It's time for Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick Coffee.
All right, let's get it start at the four o'clock hour here on a Wednesday edition of Coffee and Company. We are fueled by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. So if you are just not joining us, Austin he came in and shared his story here in studio's. I mean, I feel like I don't need to introduce Austin to you. He guys, he's basically the guy we go to in the bullpen when John is away for vacation or whatever
it may be. He's not going to be here Monday because he needs that recovery day from Louder than Life. So Austin's gonna be with us producing the show on Monday. But he shared his story about being a part of a jury in a case that went to trial, you know, with an armed robbery arrest, and that was not what
I was expecting. He was eighteen years old. And the reason this all came up is because I'm waiting to see if I'm going to be chosen among the jury pool to actually, you know, if I'm needed to go in and do my CIPIC duty and being part of a of a jury trial, and I guess I'll find out in the next week or so if I'm needed. But Austin never looked into like what happened like with the like after like once the guy was found guilty because Austin and the rest of the jury decided that
they didn't think he was guilty. But when you are a part of like it makes sense like that. I don't know how old Austin is now. I think he's do you know, John, he's a few years older than that. I think he's like thirty ish right around there. So it was like a week straight of the trial, so it's really all you're doing, and you're conversing among I
guess the other jury members. So like it would make sense that you would remember some specifics, especially because you're I mean, that's a heavy thing for anybody to deal with,
certainly an eighteen year old kid. But he remembered the place that was robbed, he remembered the name of the of the of the guy that was on trial, and a quick Google search says that three years after the trial, he was arrested and sent to prison for seventeen and a half years because he reoffended and ended up getting actually arrested and convicted for doing something they found him guilty of, which probably means he was guilty when they
found him innocent, right, I mean, isn't that crazy? That is crazy because it's just a reminder that, like you are, you're gonna mean that's a heavy burden.
Man. I love how Austin was not afraid as an eighteen year old to just say, come on, guys, we don't want to come in here another day and do it.
I love it too, because that's Austin, Like, if you know him, that's just that's kind of how he is, Like he's not afraid to be like I'll be the one who says it, like, we don't want to do this next week, do we, guys, Let's get the hell out of here. So anyways, good stuff there. I appreciate him stopping and and sharing that. I'm quite sure I
will not have a story like that. All right, So before we get back into football here, let's talk real quick about the Louisville basketball schedule, which was officially released last night by the ACC Network. And again we've known who Louisville's gonna be playing for quite some time. Now,
we know the order of opponents and whatnot. And again, to go back to what we talked about yesterday, adding Duke on December eighth just makes the first you know, two months of Pat Kelsey's job here very very difficult because you already have Tennessee, Ole Miss, Kentucky and then everybody you're gonna potentially get in the Battle for In the Battle of for Atlantis, Indiana's your opening game. You could get Gonzaga, Arizona, West Virginia. We've all we've known
who who's out there. But having Duke there again, you knew you were gonna play Duke anyway, but to have them be the game. You're gonna play Duke five days after you play Ole Miss, and then you get a break with UTEP and then it's Kentucky. So just to see again, keep in mind, like from November twenty seventh until December fourteen, I mean, you've got anybody that you're playing in the Battle of for Atlantis is going to
be a legitimate team. Like even if if you get Davidson, that's who it is, right, the kind of random team and let's just say like Providence isn't good, although Kim English I think has has a chance to be pretty successful there. Like even though we even though we may not be able to say, wow, that's a win, that's gonna move you up a C line come March, it's still not Winthrop. It's not morehead State. So like, you're getting real competition early on. It's not to say that
everybody you play is going to be great. Who knows, Maybe one of these teams that's gonna be preseason ranked ends up stinking. Who knows. But man, I just I cannot remember looking at the first, you know, the first six weeks or so of the schedule and just seeing so many teams that, like, you know, you could play well and still lose because those are good teams. And
I wouldn't have it any other way. I was talking to Terry before the show today, to them in the hallway, and you know, he and I are on the same this is louisll basketball should always have schedules like this. I mean, just because you know, you're one of the bigger programs in the sport. You certainly haven't been that in a while, and last couple of years have been something we never thought we'd see. But I really embrace it.
But I'm also not Pat Kelsey, whose you know, job is to win games, and when you throw these kind of challenges out there, it's gonna be difficult to do. So you know, it's it's it's really really tough. And you know, I just some some noticeable some takeaways for me here that just seem odd. That you're gonna play only two home games in the month of February. I mean, there is a lot of traveling going on in February. You've got Miami at home on February eighth, and you've
got Florida State at home on February twenty second. Every other game in February is on the road. Now, for what it's worth, a lot of those games don't look to be and by the way, this is I mean again, I'm not complaining because I think it's actually something that
could work out well for Louisville this year. It's not good long term, but the ACC like I'm looking at Georgia Tech, Boston College, Wake Forest, SMU, Virginia, Miami, Notre Dame, Florida State, Virginia Tech, pitt Cal Stanford, like the last couple of years. Those teams, Yeah, they weren't great, most of them that I referenced there, But you know, they clearly beat Louisville because Louisville was in a terrible place when it comes to just you know, you know who.
But like, I feel like Pat Kelsey's got the personnel to where his teams could maybe have somewhat of an off night and still be able to beat a lot of those teams just because they're gonna have better players. Maybe I'm way wrong there again, you never really know, especially when you've got a brand new team with all new guys that have ever played together before. But the ACC again, just looking at the league schedule as a whole, I mean, Duke's gonna be Duke. Carolina is gonna have
a lot of talent. I don't see them in Virginia.
You know.
Their style of play always makes it tricky and weird, and they've certainly been a thorn in our side for many many years in the ACC. But let's be real, since Tony Bennett won a national championship, he's kind of been a chump. Like, they've not been good at all, have they? Like I think they got one four seed since then after they won a title and they lost
to Ohio in the first round. Like in fact, I'm not sure Virginia has won a game since the I don't know if Virginia has won a bast has won an NCAA tournament game since they won the national championship. I'm pretty sure. I mean they got was it last year the year before where they got into the play in game and got demolished? I think that was one of the last two years. Yeah, and I think it
was last year. So again, like the league schedule, I don't really look at it and think, oh, wow, we really got screwed here, because honestly, there's so many teams on the in the league right now that like it's not gonna And again it's a it's a negative when you don't have a whole lot to gain by beating teams that are mid at best. And it didn't used
to be like that in the ACC. Louisvill's first few years in the ACC, it would be a rarity that you would have a week where one of your two games in that week did not give you an opportunity to get a valuable win that could really improve you. Maybe not really prove it, but like you could, you could improve your resume, you know, it would probably you need a win against like a top five team four
to be improved substantially. But like the ACC is just not what it once was in basketball, and it's whatever. But like I hate when people, like I think people bringing up n C State making the Final four despite being a team that nearly lost to Louisville in the a SEC tournament's first day, Like that doesn't mean the
league's good. I mean, like it does it, Like that's good, good for them for playing well and going on a hell of a run, But like that doesn't mean that the league was good, and anybody who hated on it was wrong.
By the way, you're right about Virginia. They have not won a tournament game since their championship.
So again I'm not acting like Louisville's gonna go into Charlottesville on January fourth and and you know, ben Tony Tony Bennett over but like they're not scary and the only teams I would look at. And again maybe Miami because they do well in the portal every year, Like maybe they bounced back in a major way. They went from being a final four team two years ago to being one of the most disappointing teams in the country
last year. As far as who they brought back and whatnot, I think Syracuse could take a step forward this year.
Pitt.
You know, I actually think that Pitt's gonna go back to being the pit of old. I think they had a couple of years there where Jeff Caple actually had some good players, but those guys are gone. Florida State, I mean Leonard Hamilton. I saw somebody put together their preseason ACC rankings that had Florida State like near dead last. Leonard Hamilton. It might be time for him to hang it up. Wake Forest I really like Steve Forbes, I do. I think wake Forest could be really good this year.
They got good players like I wouldn't. If I was going to go through and tell you who I think are the top five teams in the ACC, I would certainly have wake Forest up there. But really, like everybody else,
I mean, they're beatable. Even if you don't think Louisville's great, you can look at what those other teams are expected to do as far as their personnel and whatnot, and you know, again it's not a good thing overall, but it could give you a chance to maybe take some lumps early on when you play the really good teams in non conference play, and then if you're able to finish in the top four in your league and you know, maybe you get a win against maybe you get wins
against some of the other teams that look like tournament teams, and you know, you can find yourself in the tournament.
So you know, I.
That that's probably not an observation that that that others made when looking at the schedule, But for me, I'm just looking at, you know, the league schedule because that's what was added yesterday, and I'm thinking, Okay, Georgia Tech, yeah, I know, David stottamar is there. Boston College, you know, they're never good. Notre Dame. You know, we'll see if their coach can can can really take a step forward in his second year there. What is his name? I
always forget it. Shrewsbury, Yeah, Shrewsbury. So that stood out. And then also I feel like Louisville has played Virginia on Senior Day for like every year they've been in the ACC. Instead this year it's going to be Stanford, which is kind of kind of random.
It's also weird that you don't play any of You don't play Stanford or cow till the very end of the season.
Yeah, I wonder if that's like travel related, Like I don't want to assume so, and you're at home for both of them, so it doesn't really matter, but it probably is because like their travel right, like yeah, heck they might travel together. That they're probably traveling together because those games are in three days and three days apart.
I mean, that wouldn't shock me. So, you know, it wasn't as if yesterday's release was like a chance for us to say, all right, let's see how good we think we can be, because we've known who's on the schedule for a while now. But I guess just visually seeing it, you know, game by game one, it lets you know we're getting closer to the season being here.
But I still think this is a team that from a personnel standpoint, from the schedule and who they have to go up against, I think expecting the NCAA tournament in year one for Pat Kelsey is more than reasonable. That doesn't mean that if they don't get it, then we got a panic and worry. But I think this is a team that certainly has the capability to be competitive enough to get a spot in the tournament and
maybe get a decent seed. I mean, I know who they played against in the Bahamas, and it was not what you're gonna see night in and night out during this season. But overall, you know, I still I still think that that there's there was a lot to learn from from from that experience in the Bahamas. Again, you didn't prove anything as far as like a win against this team or that team, because again it was exhibition games. But I really am excited and again I think, you know,
that's just gonna be, that's gonna be. My stance is that I think making the NSAA Tournament is an expectation we should not be afraid to throw out there. And some people are thinking afraid to throw out there, Like
we're Louisville, and I get it, I hear you. At times, I find myself saying, what do you mean you hear yourself You're a Louisville basketball fan and you're saying they should just make the tournament, you loser, like, but I'm also having to remind myself, like where we've been recently, like it you know, and again that has nothing to do with this current situation because it's all brand new.
But that's also the reason why I think, you know, at minimum, the tournament and Pat Kelsey would be disappointed in if we were thinking, well, you know, we'll see, maybe they'll make the tournament. But I'm just hoping they can be competitive and win more games than Kenny Payne did. Like, no, he's embracing this, and you know, I think he'll put him in the tournament this year. All right, it's Coffee and Company. We are feel about Thornton's here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you hanging out with us. Don't forget you could take us with you wherever you go. Listen live on the hour radio app Listen live. It's seven ninety Louisville dot com. And right now, Underdog Fantasy is hooking you up. If you're a new user, you've never experienced the greatness that is Underdog Fantasy, you need to listen up because I'm about to tell you about this great opportunity they've got for you to get a
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Actually this is probably right where we need to be getting to break. But we were a little bit late getting into this hour because you know me. But I want you to hear an analyst for CBS that he's telling us the wrong team's favored up in South Bend this weekend. So if you're needing some confidence from an objective football guy, I've got you covered. And then our guy, doctor Larry BEN'SI proiea physical therapy is going to join us coming up here at around four to forty five,
So stick with us. It's coffee and company. Feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety I started the show today talk talking about those that are wagering on this Louisville Notre Dame game, how they're all not only picking Notre Dame to cover six points. Well, the money, like the eighty two percent of the money that has come in on this matchup, as far as the spread is on Notre Dame to not only win but cover six right now, So it tells you that you know there's
some big, bigger bets on them to cover. However, as far as just the public, and that means essentially not the amount of money, but just the bets themselves, it's a little bit closer, but fifty eight percent have the Irish covering. So as far as money line, ninety three percent of the money and ninety two percent of the public is on Notre Dame to win, which I started to think to myself, am I getting too fired up here for Louisville? Am I maybe overestimating this team at
this point? Because I don't know, if anybody's going to tell you that, it'd be like the shocker of the world because it wouldn't be here. Let's be honest here, Like, it's not like it would be a oh my god. This is one of the bigger upsets of the college football season. But you know, louis beat them last year. Louisville has this point, I think, well, I don't know
that maybe this is the hold up for me. I was getting ready to say, you know, Louisville's shown to be a pretty good team this year, but I don't know, maybe maybe objectively those are still waiting to see because against Georgia Tech they didn't look great. I was impressed with the way they were able to make the plays necessary. I don't think that they got a block field goal because of luck. I don't think they got a defensive
touchdown because of luck or fluke. I think it's just you know, making plays when a team gives you a chance to take advantage of their mistakes, you know. So that's that's the way I I mean, that's that's the way I look at it. But again, I know not everybody you know probably sees it the same way. So
after talking about that in the three o'clock hour. The the text line had a text from somebody that sent me a link to a tweet that I wanted to that I wanted to to play for you guys, because there's one analyst who happens to think that Louisville is the team that should be favored, and that's Rick Neuhausel, who now is part of the college football crew for CBS Sports.
And here is what he Here's what he had to say, the wrong team's favorite here, this should be Louisville favored. Jeff Brahm said it exactly right. If you couldn't get Notre Dame behind and forced Riley Leonard into having the throw. And I was strong, just a little bit of goo saying that he can't throw. He certainly can, but he
is inconsistent, missing a lot of wide open guys. I don't know if it's a matter of still injured or what have you, but if they're going to be that inconsistent with the forward pass, it's incumbent upon Louisville to get a lead. And I think defensively they're good enough and Shuck's good enough for that to happen.
I'm taking the Cardinals. So you know that doesn't mean that Louisville's going to be the team that wins just because of that comment, but you know, it does make me feel a little bit more justified in my belief that, you know, this this this is a game Louisville. I don't want to say that they should win, and if they don't, it's going to be a big disappointment. I mean, not many teams, even though Northern Illinois just did it, Not many teams do go into South Bend and win.
But I think this Louisville team can. I think Jef Brom's going to have his guys ready to play, and I'm maybe it's wishful thinking. I mean, it is wishful thinking, but I also believe it. I'm gonna believe in the power of positivity because I think we're gonna be doing our post game show on Saturday evening and we're going
to be celebrating another big victory over the Irish. Somebody that's going to be making the trip to South Bend to see the cards in the Irish is doctor Larry Ben's and pro Rea physco Therapy, who joins us right now, How are we doing Larry, you feeling good today.
I'm feeling great, and it's a big week with you know, obviously the big game Saturday and all the things going on in the other sports as well, so exciting times.
So what would be you know, what would be one one thing you would tell those fans going up to South Bend to make sure an experience while they're other than just you know, the game itself. I was talking earlier with Alex Kupper, and I feel like Notre Dame. You know, there's a lot of a lot of stadiums and environments in college football that are bucket list type things, but I think Notre Dame is the rare, the rare stadium and experience that you'll see fans go even if
their team's not playing, just because it's Notre Dame. It's South Bend, so I know you've been before, I've been before. We're not for a football game. What would you what's the best selling point other than just you know, the history and the environment.
Well, I think that is the best selling environment.
It is a very traditional stadium, not a lot of pizazz, but an incredible amount of history and tradition. On the negative side of things, it's a hot mess in terms of traffic and where to tailgates and all the things surround it. Remember, South Bend is effectively a college town and you're trying to squeeze an enormous amount of people
into a small amount of space. And even though they've been doing it for what one hundred plus years, the traffic patterns and the other things around it will remind you of a really bad Derby or Oaks day if things go awry. But on the positive high side, there are plenty of areas to tailgate and in sections, so it's not like one big golf course or one big parking lot like.
You know, we have the ability at a great stadium like.
We have, so expect various entities of tailgating and expect delay. So if getting there early is a good idea that allow you to wander around and have some fun. But the stadium itself is absolutely terrific, and their fans are real football fans and there's a lot we can learn from them, and they're typically kind and hospitable, so you know, expect to have a good time and be around some really good football people.
Yeah, and it's I don't want to say It's rare for them to look at Louisville as a big game and a big opportunity. When they came to town last year, it was a match up against ranked teams, and Louisvell's beat them a couple of times in this series. Now, but you could tell I can just get the sense that they realize, you know, this is an opportunity for them to get a top fifteen victory and really kind
of let people know that Niu was a fluke. There's added excitement for me knowing that this is a big game for them as well. So, yeah, I've now been this excited for a game in quite some time. And one player that we may see may not. There's actually a few guys that are listed as game time decisions. But Colin Lacey. We talked about him shortly after he had that collarbone injury that took place about six weeks I'm sorry about five weeks ago, and now it sounds
like he's getting closer to being able to play. Timeline here again. I guess we'll find out around kickoff he's going to be able to go. But as far as like the timeline is, this is this kind of on pace with what you would have expected when the injury occurred.
Yeah, yeah, it absolutely is. It's interesting because this week is sort of the you know, right at the precipice of his healing, and from what I understand, he has been doing some practicing and patterns that's much different than contact though, and so it will be a game time decision.
I'll come down to the sports medicine staff in conjunction with you know, the coaches, and whether they believe he's ready to go, just from both a physical and mental standpoint, But it would be we need them and it would be incredibly exciting if he's healthy enough to play.
You may not know the answer to this, but I'm just curious when it comes to the game time decision, it's not literally, or maybe it is literally as soon as the game starts, the trainers give the coaches the word or but sometimes you see guys not fully dressed out a little bit before. How I mean, I'm sure it varies depending upon the injury, and maybe it varies depending upon the coaching staff and training staff. But when do you think players typically get the indication if they're
going to be able to go or not. And I guess sometimes it is their decision. But when others are really involved in that, I mean, how close do they get to the wire?
No, it's a great question, and it really comes down it starts a game prep. And so if you believe that you know, Colin Lacy's going to have a chance to play, you're going to prep with some you know, various different configurations and such that will allow you know, him to you know, play whatever number. And now let's just say he's going to play you know, three or four special situations. Then as the week goes on, you know, you assess that in conjunction with the physicians, and you know,
first is is the is the fracture healed? Is all that you know from a technical medical standpoint go in the right direction. But you also have this year, you know, the NC double A has got sort of you know, this questionable list that you know, NFL has been adamant
about for a number of years. So I think you have to look there first, and then you have to make an assumption that if there's odds are heavy that he's going to play, you know, they're certainly going to have some sets in some plays designed for him, whether it's a few plays or whether it's the whole game is a big difference. It comes down to game prep. But you can be rest assured that by this time on a Wednesday, it probably got a pretty good idea how much he's going to play, if at all.
Doctor Lorry Ben's and Proria Physical Therapies are guest joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
So.
You sent me this over the weekend, and I got to be honest with you. It's one of those things that has interested me more than I would have expected, and that is the rabdough Am I saying that?
Right? Yes you are. We'll call it rabdo obsolutely.
That Okay, you said it you. I think the way you said it was how I would have said it, but I didn't want to make a fool of myself. I was going to let you help me before I walked into that. But this is an injury where a person's muscles breakdown, and this just seems this is very scary and serious. Twelve lacrosse players at Tufts University have been diagnosed with this rare muscle injury and it's it's after going through some pretty intense training and whatnot. I mean, this is scary.
It absolutely is there's a lot of teaching and take home points here. So let's unpack this a bit and I'll actually start backwards. Many years ago. The NCAA used to allow freshmen and early admits to come in a few days to what was it, I think at the time, maybe even two weeks early for preseason training. Of course, now they come in the spring and there's year round training and the whole, you know, everything has sort of changed,
the whole narratives change. But the reason they did is so that you can get progressive increases in both physical conditioning and mental toughness.
Now though today these.
Athletes are coming in there and they're already in very very good shape, but if you do too much too soon, you could literally break down your muscle fibers. And when that happens, technically this milglobe, it gets into your bloodstream and that can cause all kinds of kidney and other
kind of damages. Now, the tough situation is really negligence in my opinion, because what you had was a Navy seal that apparently had been a lacrosse player who took these lacrosse players out and instead of delivering, you know, a good workout, he tried to mix mental toughness with an over the top, you know, physical activity of an extreme on top of that, from what I understand, was very hot and humid, so you had all of these
conditions working against you, like dehydration and heat, stress and other kinds of things.
And what happened.
Many of them got hospitalized. Some of them are still in the hospital. When you start breaking down muscle, it not only shows you that you did too much, but it could literally mean the seriousness of being able to recover from it in a very very short period of time.
I was in the military, as you well know, and we would get basic trainees who hadn't done anything for a long time, and they would work them out too hard, and they would get rabdo very very serious condition, usually end up getting hospitalized, and you have all kinds of weakness and pain.
This is a difficult one.
And the one teaching point that I mentioned to some coaches who've called me about this is that mental toughness has to be built over a period of time. You can't have a Navy seal come in and teach that at one workout.
Just like it's clearly dangerous, right, I mean.
It's absolutely, absolutely yeah, and their yearine gets very dark and it is it's really an emergency situation, and so you're going to see all.
Kinds of things going on here. These are very bright, good athletes, a toughs Toffs, has an excellent lacrosse.
Program and how this got away from them like that is just really really surprising and unfortunate. And the other lesson here is just you can't do too much too soon for somebody who's been physically inactive. We've had football players at u have all over the years who very early in the course of training had an early enough sign of rahabdo analysis that the coaches and the trainers took them out so that didn't develop into more serious and you monitor it through year analysis, you monitor it
through the symptoms that the athletes have. And fortunately in today's day, you don't get much of this. So for this to happen at Tufts and in New England areas just tragic.
It is.
I mean, it's twelve of these athletes who were participating in what was called a voluntary workout, and for twelve of them to have have this happen, I mean, I'm just I'm trying to visualize just how brutal it must have been. And you know we weren't there. I didn't see it, but just I can imagine they were probably you know, pressured and you know, guilted into not to not you know, realizing, hey, this is just too much for me and it's cost some serious David. It's very scary.
And the last thing you just said there was actually gonna be. The next question is that it's rare to see now just because it's a well known thing that can happen. I mean, it's just it's it's reckless to be in this position. So very scary, no doubt. One other injury I wanted to ask you about that. I don't know if we have any kind of an update, but Christian McCaffrey he flew to Germany over the weekend to visit a specialist about his persistent achilles issue that
he has. When you hear of athletes that do make a trip, you know, to another country to see a specialist, and I guess, you know, it all depends on the you know, they are all kinds of specialists all across the that obviously, you know that can specialize in certain injuries. But niners, fans, people who have McCaffrey on their team when they see this in worry, Uh oh, he must not be able to get good info here. He's going to travel anywhere to try to get somebody to tell
him how he can get healthy. Is that accurate or is this just a guy having the ability to quite literally utilize resources anywhere that most of us wouldn't be able to.
Well, it's actually kind of a combination of all the above. I mean very seldom. You know, the United States has the best sports medicine treatments in the world by fire bar nine. Now that doesn't mean there aren't some things they're doing in Germany and in the old days they used to talk about this in the Soviet Union, it might be a little bit more experimental, whether or not
they're legal or not in the US, it's to be determined. So, for example, you know, injections, taking your plasma, regenerating it or adding you know, spinning it so that you can get more red blood cells and then injecting it is a technique PRP. It's used in every sports medicine facility. Now what's happened is the sophistication of lab results coupled with you know, research is showing different versions of that PRP technique. And my guess is based on what I
know what they're doing in Germany. That's where he went to get a consultant. If you remember, we've seen this before. You had Aaron Rodgers last year when he had the Achilles injury. He was going to have some kind of surgery that was going to allow him to come back in three weeks. And obviously that didn't turn out. That didn't turn out the right way for him. But it's not unusual.
But you're exactly right.
He's got unlimited resources, and you know that's that's my guess is what they were looking at as some type of injection technique to facilitate heating. It's unfortunate, you can't, you can't overcome mother nature. You can facilitate healing a little bit better. But he's got a pretty bad injury.
And it sounds like Russell Willis, you know Russell Wilson where the Steelers has something similar to be honest, because he seems like he is more in the calf I think, but he hasn't played in a while and that's allowed them to really accelerate. Justin Fields's play, which has been terrific.
Yeah, and I think the injuries that we're seeing, as far as the amount of them, I don't have numbers in front of me, but I would assume it's probably not that different than what you typically see a few
weeks into the season. But I definitely feel as if some of the bigger names in the league are dealing with injuries right now, and I think that's been somewhat of a factor in while the product on the field just hasn't been maybe what people expected, but in the sports medicine world, I mean, has that been a I again, guys are always gonna get hurt, that's part of it. But I do feel like the stars of the game are dealing with things a little earlier than we typically see.
Yeah, I agree with that. I think what's happened is if they have any nagging.
Injury, they tend not to play in the preseason, and so they'll use the first or second game to get more reps. I mean, we saw this with Aaron Rodgers, we saw it with Deshaun Watson against Dallas in that opening week, and you're seeing it with a lot of these others that just don't get the reps in the preseason. I think that's a little bit unfortunate. Does that contribute to higher injury rates?
I don't know.
It seems like we're off to a bad year though statistically, you know the data that I looked at recently, you know, so it's just pretty consistent for the last few years. But as you want to football's a violent sport. These guys are fast there they strength and acceleration, all hitting at one time, and you know, it's no wonder you get so many injuries.
Doctor Ben's as always, we appreciate your time, enjoy South Bend, and I'm confident that you and the Cards are going to bring back a victory for us.
Me too, We've done awfully well there, even the year we lost what was it like six and nothing during that Yeah, there were only students were allowed, but we went there under really tough conditions, uh winded with Reggie Bofan and yes and and uh you know that was that was a great win for us. So I'm expecting big things and uh looking forward to a victory.
Cards Cars, take care, Larry. It's doctor Larry Ben's pro rep is therapy good stuff there. We I mean, I can't think of it the game that Louisville lost badly to Notre Dame when Sadderfield had his opener. I mean, it got away a little later, but like that was still a good game until towards the end. I mean, it was certainly a moral victory situation for louisvill because we were coming off of a two to ten season.
But yes, the Cards have been competitive against the Irish every time they've played, and I see no reason why they won't be the case. In fact, John, if it's not competitive, it's because Louisville's blowing them out.
I'm with you.
I'm gonna try to speak that into existence. Quick break, don't go anywhere, keep a locked right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Not much time left here in the four o'clock hour, but a lot to get to in the five o'clock hour. I'll set the table here in a moment before we get to the next break. But just some numbers that once again just tell you about the dominant run that Nick Saban had in college football.
We talked yesterday about how this is the first time that Alabama is a home dog since two thousand in seven. I mean, that's insane, but not really surprising when you know, when you look at how how successful Bama was during that time, and they're probably still gonna be very successful with their new regime. But here's another thing that just makes it quite clear. Saban is I think the best, certainly one of the best in the eyes of I
would say just about anybody. Right now, five of the top eight ranked teams are led by coaches who worked for Nick Saban. Lank Texas Steve Sarkisian obviously that was more of like a you know, rehab kind of thing for him. Nope, not making a joke there, but like he went to be a coordinator for Saban because he had some personal issues. But still, I'm sure he would tell you one of the reasons, one of the many reasons why he's having such success at Texas is because
he learned a lot from the legendary Nick Saban. Kirby Smart, I mean, he worked for him forever before he got the job at Georgia, Lane Kiffin at Ole, Miss Mario Christobal at Miami, Dan Landing at Oregon. I mean, I've always felt like one of the best real signs of how great a coach is. And there's a lot I mean winning is the ultimate thing, right like winning is
is absolutely how you're viewed as a coach. But a lot of coaches win, and I think one of the things you could at times look at to see again but again, accomplishments trump, all right, But if you've got a really really good coaching tree, guys who are really successful, they become your peers that learned from you. That that's a really really impressive thing for you as a coach,
because you're not just coaching and winning. You're coaching coaches and they're taking your tools, your tutelage, if you will, and they're having a lot of success. I mean, that's why you can't really say it as much now. I mean, some guys are still having success, but like Rick Bettino had an unbelievable coaching tree still does. But again I think you know, some of these guys they kind of had their run where they were on top, and maybe
now they don't have as much moreenty them. But I mean that always stood out to me that like Rick Patino, you look at a lot of guys who worked for him that went on to have I mean, Kevin Keats last year, I mean, I don't know, he's an elite coach. I love Keats. I think he's a great coach, but you know, he was able to guide a team that's stunk to a Final four. And I don't know how much of that was coaching, but certainly it was a factor.
Right.
You know who else is part of the Nick Saban coaching tree?
Is it your guy? It's Kurt Signetti. Really it was on his original staff at Alabama.
I did not know that how many years.
I think just a year or two still moving on to NC State, I believe, But yeah, he was on original staff and.
That it still counts, you know. So I mean, and I'm not saying again this isn't a uk UK versue of l thing, but like again, you are, you were viewed by how how much you accomplish. Like nobody's going to say, well, hey, if I'm going to determine who's who's better, let's go see how their assistance did when they got jobs. But what do people say about John Caliperry. It's all based off talent, right, He's not a ball coach coach, no x's and o's. He just rolls the
ball out there. And lately, in the last few years at Kentucky. It seemed like he I mean seemed like he was just refusing to accept that the game had changed and refusing to adjust what he wanted to do on the floor schematically based off talent. Like the fact that he didn't have Reed Shepherd, Rob Dillingham and Antonio Reeves on the floor together for the majority of every single game is a crime. I mean, I loved it because it led to them losing to Oakland, but you know,
like it's just him being stubborn. But one thing that I think has always supported the notion that Cali Perry really isn't a great coach. He just he's able to manage talent and it's just all player based. Now, I would give him credit. He can prop up a freshman better than most. It's not really where the game is anymore. But I do think that you take a lot of the star freshmen that didn't have a lot of veterans
with their teams. Now, his best teams did have veteran presence, and you know, nobody seems to remember that when they won a championship in twenty twelve, they had a lot of veterans on that team that were really good. But now their stars were Davis and kid Gilchrist. But nonetheless Cala Perry's never produced a successful assistant coach. His coaching
tree is awful. I mean, and I'm not even making the Kenny Payne joke here, Like I honestly wasn't even thinking about Kenny Payne because people have been dogging Cali Perry's coaching tree before Kenny Payne got a head coaching job Orlando, and Tiqua was terrible at South Florida. Bruiser Flint stinks, Tony Barbie stinks, and I shouldn't be mean.
I mean, they don't stink as human beings, but like that's a guy who for a while was viewed as one of the best in the game, and like anytime an assistant got a chance to go lead a program, it was terrible. So anyway, Saban, back to Saban, I mean another we could probably do a show every day and give you some wild fact in stat about Nick Saban that'll let you know he's the best in my opinion, certainly one of the best by just about everybody. I
would assume. All Right, we got the five o'clock hour coming up next, stick with us a lot to get to that I haven't got to yet, so don't go anywhere, keep it locked right here on Sports Talk seven ninety bus