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Here's Nick Coffee. All right, let's get this party started. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome in.
We made it. We made it to the end of the week. That's right.
It is a Friday edition of Coffee and Company. Get you set for the weekend. Maybe the weekend hasn't quite a arrived for you yet, but I'm sure it'll be here soon at least. So and uh, thank you guys for hanging out with us. Vib's pretty good here for me on a Friday. I mean, we'll start with how Halloween worked out great? How about Mother Nature having some
compassion at least for where I was. I don't know, maybe it did rain elsewhere, but we had our little get together which it turned into a big get together. A lot of people at the house last night. Good times, and everybody brought like a dish, so like we all kind of ate and it was raining but nothing crazy, just you know that consistent light rain. The best way to describe it. As I mentioned yesterday, I imagine the levels that you have for your windshiel wipers, like not the slowest,
but the second slowest. And then all of a sudden, like right about seven o'clock, it stopped. So it was still, you know, really wet outside, but the temperature was pretty good and we didn't get wet, so worked out well. And there was a ton of people out. I mean, my neighborhood I think has kind of become the neighborhood that everybody gets dropped off in because there are men any many people who do it big, which is which is awesome.
We really enjoy it.
But I was just thinking that because of the weather, like especially right around six thirty it's when it got dark, I mean, it wasn't looking good, but yet the kids still enjoyed Halloween. Parents did as well, and shout out to two of the folks in my neighborhood. I mean, there was many people out handing out candy and you know, enjoying Halloween night. But there were two different stops along our journey last night where they had they had gifts, not candy, but gifts treats if you will, for for
the adults. One house was given out fireball shots, which it wasn't like one of those many It wasn't like a mini mini bottle like the smallest ones, like the you know, the airplane shooters, but it was like slightly bigger than that, so it was a decent, decent shot. And then another house was handing out beer. So I mean, I feel like Halloween couldn't win any better on mind. Did you guys have any trigger treaters?
No, And I mean there were some around the neighborhood as there typically are, but just because of the you know, the weather, and it was still raining whenever I got back to my house, and the Halloween vibes weren't as on point as they usually usually are in my neck of the woods.
Yeah, and I would say, I mean, it's it's pretty easy to just say, yeah, I guess I'm not gonna trick or treat this year because it's been raining all day and it might start raining again, and I've already loaded up on candy from all the trunk or treats my parents took me to. So you know, I could see it being more of like a you know, most of the kids, in fact, nearly all the kids that were out trick or treating with us, you know, they're younger to where they're not running off doing their own
thing with their friends. It's you know, young small kids. So now that I think of it, most of the kids out and about were younger with their parents, like if you're you know, a teenager or you know, eleven twelve, like, it probably was pretty easy to say, yeah, I'm just gonna I got enough candy. I'm gonna stay inside and watch my tablet or watch, you know, play video games
or something like that. But yeah, like just about everybody that I have either talked to or just her discussing Halloween, I know Shannon and Billy were talking about a little bit this morning about how both of them very light when it comes to the trigger treaters, which was it was the exact opposite for me. So maybe I'm the
only one here talking about good vibes from Halloween. Although my kids cleaned up all all the way around, like from all the things we did, and then last night and with inflation, I had to break the news to Moose and De Maaya last night that you know, it's out of my control, but the dad tax has gone up ten percent to now fifteen percent. It's the economy. It's you know, it's out of my hands. It's just you know, it's part of it, all right.
I mean, the dad tex sounds like a wonderful thing.
Yeah, And I look, it's like whenever, you know, I told her, told Maya. You know, look, it's just how it is. You know, they were wondering why I wanted their candy, and I'm like, look, it's just how this works. And don't blame me the fact that it's gone up. I'm now paying a lot more every time we take you guys out to eat than I used to. It's just, you know, it's just the way of life. But anyways,
good vibes here on a Friday. Let's keep that until six o'clock because that's that's when we get out of here.
We're gonna have some fun over these next few hours.
And maybe it's just me, because I'd be a liar if I told you that, man, I can you know, everybody in town is talking about this Louisville game against Clemson tomorrow and then winning for the first time ever against Clemson and you know, doing the unthinkable knocking off Dabbo and not the unthinkable for you know, anybody, but like Louisville obviously they've never beat them, so it's not Trust me, It's not like I'm trying to oversell it
as if like everybody's just expecting this massive win for Louisville. But I get I mean, I feel like this is a big I mean, it is a big game, and kind of like when Miami came to town a couple of weeks ago. You know, it's just nice to be a part of games that you know are going to get more eyeballs than you know, the majority of your games. It's under the lights, great atmosphere. I mean, it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be a big challenge, no doubt.
But with that challenge comes a big opportunity, right Like if you somehow were able to find a way to put a full game together and get this win. I mean, I don't want to get anybody's hopes up, but it would be one of the biggest things that's happened to Louisville football in a while. I feel like maybe I'm giving Clemson a little too much credit, but you know, despite them not being the same program they were for about a four year window where they were either winning
the national championship or playing for the national championship. I mean, when you think of them being down, they're down is like still winning nine to ten games. I mean, in fact, I remember initially on the initial drop off they're down was well, they made the four team playoff, but they lost. Like so, you know, this Clemson team, I think tomorrow is a really good chance to see exactly where they are.
I mean, because they've been very impressive when it comes to the numbers as far as how bad they're beating teams and whatnot. But you know, this is easily the biggest challenge that they've had since Georgia. And it's really
not even like could debate, like Dabo's saying it. You look at their schedule and it's not like, again, this is one of those things that makes me a little more optimistic about the matchup is that you know, it's not like you look at Louisville and think, well, yeah, clearly, Louisville, they're so good.
That's why they're the best.
Team that Clemson's played since Week one. It's more so because there's really no conversation to be had. There's not anybody on their schedule they've played as up to right now outside of Georgia, which they played in Week one, that you would say is even a good team. So when I say it gives me some optimism. It makes me look at their results and realize that, yeah, it's impressive, but it's tough to really know if it's because they're that good or because they're just a good team that's
taking advantage of who's in front of them. So I'm almost ready to say, you know, like they're gonna do it now. Again, that wouldn't have any impact on the game, but that's how that's how good I'm feeling about this team right now. And again it's mostly just because of what they did against Boston College, not because they beat them, but as I mentioned throughout the week, because of how
they did it. So what I do feel confident and is that we're going to know right away, like not if necessarily they were able to take something valuable from the Boston College comeback, but like, are they going to be in it, because you know, the atmosphere is going to be insane, probably the best atmosphere any of these
guys have ever played in. And Clemson, maybe they strike first, but like, if we get to the end of the first quarter and it's and it's close competitive, maybe louis has got a slight lead by a field goal or something, or maybe maybe Clemson's up by a score, like.
If we if the if the if.
The first quarter is gonna be so important for me because Louisville can't really dig a big hole and expect to come back. And now I don't mean it'd be great if they could come out and like strike first, maybe get a scoop and score or something fluky that gives them a little little edge, calms that stadium down, That would be great. But I don't think they have to get off to like a ten to ohero head start to you know, be able to hold on and win.
I think if they go back and forth but it's not necessarily a shootout like what we saw in the second half against Miami, I think that's best case scenario. But you could probably say this about a lot of football games. But I feel like we're gonna know after the first quarter if it's going to be, you know,
one of three things. Louisve is gonna get killed and it's gonna be ugly the rest of the way, or it's competitive and maybe they compete close and give themselves a chance to win at the end, or you know, maybe Louisville somehow does get off to a great start. I mean, well, I think we'll know up to the first quarter if we're gonna if we're gonna be in it, and I'm hopeful that they will. But you know, it's the intrigue of the unknown. I have no clue what
we're gonna get tomorrow. And that's that's that's exciting in a way. It's not nerves. It's just you know, you've already come up short three times. You've played good teams. SMU wasn't really considered a team at the time. You felt like, here we go, we're about to play one of the best, you know, top twenty five teams in the country. But I think they've shown since then that they are pretty good. But like Notre Dame Clemson or
sorry Notre Dame, Miami and now Clemson. I mean those are games where you feel like, okay, let's see where we are. And in both those games, I think there was a lot to like, you just came up short, and now you've got a third chance. Have you been battle tested enough to where you can you can get over the hump and finally win and beat one of these good teams on your schedule. The last time that Clemson lost a home game on a Saturday night twenty thirteen.
This is eleven year. They've won eleven. For eleven straight years, they have won every home game they have had that's played on a Saturday night. Keyword there, Saturday night. So they have lost. I think they lost to Florida State last year and it was at Death Valley, but you know, before then, I think they had the longest Like I could be wrong here, I think they are let's see, like twenty maybe twenty eight, twenty nine and one in
home games overall in their last thirty. I think that's what I saw And the only one I think was the only loss was to I think Florida State last year. So beating them at their place, even despite their struggles which really aren't struggles compared to a lot of teams is very difficult to do. But doing it at night hasn't happened in you know, eleven years. What were you doing eleven years ago, John.
Man, twenty thirteen in the fall? What would have been in it would have been a fret? No excuse me? A sophomore high school.
I mean you were a young buck.
Yeah, I was a young buck. I mean I was enjoying, I was getting ready to enjoy. Was that a good season for Indiana basketball in twenty thirteen fourteen? I feel like it might have been a bit of a drop off year because probably because the year thirteen, yeah, was of course the year Louisville one. Everyone was also a one seed. Yeah, you're thinking about those.
I don't remember about the drop off after that, but it was it was never consistent with Crean like he would he would be good.
And then you know, both both of Crean's best years thirteen and sixteen, the following year was terrible, Yeah, comparison.
And he had at least two years where he wasn't supposed to be good. And then they kind of were like when they went to the Sweet sixteen and knocked off Kentucky. That team I remember, there wasn't a whole lot of momentum for him and they ended up being being pretty good. All right, Look, if you guys want to be part of the show today, we will let you do that. You can text in on the Ellen and Federal Credit Union text line FABO two six five
three zero seven ninety. We will open up the phone lines coming up here, probably towards the end of the three o'clock hour. We are going to be joined on the other side here by doctor Eric McElroy from pro Reap physcal Therapy. We'll have our weekly chat with doctor McElroy. Looking forward to that. But let's set the table for the rest of the show. Obviously, we'll continue to talk about this matchup. I'll go ahead and let you know I don't have a whole lot of things to add
that I haven't already said. When it comes to this matchup and what is important for Louisville, we can certainly reset that. But one thing I will add is that Debo Sweeney. I went back and listened. I remember seeing some quotes from earlier this week from his press conference, just really talking of Louisville. But I ended up listening to his presser earlier today, and I mean, maybe it's just Dabbo and that's what he always does, and coaches
are always going to talk up their opponent. So Dabo Sweeney saying that Louisville's got a pro quarterback and that Brown is one of the best running backs in the country, and that offensively, Louisville can go with anybody, Like that's what most coaches would say in that situation. But I believe him, Like it's such a weird year for Louisville.
I think that this team is good. But the reason there's hesitancy to kind of finish that statement, Louisvill's a good football team because of the record and because of some of the things we've seen that are just like things you don't typically see good football teams do. Like it's such a weird year. Now, maybe I'm just in denial and my team isn't good, but I just can't.
I can't accept it. So I'm just holding on. But I get I get the sense that a lot of Louisville fans sort of know exactly what I mean, despite probably not you know, making a lot of sense to.
Others, like this team should be good.
But it's not, like, you know, because how many team can say that at the end of the year that they should have been better, Like everybody says that. But the way in which everything has come together for Louisville or maybe the way it's falling apart in certain games, Like it's just been a weird year. And I think I've been pretty consistent, Like I wouldn't tell you that, Like I felt good about a game and I thought, like you know, I wouldn't be totally shocked if it had,
Like I wouldn't say that I didn't believe it. Now again, I've been wrong about certain games that I was worried about or games that I, you know, felt like Louisville was gonna roll and then it didn't work out. So, like, you know, I'm not just saying this to try to get people excited about the game. I mean, I hope you are excited about the game, but like I just, I don't know. I'm not calling I'm not put I'm
not predicting it. But when Dabo was talking about all the pieces Louisville has, I'm like, you know what, He's right, And again I had to remind myself many times throughout listening to that that this is just.
What coaches do.
They're going to talk up the other team before a game. That's again just how it works. But he was really talking up Louisville and that may be more confident. But maybe I'm falling into a trap. Maybe I'm internally getting my hopes up and then you know, I'll be let down.
But I don't know.
If they get killed, that's going to be a big let down. But if they're competitive and they play well, maybe play their most complete game, but come up short. I mean, we'll have to acknowledge that that, hey, they did take a step forward as far as playing better and cleaning some things up, but you know, they still lost at the end of the day. That would actually be like the ultimate gut punch. Like I don't know
what would be worse. If they play really well and show that they're good enough to compete with Clemson on the road at Death Valley, but then they have another mental goof and it gives them no chance to win the game. Like I think that would be worse than just them getting killed. And when I say killed, I don't mean like by fifty, but like if they just end up, you know, getting down a couple of scores early and can never overcome that deficit. I mean, that
would still suck. But I'm telling you, I think I may lose my mind if they continue to lose games the way they have against good teams throughout the year thus far. All right, I want to talk about it the ACC as a whole today, not necessarily about the race to the to the championship. You know, like we kind of know who's going to be in the mix. There could be a wild tire breaker that plays out,
But the league has gotten better. The league is solid, and I think, to be honest with you, like this might be maybe not the best that the league's been like in a long long time. But I've been hard on the ACC in football, and I'm not saying that it's it's great, But like the more you look at teams right now, as far as the analytics and the metrics, like the ACC does deserve the benefit of the doubt
at this point. I think when it comes not to say that they're the best league, but like you know, if Louisville beats Clemson, there will be many that just say, all Clemson, Yeah, they're frauds. They didn't play anybody until this game, and then they got killed by Georgia. Like, I know that's gonna be the reaction from a lot of people, but like I think it would mean that, Yeah, that leaks pretty deep, and I'm just curious if we're
ever going to get there. But I'll lay out some numbers for you that you know aren't aren't me trying. You know, the numbers are aren't going to make you think that the ACC is the best league in the country, because it's not. But I think really the Big Ten, the ACC, and the Big twelve, Like I think there's a pretty distinct order.
But we'll get to that a little bit later on.
When it comes to the college football Playoff, I'm fascinated with a lot of the logistics here because The Athletic did a really good write up on sort of not knowing if you're going to host a college football playoff
game until, like, you know, a little bit before. It is really a disaster for those putting the thing together, Like logistically, like hotel rooms getting blocked off, Like the amount of people that are going to becoming some of these schools that may host aren't even in big cities, so I never thought about the behind the scenes stuff.
But it's one of those things that, yes, fans are all going to enjoy the expanded Playoff, but those that kind of work with logistics when it comes to these big events, and that's what big college football games are. I mean, it's really been a nightmare and also something else we can get to the I mean I saw a report from it might have been Andy Staples with the Athletic about the iPads being sent to everybody that's
on the College Football Playoff committee. They're all getting iPads delivered to them that have forty five minute games that have been condensed and mixed. But it's like, you know it's been it's it's by a private company, not like the YouTube condensed game that you find from like all college football games. And it's just a reminder to me, and it pisses me off that like nobody just screams,
like what are we doing here? The people who are making the decision as far as who gets in the College Football Playoff or who gets in the NAA Tournament for that matter, should not be the people that are doing it. These are great professionals, they're qualified people as far as like you know their position, but like they're athletic directors, they're chancellors. They're like, wouldn't you want somebody on the committee that like all they do is college football.
All they do is analyze, assess, and like it's it is their main priority. You got people running schools, colleges, major universities that I'd say they're nine to five forty hours a week. They're not thinking of anything about college football. Like we make Funnel Nardi at least I make Funnel
Nardi a lot. When you go look at who's on the selection committee and like everything that comes with their job and how secondary the committee is, Like Lenardi should be doing it because he at least is that's I mean, am I making sense here?
John?
Like nobody's ever really said that out loud, at least that I've heard. And it's not to say that these people are bums they don't know anything, but like one that they could be biased they work for a specific school or a conference.
Yeah, And I don't really know what would happen in order to get this changed, because I feel like this has been the way of selection committees for.
Some I mean, it's not changing, but like just seeing that is like there are people who are going to be deciding who gets in the playoff that the extent of their overall college football watching experience other than their own team probably is going to be just watching games on an iPad that are condensed like that. That just to me seems insane. But as you said, it's probably never changing.
Spokesperson for the committee this year, do we know.
I'm not sure.
It used to be Gary Barter from Iowa. It's rotating a bunch.
It's rotated a bunch over the years. I'm not sure who it is this year, but yeah, I don't know. Not to say that they'll put together a terrible groove, but like they got other.
Stuff to do.
That's you know, that's it's a little different. But let's get to our first break. We got to I'm a little bit later. I told doctor macklroy we'd get Tom a little earlier than we typically do, So apologies there, but we'll talk to doctor McElroy on the other side.
Keep this through, keep this thing rolling along. When it comes to UK, I continue to say it, man, they've moved on from football season, and what's happened now is they're listening really closely to every little thing, Mark Stoops says, and that's what happens when you're in this situation, meaning Stoops stick around right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Welcome back Coffee and Company Field by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Take us with you wherever you go.
You can listen live on the iHeartRadio app. Also listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot com. Let's bring him in Doctor Eric McElroy from pro Rea Physical Therapy.
Do you have a good Halloween?
Cheric man had a great Halloween?
Nick uh, you know, just watching the It's always fun to watch the kids run around, you know, trick or treating all the different costumes.
And my son is twelve.
He's kind of to that age where he basically throws on a jersey and.
That's who he is.
That was my move back in the day.
That's right, you'll appreciate. He was Dalton Connect, oh nice, oh west Side Connect, as Snoop Dogg would call him. Uh so, uh yeah.
And then my daughter attempted to be like a blow up thing, which is always a mistake. So that lasted for like, you know, all of about one hundred yards and then it was on. She was running behind, you know, and so got to take that off.
To catch up.
Yeah, it's gonna be tough to go house to house with uh with if you're if you're inflated like that. Uh, but yeah, it worked out well with the wet least where we were it wasn't nice outside, but by the time we actually got out, it was it. It had stopped raining all together, and uh, you know, busy in
my neighborhood, which was certainly certainly good to see. But I was chatting with some friends who came over and brought their kids, uh to trick or treat live night, and they were talking about how with the weather and the clocks are going to be changed, and it's going to be dark when a lot of people get home from work, which gives them little motivation to you know, go to the gym if it's dark outside. They just want to throw the sweatpants on and just you know,
start lounging on the couch after dinner. I'm sure I don't I'm not asking you to reference any kind of any numbers like that, but like that's going to be a thing everywhere right where. It becomes like the time change for whatever reason, just makes people less I shouldn't say motivated, but it's just a lot easier to just stay home than then get to the gym like you typically do.
Yeah, I mean we're headed into that season where the sunlight we're not present in sunlight as much, right, so we wake up, we go to work, it's kind of dark. We get home, it's dark. I think that you know,
that creates some motivation issues. You get into the holidays, you know, you know, coming out of Halloween and now you're looking down to a busy time of year, you know, with travel and family coming in and out and not necessarily eating the right foods, and so it creates you know, a lot more you know, alcohol consumption and things like that, which we all experience because of the holidays, which is a lot of fun, but at the same time can get us off track and some of those goals, and
then you're you're kind of finishing your year from a fitness standpoint on not on the best note.
So what I usually try to explain to people is just simplify it, you know, make it, you know, don't you know, have a plan.
It's just like anything, you know, know, the season that you're in, you know, simplify it, focus on some things that are you know, go for walks.
You know, evening walks. Uh. You know something there's it's it's peaceful at.
Night, a lot of times quieter, you know, so you know you I think, I think sometimes we feel like we have to break this amazing sweat and and wear ourselves out when we can also keep it simple, uh, and go out and walks, you know, go extra walk, go a little extra, you know, add some speed to your walk, make a little more intense, do some calisthenics, you know, body weight squats and push ups and things that we you know, we take for granted that we can basically do in our house.
Uh.
So you know, make it simple, make it work for your schedule so you're consistent. And then you know, started back up to me in the year when you're trying to work off that holiday.
Wait you mentioned towards the end, I'd never really thought about it. Quarter the fourth quarter of the year is the temptation is there with all the events with Thanksgiving, Christmas and even you know, obviously Halloween just wrapped up. I know everybody's got a lot of candy at their house, so for me. I guess it's just my personality. I would typically towards the end of the year kind of slowly start to not be as active, right, not going to the gym to get my run in as much.
And then once I realize I've kind of taken somewhat of a step back over the years, I've kind of just said, well, okay, you know, I guess I'll start back in January like everybody else. But that just makes it a lot harder. So I feel like I just need to, you know, don't take off the holidays, meaning like, still enjoy it, you know, enjoy Thanksgiving, enjoy some adult beverages with your family when you celebrate, but like, you know, try to find balance, try to find time to get
a little bit of exercise in between. That's probably the best case scenario, you know. I mean some people probably try not to, you know, go all go all out with the holidays, but that wouldn't be any fun, no, And you.
Know, commit yourself to something, you know, uh uh, Thanksgiving five k. You know, there's always these Turkey trots, all these different things. Do it as a family, even if you're not trying to win the race, you know, you're just gonna go out there.
But if you commit yourself to something, you have a goal.
Then we know that we're gonna be more like, we're more likely gonna do what we have to to achieve the goals.
So the other thing is there's a lot of good studies.
Around doing going on a moderate walk after you eat, uh, and so you know, playing that in the evening after your meals. You know, I think naturally just biology, a lot of a lot of animals if you will not you know, I know some people. I'm not trying to compareison animals necessarily, but to say, like, you know, a lot of you know different other animals will go into hibernation a lot of times, or they'll show themselves down
in the cold winter months. Right, and we're similar. Right, We're not gonna go out and be as active a lot of times. But take the time to you know, after you know, you have a heavy meal or you're having you know, Thanksgiving, or doing something go for a longer walk or something to help you know, spike your metabolism, you know, burn the blood sugar off a little bit quicker.
Things like that are really important.
Doctor Rik mclroy, pro you have physical therapy is our guests joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Before I get to a couple of injuries, I wanted to ask you about. This was a question that came in recently for one of our listeners for the next time we chatted with you or Larry, and I think and I'm trying to to to reference what the question essentially was,
and I believe I have it correct. But this is a gentleman who golfs a lot during the summer, even in the fall, but obviously not not He's not golfing in the winter months right like November, December, January, February, probably not a whole lot of golf going on, with golf being the only physical activity that he, you know,
really does. What are some things that could be done during that off time that would make it to where when you do like injury prevention, like, what are some things you could do that's not actually playing golf that would make it to where when you do get your game, get your clubs back out maybe in you know, late winter early spring, that you know you're you're not as rusty and you may, you know, be able to prevent some type of an injury happening.
So that's a great question.
And you know, we talk a lot about athletes on here. We came from the athletic world. You know, every athlete has an off season of some kind. Now they all look different depending on the sport. But during that all seasons when you really want to work on the things
that you just mentioned, preventing an injury number one. Number two, improving your performance, getting your way, getting yourself away from the sport a little bit, to allow your body to work on some deficiencies that could be either causing some of your injuries or or creating challenges with your ability to improve your clubhead speed for instance. So I think that you know, do some things that would help mobility wise,
that would be number one. A lot of our amateur golfers will say middle ages, you know, those those age groups deal with a lot of mobility uh issues that frankly will impede their ability to perform a golf swinging the way that they need to, and then that could create issues with the distance on their.
Ball, try flight, or other things like that. So injuries, you know, work on your general fitness.
You know, I think that we lose site that you know, if you're playing, you know, golf for four or five hours. There's a level of endurance as it takes, and a lot of golfers struggle at the end of their rounds and there's reason for that.
So working on your endurance, you can do that. But it doesn't have to look like golf.
You can do some again aggressive or moderate walking, running, and then strength. So I think that you know, a lot of times we skip string training, and I think we can overcomplicate strength training, but at the same time we can continue, you know, whether that's byweight best or some medicine balls and work on body weight squads and lunges and lunges with rotation. Things that are improved our ability to stay stable number one.
And to be strong and uh. And that again obviously will translate to your ability to perform better at golf. UH.
And that goes with any sport. You know, taking some time to work on those impairments, work on things that you don't do a lot to you know, bring as much better blence to your bodies you possibly can. Extremely extremely important.
All right, So a couple questions when it comes to some injuries. Well, one is not about an injury specifically, but I'm seeing in the last thirty forty five minutes there've been some reports from different college football guys out there Pete Damil, Brett McMurphy that are that are breaking news in regards to to players getting cleared being able to play in tomorrow's big game. I know Penn State's
quarterback sounds like he's gonna go. Same thing with Kevin Jennings who was initially ruled out for SMU's game.
But as someone who.
Is experienced in athlete training, sports performance, that kind of stuff, I guess it all depends a little bit on what the injury is. But what what's the like when you get this close to a game a day before and you are the trainer and you're not quite sure if if you're going to give the player the green light or not, Like, what's the what's the process in the final steps to kind of make that decision?
Is it? Is it just kind of reviewing everything?
Is it maybe one last test to see how how impacted the athlete is. I'm just curious because I know a lot of a lot of fans and even players themsel else I'm sure anticipating, Hey, are we going to get our guy out there.
Is he gonna be able to go?
Yeah, there's a lot of different levels of return to play testing and that's what he's that's.
What they're going through.
Uh.
Now, every injury, as you mentioned, it is a little different how you approach that. But a lot of time, excuse me, what we're doing is we're saying, I we've gone through some testing to give us an idea of what kind of deficits or deficiencies still exists because of the injury a lot once we've passed that phase where
now we're not seeing a whole lot of difference. Now we need to see how they move in an athletic environment in which they're you know, anticipating be able to perform it and can they do that?
Are they moving well? Uh? In that way? And it seems simple, but it's not. You know, are they able to cut like we want them to?
Are they able to decelerate and accelerate like we're wanting can they jump? Can they tolerate or take impacts if it's contact sports for instance, and in a way that we need them to. What's their speed? What's their high end speed look like? You know, are they able to get there? It doesn't have to be perfect. We're in season, a lot of these guys are banged up, and so you anticipate that. But what we're trying to do is maximize their ability one to not re injure it, which
would would not be good at all. Or and two, you know, can they perform at the level that they need to in order to participate. And I think that that's you know, some of that's intuition, some of that takes experience, some of that's testing that's more objective. Uh, you know, and so you put all that together and you kind of determined the risk reward at that point if the athlete is capable of going.
And then it's a position specific too. Uh.
You know, an arm injury and a quarterback is different than an alignment uh. And so you know, it's a lot of it's just kind of based on what the what they're gonna have to be able to do, and are they going to be able to do it enough to to contribute to the team, uh in the way that they're expected to.
All Right, So Cooper, Cup and Poop and Akua both made their return last week for the Rams, and UH it was impactful, to say the least because the Rams were really struggling, and then with those two weapons out there at receiver, they were able to pull off a pretty big upset, knocking off a really really hot I
think it was Detroit Lions team. So I guess my question is, when you have guys that have been out for really almost the whole season, make that return as you have played your first game since the injury, what's what's the week the next week? Like, I mean, I would imagine it was probably pretty light for these guys. Or maybe I'm wrong, Maybe it's hey making sure that they don't get stiff because that was their first time playing, you know, real live contact football since the injury. Because
both guys are still listed as questionable. At least they were in like my fantasy football league, and it just reminded me that, Yeah, I'm sure, like you know, if you're somebody that's really basing it off of fantasy football or wagering like you wouldn't be totally shocked if these guys, after coming back from a long time off, might still need maybe a little more time.
Well, you're you're treating them as if they you were before you you kind of work player athletes back into the game. Is what I always say, like you're, you're I'm gonna see them or treat them in the training staff and the people you know, rehab, they're all continuing to work on these same things that they were dealing with before, because now you're trying to stay ahead of it.
Now we've got some momentum.
We got them to the point they can play, you.
Know, let's keep them there. So, especially in season, you don't have time to to get a you know, relapse. Uh.
You know, you know, you're trying to minimize that as best you can. So, yeah, you're hyper focused on continuing to do what you're doing. They're just able to play now, so and a lot of times, you know, you're still trying to get it even closer to one hundred percent if you will, as you possibly can.
So they may be playing, but they still may have some things that we need to work on. So yeah, you're you're, I mean, it's it's still full board trying to address the issues.
That are there, uh, and to keep them healthy and keep them where they can keep playing week to week. And you know, some weeks that looks better than others. So and they may have a relapse and then you go to That's why they stay questionable a lot of times, you know, on our fantasy football and uh, you know, makes us nervous if they're gonna play or not.
Yeah, that was me.
I mean, I've got I've got Pooka Nakua and he was one of my early picks and I haven't haven't had a chance to really utilize him yet, and he came up big last week, so I'm hoping he can keep it going for the sake of my fantasy team, of course, not because I want him to be healthy. I'm just a selfish fantasy football guy.
You know, the only place for a little bit. So oh yeah, you're like, damn it.
Yep, I've been there many many times every week actually, now that I think about it. But Eric, I appreciate the time as always. Enjoy your weekend. We'll talk to somebody awesome man.
Have you go with Nick?
You too? Take care.
That's doctor Eric McElroy from pro Rea Physical Therapy. Always appreciate his time, good conversation. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back on the other side wrap up the three o'clock hour. A lot more to get into as we get you out of here for the weekend. Big weekend for Louisville football, no doubt, big weekend for Indiana football too. He hasn't said it, but I think John's getting a little nervous.
I've been nervous all week.
You throw this game up like three weeks ago, like just you know, cause I think you could see, hey, we can go beat these teams in front of us. But then you're like that Michigan State game.
Man.
That could be the one where they're just like you know, maybe they fall flat.
But I will say, now that Curtis Rourke has been given the green light, I do have a big extra juice of call. Yeah that's going into this Saturday.
Good stuff, quick break, don't go anywhere, keep a locker right here on Sports Talk seven ninety Welcome Back Friday Edition Coffee and Company Field by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Make sure you sign up if you have not yet, to become a member of the Refreshing Awards program. You'll save money at the pump, your life will be better. I can't guarantee that, but I believe that, and I think you should trust me on that. So again,
Refreshing Awards dot com is the website. It's super easy to sign up and it's free and you'll benefit from it. So you're welcome and big thanks to our friends over there at Thornton's All right, John, I gotta give you some credit, man. You helped me out last night.
Oh did I Now I'll get with the under.
Yes.
I was making my wager right as soon as the show ended, and I thought, you know what, I still believed in the Texans at the time, but I thought, you know what, John's right, the better play there is, in fact the under. So I parlayed that in Tulane and Charlotte didn't have to didn't have to sweat that out because it was a blowout thirty four to three. So yeah, I was able to cash in. And you know, I feel like I owe you something. What I owe you name it? What do you need?
Nothing?
I don't want to be in debt to you.
Just pay me back with another good pick.
Okay, we can do that. In fact, let's set it up.
Let's make an appointment at five thirty two to go over our picks, because I've got a few of them and it really is setting up to be a big weekend. I mean, you've got two matchups with two really good teams. Obviously that whatever happens is going to be maybe not the ultimately. For example, whoever loses in the Penn State Ohio State game. If Penn State loses, they're just become potentially a one loss team like everybody, like the others
in the league. If it's Ohio State, I think it would make it really difficult for them to get in the playoff. But then again, like I don't know, there's still scenarios. So it's not like we can sit here and say, well, hey, whatever happens here, you're either going to win and keep your hope alive, or if you lose,
you know for sure you're done. I mean the probability is not great, but you know, because there's now twelve teams, there's more potential scenarios that could play out that you know, give you a break here and there, and there's you know, so I remember early on though, in the early playoff era, like or I guess, the initial four team playoff era, I mean you knew, like, hey, you lose one game,
depending on who you are, you're done. Because only four teams are getting in now it's you know, twelve and it's it's it's made it a lot more fun, so we can't again.
I know.
The big, the big talking point about why college football was unique and why it's it's so great is that because you only have a twelve game regular season and
there's no there was no real playoff. In fact, for a long time, there was just computers that told us which two teams are going to play for the national championship in the BCS era, but every week really mattered, and like you you know, every week you lose, you know, doesn't mean your season's over, but if you are somebody striving to be you know, the very you know, win the national championship, depending on who you were, one loss
would mean you're done. The others if you did take one loss at that point, the pressure's on the rest of the way for you to just not screw up. So that was awesome, But I still think this is better where there's more teams alive later on in the year, and you know that leads to high stakes games and that's what you have tomorrow. Pitt and Smu I mean Pitt wins. I mean, by the way, did you see the stat about Pitt. I I mean I was not a believer at all in them earlier this year, but
I'll admit hand up. The reason I laughed off Pitt as being a like legitimately good team was because they were down twenty one points to Scott Saderfield in the second half and managed to come back and win, which is impressive by Pitt. But I remember thinking, yeah, that's what Sad does. Well, then they've just dominated everybody they played for the most part. I mean there's seven and oh and ranked eighteenth. That's tied for the lowest ranking of any seven and oh power conference team in the
history of the A people. So they actually have a good right of being the most disrespected team in college football. Doesn't mean they're the best, doesn't mean people need to put them in the top five, but they probably should be getting a little more love. In fact, give you an example, this was the comparison David Hill throughout there
earlier this week. Team A ranked third in the country seven and oh nineteen points per game margin fifty two opponent zero point five to two to one opponent win percentage, So their opponents are winning just a little bit over half their games and They are two and oh against FPI Top forty teams. That's Team A and their ranked number three, Team B is pit ranked eighteenth, seven and oh nineteen points per game margin, and their opponents are
winning fifty three percent of their games. Therefore, they have a slightly tougher schedule as far as wins. They also are two and oh against teams in the FPI Top forty. Team A was Penn State. Like if people again, sometimes like you don't really I mean sometimes you can not be basing it totally off of what a team's done like previously, and what their brand, what their history is. So like for example, if if you presented me a blind resume and you know, I then later found out
you know, wow, it's surprising. But still, like long story short, I'm not saying Penn State is is a fraud. I'm not saying Pitt's better than them. But like if you are looking at these two teams and you are just gonna and you are going to justify the gap in ranking, you're really only doing it because of Penn State usually is pretty good or in they're in the Big ten. And again this isn't me telling you Pitt's actually better
than Penn State. But there's such a gap there, and I think the perception of those two programs are not really in the same ballpark. And if you're basing it off of anything, you'd have to be basing it off of well, Penn State's Penn State and their pit like Pitt was awful last year, which which you know, hand up. That's why I was a little bit hesitant to like see this as anything other than maybe a fluky successful start.
But man, in the portal era, especially with coach that have proven they can be pretty good, that's Pat Nordoozi. You shouldn't be scared to expect a big jump from a team because you can. I mean, it can all be brand new, right, I mean, it'd be rare for you know, everybody who starts on both sides of the ball all to be newcomers. But hey, there's plenty of teams out there that seventy five percent of the guys on the field at any given moment were not there
the year before because they transferred in. So, you know, Pitt SMU, I feel like there'll be no grace, right, There's no grace at all for either of these two teams. But big ten teams will get that. And again it's just because of your perception of the league and your perception of.
The ACC and.
Not just the league, but like Penn State's a big brand, right typically they're pretty good under James Franklin. So anyways, I just thought that was interesting. So there's Penn State SMU. Who's the other one? There's Penn State SMU, not Penn State SMU, and Penn.
State Ohio State.
Would you think if they lose that, John that that's like the High State's just like they're going to be removed from the conversation.
Maybe temporarily, but two losses you could still sneak your way in as maybe an eleven or a ten seed, especially if you look good in the last part of your season. So I don't think they'll be completely eliminated, but they'll definitely be on the outside looking in.
Yeah, I would say of the games this weekend, I mean, you really have really I mean, I don't know, like Texas A and him in South Carolina kind of intrigues me from like a wagering aspect, But the best two games I think are Ohio State, Penn State, and then Pitt SMU just as we laid out and then louisvill Clemson. I mean, I don't want to be a homer and act like that's a game everybody's going to be wanting
to see. But it is prime time, I mean seven forty five at night at Clemson, so I'm sure there'll be a lot of people watching. Florida Georgia used to be a big game. Not as much now. However, Billy Napier like, if he's competitive and they just fall short, like he could end up with a very mediocre record, But if his teams have looked a lot better, maybe Florida doesn't make the move to fire because you got to keep in mind the guy that they want, and
they probably still want him. I was going to say wanted, but they probably still want Lane Kiffin. But he didn't look as good now does he. Like he has the best roster he's ever had as a coach, and anytime they play anybody good, they lose, or they lose to Kentucky. Who who will finish with one win and sec.
Play this year?
Not gonna lie if I'm Indiana, I want billion Apier to keep doing the good game.
Yeah, hell yeah, go Gators. Right, let's get the chomp going baby, and then Oregon. Michigan was supposed to be good, but Oregon should smash him. And then after that, there's not a whole lot to like when it comes to the slate, but that's just for like, you know, good teams playing each other. There's still some good games to bet on, and we're going to do that and we'll discuss those picks with you guys coming up a little later on. All right, let's get to our top of
the hour break. We got two more hours to go here on a Friday afternoon. Hopefully you guys are enjoying your Friday getting set for the weekend, and we'll continue to.
Do exactly that.
And if you want to join the show, you can no more guests the rest of the way, So feel free to uh to hop in FABO two five to seven one seventy nine hundred if you want to give us a call FABO two six five three zero seven ninety the llen N Federal Credit Union text line keep it locked right here on Sports Talk seven ninety