Our old buddy from the PAC twelve days which a tier is now falling down my cheek, but always great to catch up with JB.
Long On a Friday, JB.
Larry David tells me, I have through today to wish you a happy New Year, sir, so I will do just that.
Happy Friday.
I'll curb it right back to you. Same to you.
How can I set you up for success in the five o'clock hour? That's my primary concern here.
Well, I would, I wouldn't want anybody else to do it.
So I appreciate it because it has been a little bit and I do want to get to the rams in a moment. But of course a little college football because it is top of mind and you still exist in that space quite a bit. I just want to ask you, from a thirty thousand foot Macro viewpoint, now that we are seeing the twelve team CFP in front of us, what are your thoughts so far?
Of course, four teams left standing as of now.
Well, through my Irish tinted lenses, I'm happy for Notre Dame to be competing in this environment and to beat a true SEC powerhouse. I understand, George is not what they have been in recent years, but they were still worthy of being there, and so happy for my mater to show up on that stage.
And win convincingly.
I think my you know, thirty thousand foot perspective is a little bit cynical, but I'll offer it to you anyway, which is now that everybody has the chance to compensate players and attract them, if not equally, at least with you know, true financial incentives. It's probably not a coincidence that when you then put them in a broader playing field at neutral sites, that the SEC is not necessarily as dominant as they have been when the game was
kind of catered to them specifically. So I think if that's the dominant narrative coming out of this year's college football playoffs, I'm right on board with it. I don't think the SEC is going anywhere. I still think they're the best resource. I still think they're going to win the preponderance of college football playoffs because of the bread and caliber of their teams and their coaches and their
care factor. But I think this is a good place to start a new era of college football with the final four.
That we have completely forgot and I knew that you were a Notre Dame alum. So let me take advantage of your knowledge and ask you about what stands out most when it comes to the job that Marcus Freeman has done. You know, I think I was caught off guard when Brian Kelly left, and all due respect to a man who I've never met, Marcus Freeman seems like a lot more likable. It's a more likable Notre Dame football team. What stands out most about this building job that he's done.
A lot?
I think the reaction to Brian Kelly leaving and him stepping back into that Notre Dame locker room said that he was a player favorite, But hiring a player favorite is not necessarily a formula for success in college football succession. I think there was plenty of reason to question how he would think or swim in this environment, and he's done nothing but thrive, and I give him a ton
of credit for that. Both, you know, long lens and short lens like to stumble after beating Texas A and m a college station, to stumble against NIU and to kind of have egg on your face, and to play the long game and to win out and to be right there at the finish line. I think that says a lot about him individually and the personality that his
team has adopted. I think Notre Dame has threaded the needle just perfectly between still being true to their roots but realizing that the NIL game is where the future is and if they want to play big boy college football, they need to not not just participate, but dominate it to the extent that they're able. And I never thought I would see a transfer portal era reach South Bend. It's so antithetical to what that institution has been all
about for so many years. But the way that they selectively utilized transfers who are in good academic standing and could contribute to specific roles, there's no way they win that game last night, which is high school players that they had recruited.
Do you feel like Notre Dame is capable of winning it all this year? You know it from my vantage point JB. A lot of people who I respect and cover the sport have always talked about all your long Ohio State's best being better than everybody else's best. It didn't manifest against Michigan, but ultimately they're kind of rolling.
What for your alma mater. What do you think? What do you think the ceiling is this year?
No?
Sure, I think any of the four teams has the potential to win it all. I think for all that we I shouldn't say we, for all that some gripe about the first round of games, and we can talk about that too if you want.
I think the final four.
Are worthy and each of them, if they play to their highest potential, has every reason to believe that they're going to be the national champion. And you know, I think what we've landed on, correct me if you feel otherwise, is March Madness on grass in the winner when you expand the field, whether or not you saw upsets happen in the first round like we're used to on that
first Thursday and Friday of March Madness. Ultimately you get to Sweet sixteen weekend, and if you've made it to that second week and you're for real and you've got a chance, certainly, if you make it to the final four, you're a contender. And I'm glad it took us too long, but I'm glad that this is where we are as a college football space, because whether it's Arizona.
State or Boise State or.
Even Indiana some of the others that fell by the wayside. I don't think just because you lost a one off game, especially if you lost in a true road game, that that means that you're anything other than a top twelve team in the college football this year.
Yeah, and you know, those of us that remember the PAC twelve years certainly will always wonder what a team like Utah at their peak could have done in an expanded twelve team situation. But unfortunately, JB. Let's move over to where we find ourselves here. And we did visit with you, I believe, once during the college football season. But you're a guy that covered Utah football for a number of years, called Utah football games for a number of years since you and I last spoke. Coach Witt
has announced he's coming back for year twenty one. So the succession plan in place, you know, Morgan Scaley is now being Logan Royd. He's not ready to hand over you know, the company to his oldest son just yet.
And so that's on whole for one year.
As of now, we have sixteen new transfer portal editions, twenty five incoming freshman, forty one.
New players for the Utes.
But based off of what you know about this program, do you feel confident that this disappointing season could be a one off as opposed to the new reality of Utah football.
Yeah, it's a fair question.
It's probably one that I would be speaking out of turn to answer too definitively, not being as in the weeds as I once was. But you know how much faith I have in that leadership and the resources around that program, and the commitment of the community to it. I very much agree with the sentiment you expressed that had Utah as a PAC champion been gifted not gifted, had earned the opportunity to host a first round playoff game, I think good things would have happened. I think a
lot of your audience agrees with that. But the other reason why I'm hesitant to reply in any definitive manner is because what is January twenty twenty five tell us at all about September or November or December of twenty five. Imagine telling an Arizona State die hard, much less any of us kind of adjacent to that program, that Kenny Dillingham and Cam Scataboo would be in the first college football playoffs, And I think justifiably they should have won
that game and been part of the final four. That's an absurdity to even ponder at this stage of the calendar. And yet in the era that we are in, you can cobble together a completely different team than the one that I saw in person in Salt Lake City last year. I think you probably remember that game, like I was worried the sun Devils weren't going to get out of there in one piece, Like they didn't have a quarterback, they had their tight end warming up on the sideline
to take snaps. And here they are a year later, deservedly having a true argument to say that they should be part of the college football playoffs semi finals.
Yeah, and to your point, only time would tell, because there's still another transfer portal window that will open. And I mean, look, they could lose a ton of talent
between now and the fall an exercise and futility. But before we move on to the pros, you know, one of the conversations that we continue to have, not just here, but people across the landscape of college football media is what the future of the sport is going to look like with all of the lack of regulations the NCAA is not even allowed to offer any sort of guidance or punishment. They have been told that that's not a thing that they're allowed to do anymore. They had decades
to try to figure it out, but they couldn't. And ultimately a lot of people believe we are high speed ahead to a pro model.
I feel like that.
Would solve a lot of the problems that seem to play college football. You know, allow the players to unionize collectively, bargain. I know administrators at schools don't want that. I feel like coaches do do you feel like? And you know, despite all of the off field issues, ratings are through the roof. Consumption is fine. So what I say, is the sport in trouble? The answer is probably no. But if you look in the Jblong crystal ball, what does the future of college football look like?
Well, I hope that college football can find it's Roger Goodell. And what I mean by that is, regardless of how you feel about that name and his role in the National Football League, college football desperately direly needs someone with the authority to say yes, no, maybe, And right now there just isn't anyone not in Indianapolis. Not at the NCAAA level, Like it's a bunch of college commissioners who
have all sorts of very difficult motivations. But I think we need to nominate a someone, and I don't want a committee. I want to someone who has the authority to take this what I think has the potential be a golden era of college football to its next iteration.
And it's not to say that that's going to.
Be some czar that has unilateral say, but he or she will speak for the key stakeholders who can voice their preferences and concerns to that person. But ultimately, there has to be something that connects Eugene to Salt Lake City to Austin, Texas, to Tuscaloosa to College Station and Happy Valley right like, right now that just doesn't exist. And I think we're seeing the fragmented nature of college football.
And just because it's great right now, Spence, I think there is a red blinking light that if we're not careful and if we don't act soon enough, it can go the wrong way.
I do agree with that.
That's why I talk about the issues as often as I do, because I love the sport. We care about it here on our stay with both Utah and Berg of Young and want to make sure that everything is in place for it to continue to thrive. All right, As you know, we are the unofficial home of the Rams, the La Rams here in Salt Lake City. Off and tell you because mcveigh's my guy. But look four or five to start the year, right. I think a lot of people thought that this was going to be a
rebuilding year, but here they are. Man, you guys won the division. You're going to the postseason no matter what happens over the weekend. How has coach McVeigh been able to pull this off after such a rough start.
Of the year.
Yeah, I know this is what you meant by saying four or five, but let me just spell it out for the audience. He may just be going about their day not dialed into exactly what you said.
There.
They lost four of their fives.
Yeah you know, say for a walkoff field goal against the San Francisco forty nine ers. They were dead in the water at their bye week, just like they were a year ago, three games below five hundred. You know it was different this year is you know you just hadn't seen the team that they had built in its full form and if there was a reason for optimism, that was it. It's like, how can you judge this
team before we see Pukainaku as year two? How can you judge Matthew Stafford until he plays behind at least four of the five offensive linemen that you invested in this offseason, so that latent potential was there, but still to cash it in and the clinch before Week eighteen was a scenario that I don't even think the Braves or boldest Rams fan would have gone out on a
limb to say. But I do keep bringing it back to Sean and I think he is a unique force of football, and I think this is one of his better, if not best, one of his better coaching jobs, because it was so unique from even as recently as last year, when on paper they did the same thing, but if you lived at day to day, it was nothing like what they did last year.
Of course, you have a local player that we've been watching since he was fourteen year years old in Pooka and Akoua, and some health issues early on, and then he came back and every single week you just kind of shake your head at what he's able to do. I think we all thought he had a chance to be a pro, but I don't think anybody thoughts that he was going to look and play like this week
in and week out. I mean, I don't know that I have a question for you, just your thoughts on yet another unbelievable successful season year two for Pookin Akuah.
Yeah.
I don't know what higher praise I can give him, except he really improved from a record setting rookie season, and that's not easy to do. When you go from a running mate of Cooper Cup who shines in his absence and thrives opposite him, to someone who is now getting the full force of every defensive scating report and coverage and you get better. That's a testament to who he is and the work that he put in to take that leap, and it doesn't come easily because of
how high he set the bar. But you know, if there was anything to pick at last year, it was that he had some drops Other than dropping the first pass that Stafford threw him after his return from injury, I don't think he's put another one on the ground since he's been spectacular. He competes without the football, which is something that he'll never get as much credit for as he deserves, but it's demanded of someone in his
role within the McVeigh offense. So there's a lot on pookah shoulders and they're broad and they're strong, and thank goodness because you could say it one of two ways. The Rams go as far in this postseason as Matthew Stafford can take them, and I think that's true. But Matthew Stafford's you know, first look and last look is going to beat a puka nakua through the year because that's the best thing the Rams have going offensively.
So Vegas tells us that the Chiefs are still the favorite to win the Super Bowl, and you know, it has. It's been a razor's edge for them. Where on one hand, it's pretty remarkable to watch Patrick Mahomes kind of evolve into this intellectual quarterback and Andy Reid to just simply coach them to win games.
However they need to.
And on the other hand, you look around at the litany of talent and really good teams in Pro football and you say, can you survive that come playoff time? Do you think this is Kansas City's to win again for the third straight time.
Yeah, probably probably. But like I think last time, I ducked this question by saying, if you were to give me Kansas City or the field, I would want the field. What if I narrated a little bit and I said.
Just specifically to the AFC.
Would you rather have Kansas City or Buffalo and Baltimore? Can I take Buffalo and Baltimore?
I think I'm with you because I think.
Either one of them that gets a shot at Kansas City has every reason to believe they can win that game. But I think the reason why the Chiefs are still the favorite, besides having to coach the quarterback and the home field advantage, is I think what they did this year to win fifteen games as they look to three pete, that's nearly impossible. Like to maintain that edge, that competitive edge when you know the only thing you're going to
be judged on is January and February. What a testament to everyone within that organization is that's one of the most impossible things I've ever seen done in my lifetime of covering this sport. And that's probably hyperbole, but I sincerely mean it.
What stands out most to you because as you know, as we've talked over the years. I'm a long suffering fan of the New York Jets. I do not have a question about the Jets. We're not gonna waste our time. I'm not going to waste my oxygen. But I will ask you about Sam Darnold, because over the past decade or so, every time the Jets have drafted a quarterback, Sam was the only one where.
I said, Okay, that's the guy.
And of course it didn't work, but you have to just I mean, it's unbelievably impressive. Yes, it's a very good team, it's a good coaching staff. He's surrounded by talent. They've got a decision to make. I don't know how you say goodbye to him after what he's done, but the Sam Donald Viking story is one of my favorites of the year.
Give me your thoughts.
JB.
Well and Kevin O'Connell was with the Rams when they won the Super Bowl, and he'll always be someone that I think very, verrely highly of, and he's someone that Sean McVay really entrusted and I know is happy to see get that opportunity. Donald's not exactly like Rock Purdy, right, this is not mister irrelevant. This is a number one pick, and whether he had to go through a couple of cycles of finding himself or finding the right circumstances, probably both.
It's not like the guy that lacks for talent. What I really.
Commend is the stuff between the years, and I would put Baker Mayfield in a very similar category that those two guys are likely you know, leading playoff teams and NFC contenders, given where they've been at various depths of their career, including together side by side. It's probably you know, a Neon Green Vegas sized signed to the National Football League that we give up on and we write the
narrative on especially that position too quickly. Now, whether that applies to an Anthony Richardson or a Justin s Fields or whoever's next trying to, you know, hopefully reclaim their career as a once highly touted draft prospect at quarterback.
I don't know.
It could be unique to those men and their grit and determination. It also, I would say, for certain depends on having someone like Kevin O'Connell and Justin Jefferson and all the other good things that are going on organizationally in Minneapolis, because it can't happen without that, all.
Right, before I say you loose and again your heart's with the Rams. I understand that, But the Lions have a litany amount of injuries, litany of injuries on the defensive side of football. Philly just seems to get in their own way with the locker room chemistry issues.
The Rams won five straight.
So I'm not saying that the Rams can't do anything special, because I'm sure they can.
We've seen that coach, You've seen that team.
Who's the team though that there's your peer in the NFC that you would be most afraid of. On the other side if you ran into them.
Well, I think the raws nerve is probably Saquon Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles having done it in face to face at SOFI Stadium, and it was just a total thorough beat down.
It was a blowout.
It was a low point and the season that had very few of them. So to the extent that Philadelphia doesn't have to leave their home stadium until a potential NFC championship game. They're the team man, both in terms of accomplishment and roster. I'll share something with you that Maurice Jones. Drew said, you know, he walked down to the field before that game and he came back to
the booth. He said, JB, that might be the biggest football team I've ever seen, and he was talking about the way that that organization has poured into their trenches. I don't think if every GM was injected with Trusserum, I don't know that that thirty one their organizations wouldn't trade rosters with the Philadelphia Eagles. The only question you could possibly have is do they have the best quarterback
in the ring? Do they have someone who can beat you not only with their system and with Saquon Barkley and with his ability to extend plays, but beat you from the pocket because we're at the time of year where you've got to be able to beat teams from the pocket. And that's probably the only hesitancy that anyone should have with Philadelphia, even though Hurts has taken them basically to the finish line save for Patrick Mahomes.
Great time of year, man, enjoy the call over the weekend. It's been a lot of fun. From one to four to for two division champs, quite a story. So you know we're pulling for you. And I always appreciate the time.
Okay, all right, thank you for the invitation and happy New Year.
Tall the fighting Pukinakua's and those who love them in your zip code.
And there's plenty of them. There is the great JB.
Long, the voice of the La Ram spent a number of years with the Pac twelve network, does college basketball for Turner and ESPN. Also does some football for the TEND Network. He is a busy guy and he's very talented. At JB Underscore Long is where you fight him.