off here, but I feel like you would have known initially if you needed to have some kind of procedure right or maybe throughout the healing process you learned that it's not going the way that you thought and.
You need to get operated on it. Just that seemed very very puzzling.
It is puzzling to me, and it's you know, I mean that's my job is to speculate, you know, right when we have in these conversations. So I love it, but you know, to me, what it tells me is there there is something showing up on the bone. It's just not that doesn't look good, whatever that is. And I know that seems like pretty simple, but it's not like sometimes it's all to pick up on that or you're seeing where it is at that moment in time, thinking all right, in two weeks that should fill in
really good. He should be ready to go, right, you're projecting forward well on those follow ups, it may not. There's things called malunions where the bone looks like it's going to start to close and it doesn't. And it could be that from the time they checked, you know, two weeks ago till now it didn't progress. That's a
different animal. Now it's like, oh no, we may need to go in and do something to help accelerate that healing of that bone because it's not healing like we thought it was two weeks ago.
So that's what I would where I would go, and then that happens.
Unfortunately, especially in certain areas of the body and certain bones, and it could be something else. Hopefully it's not some kind of infection that's formed or something like that, or some reaction to any kind of hardware that was put in, which again, all of those things could be a possibility. That may have not been the case. Two weeks ago. It looked like he was, you know, progressing as they would expect and would be able to return.
So Quincy Riley is one of Louisville's best defensive backs. He was listed as a game time decision was for the Notre Dame game, and then as we got to game day listed as doubtful, did not play, And we really don't know a whole lot about it. Not to say that we're entitled to it, but he's so important to Louisville. Jeff browm'son pretty quiet as far as the
actual injury. I think some reports are that it's it's the right foot or ankle, and I think he's still kind of, you know, his status kind of remains up in the air. I mean, he was out there warming up before the game, not sure if it was because he was going to maybe see if he could give it a go. If that's the case, I'd say that's encouraging. But everybody's asking what the hell's going on with Quincy Riley, and I don't think any of us know, No.
We don't, and then they're pretty hush hush about it, and uh, you know, and that's okay, And I do think that it's you know, all the signs are positive. He's out warming up before games anytime you listen to his game time decision. Unless they had some kind of setback to something, that would be very unfortunate, especially for him. Uh, it's usually you know, at this point, he's day to day. I suspect given what we saw.
And giving him warming up and giving him and me at.
Least being in the conversation of playing, I would be shocked if they don't play him. You know, maybe they'll kind of go into with some expectations that you know, depending on how the game starts will depend on how they start to utilize him, so you know it all they may, you know, because you don't want to push somebody in too soon if if you know, it could risk him being out longer down the road. So you know,
I think that that's probably where they are. I have a feeling that I'd be shocked if he doesn't play this weekend, just given the fact that he was have a decision and even listed as doubtful. Yeah, you know, which is different than out, so you know the circumstances and playing the game they were in the game.
You know.
It's it's that again, the risk reward, given where we are in the season, may not be big enough to them.
Eric, I appreciate you making time for us here on a beautiful Thursday afternoon. Go enjoy this beautiful weather, have a good weekend, and we will talk to you soon.
My friend absolutely do the same. Nick A good one.
Take care.
That's doctor Eric McElroy, pro Rea physical therapy quick break. We got the five o'clock hour coming up here on the other side. Any rare back to back guest segments, right, We don't do that very often, but you know when we do, we do it big. Eric McElroy. Then Kent Spencer from Whas You kidding Me? Stick around right here on Sports Talk seven ninety