Almighty Bruce Feldman

we thank you for finding us. However you found us here and telling a friend the gift that keeps on giving the Fifth Hour Podcast on the weekends, which it sounds sounds awkward, but we're gonna gonna kick off the college football season which is right around the bend. And there's no better way to kick off the college football season than with a p himer on what to look forward to. But it's not gonna sound boring. That sounded boring, It's not gonna be boring at all. And we again,

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cameo dot com slash Benton Mallory. You want to personalized Mallard monologue type deal for you or you just want me to do something crazy. I had a Laker fan who wanted me to sing the praises of the Lakers on a cameo. That was awkward, but but but but he paid, so I did it. Kind of, I kind of did it. We are joined this weekend, surprisingly back to back weekends from West of the four oh five.

I had to take a peek at some inventory and look at some some data since we're big these days on the science not a science or some science, but I had to look at some backlogs and noticed that a few days that I was out come right back and book a guy by the name of Rob Parker. It was the highest rated podcast in the last sixty days. So for that I must say thank you and a good job by myself. So yeah, I ever heard a lot of complaints, but we'll save that for the next

next podcast. We don't want to sully the podcast here when we'll see you. You've been a huge NFL guy since you were a kid, But was there ever an instance where you just felt like, man, college football is the equal right now to the national football in terms of your fandom? Oh? Yeah, sure. When when I was a kid, I it was not insignific figuring at all.

It was a big part. I have fond memories of watching you know, the big U I C games on TV, although my parents went to u C. L A and watching uh, you know, random Notre Dame games, and I bought into all of all of that, And I still love a great college atmosphere, like I the only one I've been to outside of California's Norman, Oklahoma. That was amazing, Like I would if I had the time and I

had the resource. Like Dan Buyer, who works at our place, he got sent for years to like the biggest college football game of the week, and that's awesome, Like he got to experience all that. He's got to go to Tuscaloosa and see what it's like at Alabama and and go to all these these great college setups, but I really haven't experienced much of that other than Oklahoma UM. But no, I appreciate. And we don't talk too much

college football on the The Overnight Show. And the reason we don't do that is that we're not on Saturday, and so we we could like preview the game, like there's a big scandal in college football, We'll talk about it because I love scandal. But by the time we get back Sunday night in the Monday, the NFL trump's college football, and so there's all these big NFL stories and then, uh, college football just gets lost in the haze of the NFL and does not get the the

recognition on our show. There's a lack of recognition for for college football. But it's amazing though, because when you look at television programming top fifty sixty program shows throughout the year, it is dominated by the NFL up seconds college football, and then everything else. But there's for as much as that can run parallel in some ways, it's not even close with the NBA and college basketball. It just falls off a cliff. So yeah, man, I'm right

there with you. I would love to go to death Valley. I would love to go down to SEC Country. I'd love to go to Notre Dame. I'm a biased guy when talking scenery, but I absolutely adore Pasadena and the Rose Bowl. I think it's the best setting in all of college. Well, you know you can go. Yeah, I've been.

Have you been? You've been to the Rose Bowl. Yeah, I've been to a bunch of I mean, I went back in the day with my cousin to go watch Ricky Williams trucks stick a bunch of Bruins and still get she lacked by sixty glory days of U c l A and Kate McDade. Those guys. Man, it was glory days and I'm a fan. But you know, you appreciate good ball and obviously USC in the two thousands. But hey, hey, I did postgame Bruin talk after the worst day in the history of u c l A

football when they had to play that makeup Miami. Yeah. They had a seven team point lead late third quarter and ended up giving it all back to Edger and James. Hurricanes who had not many had heard of Edger and James what they did after that. He ran through them like a bull. He just ran over the U c l a team. It was so bad. How bad was It was so bad that the FBI investigated. They thought the game was a rigged deal. That U c l A. Tanked the game. That's how bad that the end of

the game was there in the fourth quarter. And if they had simply won that game, they would have played for the national you would have gone to the postseason thing, the National championship game, because I think Kansas State had I think they had lost that same day, if I remember um, because Kansas State us in Tennessee all undefeated. Yeah. Yeah, and then dude Edrian James had thirty nine carries for two yards in that game. He went batshit craze in

the second half. I remember that. Yeah. It was insane. It was absolutely insanity. And but that was I was. I was doing local radio. We had the U c l A Bruins radio rights, and we were there like all those games. It was remember one of those years

and in that era was at the Rose Bowl. They played Michigan when Michigan was still considered good and Alabama, now Alabama was not considered great at that time, but still like a legacy program, and they beat him back to back, they beat him Michigan and Alabama back to back, and like, wow, that's like one of the greatest accomplishments

of all time. And that's you know, it didn't end up with a championship anything like that, but but still looking back, it was like, wow, it was actually more impressive. I remember to beat Michigan than it was to beat Alabama. I also remember the Rose Bowl, uh, And I have a notebook somewhere here that Tennessee gave me from when Peyton Manning came to play at the Rose. Yeah, and they passed out all this They were trying to get Peyton the Heisman trophies, so they passed out all this

paraphernalia for Peyton Manning. I kept some of it because I'm a loser, and I have some of it here in my many boxes as I moved. But another about that, Listen, we are don't bear the lead my man? All right? With that is the backdrop collegiant football to the gridiron we go. And if you're a college football fan, you are more than well aware of Bruce Feldman, who is the national college football writer at the Athletic and has been covering college football for more than twenty years. Now.

You see him on Fox college football coverage, a sideline reporter the big Games Fox does. He's written a bunch of books on college football, and he has he's seen it and done it all over the last two decades plus. And so we are joined now by the aforementioned Bruce Feldman. Bruce, thank you. So why don't we start with this name, image and likeness. The era has a ride. We heard a lot of negative comments about this pearl clutching, people

jumping up and down, pounding the table. What are your early impressions on how the n I L has gone so far? I do people have gotten a little numb to it. Maybe you know there's there's a little bit of a shock value. And you see, you know on Ohio State freshman defensive alignman, you know, posing pictures with a with a really nice truck or suv that you know he's doing some kind of partnership with with a

car dealership. And you know, it's not too far removed from when you would hear chatter from like got message boards, so and so defensive lineman or star player who didn't commit to such and such school posing with a with a fancy car on his Instagram and people are like, see, look what happened there. So I think from that part

of it, it's taking a little bit of readjusting for people. Um, I think some of the some of the reality of it is most of the money involved with student athletes, not just in football, but in other sports, especially the other non revenue sports, the money is probably not two ipop thing. So I just think, you know, I think it's probably getting gonna get normalized to a large degree

before too long. It's just we are in such a you know, such a framework of being used to the n s A rules and regulations that I just think there's an adjustment phase that goes onto it. And quite honestly, some stuff that's showing up on social media, and there's probably a bunch of stuff that's not not getting on people's radar because it's not going on social media that's happening behind the scenes. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern

eleven pm Pacific. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Yeah and the moment for me where and I don't. I don't have a problem. I'm fine with the players getting the money. I'm glad they're they're getting the money. But you're right, there's an adjustment period. The quarterback, the high school quarterback from Texas, I forget his name,

that went to Ohio and uh. That was the satire moment for me when he when he posted uh commercial on on social media and he hadn't even you know, gone to college yet, and that whole that that was like, Wow, that this is really real. That's like that was wild. And now my I made an argument on my my show Bruce that I don't. I don't think that's gonna become the norm where guys skip their senior year of high school being your last year of eligibility to go

wait to play football somewhere. I think that's only like one percent of guys. Are you with me on that or do you think this would become more and more of a regular occurrence. No, I think that example is probably even less than one percent. It's probably a fraction

of a percent. I mean, the oddity of that one particular was you have a very high quarterback at a powerhouse school, in Texas, and you had the high school head coach basically finding out that this kid is is thinking of just basically both thing and and you gonna go to college journily on a news story that somebody forwarded to him. So you have like, wait a minute, the parents are thinking of doing what? And it's you know, it's like and there's a camp boot your drink and

what is going on? Why are we hearing it? Like? It's just I think it's a It's that part of it is such uncharted waters and we'll see, you know. It's like I mean, in that particular case, is he gonna win the starting job? And you know he's in a four horse race and he's coming in He's I don't even think as we're doing this, he's not even there yet. I think he gets there tomorrow. So who knows how that one's gonna play out. I think a lot of this is going to be wait and see

and how this works out. And I think there's gonna be a bunch of stuff where people are gonna look at and go, that's the return our investment they're getting from that. And I think that there's gonna go a lot of folks and a lot of businesses who were probably we're going to reevaluate as they go because it's just everything is so new right now. Yeah. Absolutely, And I did see there have been some guys that have pushed back a little bit. I saw Pett and our Doozy,

the pit coach. He made a comment that was like legalized cheating, and they need a salary cap, like a national salary cap for recruiting. If you think that, do we get a new bureaucracy bruce in college football to oversee the oversight of name, image likeness And how would that even work? I think the n IS at this point is so backed into a corner of guard rails.

I don't know how that works. I mean, I did a big story in the Athletic right on the eve of an I L being made official, and one of the coaches made the point towards the end of legalized basically legalized cheating and things above board. And hey, if you're a booster, he complained about your school, you know, losing top local recruits to maybe quote unquote more aggressive programs. Well, the coach made the point, Now, guys, it's put up for shut up time. You can legally UM have an

impact on some of these recruits just the same. And it's not like it was in terms of in the n t a's heard you before. Now it's a different landscape. And and those are some of the things honestly that when I alluded to it is like maybe those are things that aren't done in the face of social media and necessarily UM you know, whether their appearance fees or things where it's like, hey, this is a star player who's going to go to some boosters kid's birthday party,

and maybe he gets fifty grand for the appearance. Maybe it's a hundred grand. I mean, the question is who sets the value on that. I think the n c a UM and even you know, Congress I I think that that is a that is a really touchy subject, Bruce.

Do you think it will have any kind of trickle down in terms of any kind of money, ally kid to guys that are in junior college or maybe even trusts that are set up for high school kids to at least try to make sure that they stay in for four years and not bail like some of these guys, and assure them that there will be some money that is guaranteed for what they have agreed to once they become freshman in college. Well, I think there's probably already

a triple down for some high school kids. I don't know, depending on how it's related to their different state high school regulation bodies and the different state laws that are going to be quit in place for this our restrictive How how you know how detailed they are and how they're written and so one thing I've heard a bunch of from some A d s in the first month of this was Okay, you know, we've seen some more

athletes come to us a great a minute. None of like we've signed your life away to something, But it's like, how what are the how long are the rights that you signed to to go do some Instagram posts for some gene company or something like some of those things

I've already come up. And a lot of there's just a lot of tv D with some of this stuff, as as it's like happening on the fly, you know, and as a as a former athlete and as a game or two I think Ben and I can attest at least we're happy to see the return of n C double A Football on PlayStation Xbox right, Yes, that's huge Bruce, did you did you grow up in that area or were you more like the bird versus Magic

on Atari? No, I remember, like it's both. I definitely remember the e A Sports original Bird Magic game with the not Bird Magic, it was actually Bird dr J. Actually, you know, I think about it was the first time I've seen it and he broke a backboard and there would be this like little comics cartoon ref who would who would who would shovel the glass off the off

the court? But no, I mean like I love those old you know e A games where you know, I remember a specific day with my now life but remember she came home from work. This is before we were marrying. I was so excited to show her, uh this version of seven on seven that was added to the new to the game that knew that year, and she was like, how much time did you spend on this to day?

And it was answer was probably about ten hours. And that was a little When it came out of my mouth and say it like that, I was like, oh, I's pretty much wasted a day doing this. So but you know, I could see how addictive those games were or are, and um, you know how it's funny now that we're talking about. I'm thinking about some of those days the older Lead eleven was really sponsored by a sports and you'd have the newest game, and you know a lot of the quarterbacks. I remember back in the day,

Ryan Malle was a high schooler. He's obviously went on to play at Arkansas, but I remember playing a game had you know, against him, and it was just like, I don't know that was I just felt like it was just such a part of the start of the season in the fall, the game was about the new version of the game was coming out, right. I mean, if you to be fair, if you grew up thirty years later, then he'd be actually getting paid to play these video games as opposed to cover in these athletes.

So it's just a it's just a different time. Um. I want to go to the SCC real quick and ask you a specific question on Alabama and Bryce Young. Um. You know, locally, I covered Bryce when he was at Cathedral and he was at Modern Day and I have a completely different outlook on him, and I think a lot of people do, especially when they compare him to

DJ we on GOL. But I feel like Bryce Young is gonna be in that similar situation that J. T. Daniels was, And what I mean by that is that he was heavily protected at modern day, no one breathed on him. And then as soon as he got to the big leagues in Division one and he had guys in his face, it was like a deer in headlights. And I know the office of line will be much

better at Alabama than Southern cal. But I mean, do you do you see him being like the guy compared to DJ, Like, do you think that's one and two? Is that is that Leinerton Brady Quinn back in the day? Um, I don't know. There are obviously different stature quarterbacks with two of them, I don't know if I would see him as you know as as J. T. Daniels. I think we're going into different places. I think they're going

into them in also different transition phases. Whereas Jack Dan has left a year early now I know it was about the same age as most frustram Moti's still kind of like a crunch to get him, you know, to get him ready and hit the ground running. Whereas Bryce Young had a year or two acclamate to college football on that program behind Mac Jones. Um, you know, there was no there was no Evan Neil anchoring the line would be the best offensive line in the country for

j T. Daniels. Um, I don't know, you know, I temperament why I'd be lying if I said I had a great feel for Bryce Young and where he's at with things, UM, my understanding, he's probably he's probably better at um handling pressure in the pocket and some of the challenges j T. Daniels has. So but again, he's going to be in the SEC and the bar is incredibly high. You know, there's high expectations for j T.

And there's definitely gonna be sky high expectations for Bryce Young. Um, you know, because it's been a long time now, you know, you have to go back pre Jalen Hurts, where Alabama hasn't had a quarterback been exceptional. Um, you know they had you know, Jacob Coco played for when they won the national title, but they were really you know, doing it with the pieces around them. Um, I don't you know, I'd be surprised if Bryce, you and he doesn't have

a really terrific freshman year given everything I've heard about. Yeah, and as far as Nick Saban, I saw somewhat recently, he signed another big contract at Alabama. Good for him, a lot of money. He's gonna turn seventy in Halloween on Halloween. His birthdays on Halloween. So you've been around him over the years, Bruce, do you see Nick Saban as a guy that's gonna one of these old guard college coaches that coaches into his eighties. He do. We

have another ten years of Nick Saban in Alabama. He doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. So it wouldn't surprise me if he's there for another six years or so. I mean, I don't know for him what replaces the energy he gets from the running a you know, the top program in college football. You know, would he get that if he was, you know, sitting next to Kirk clerk Street on the set of Game Day. My guess is he probably wouldn't. Um. You know, he seems

to be in really good help. Seems to be as much on top of his game as to the point where he's involved to as a coach and as a leader. So um. And one thing that I think is very unique about his situation, and we're talking about guy who's, to me, hands down the greatest college football coach in the history of the sport, given what he's done in the here, he's done at it. But it's not like there's been like a right hand guy who has been

constant with him. But the staff has turned over an incredible amount, and it only seems to get better with each twist or each turn. Um, and so to that end, you know, it's just it's just pretty remarkable what he's done. And you know when he at one point, when he ultimately does beside him to step down, UM, I'd be surprised. I'd be curious to see what is going to replace it for him. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven

pm Pacific. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. So, so,

how does it worked at Alabama? Brutil Is he you know, he's very obviously hands on, but is he is he either closer to the other people do the recruiting and then Nick comes in at the end rolling up in a private plane or like, what are the dynamics that you kind of take us behind the scenes that from what you've heard about how it works, because it is an absolute clearing house. Obviously it was insane how many

NFL players come out of there every year. Yeah, well, he has his model for what the standards of what he feels like are critical to success for each prospect. And I think because they have such a track record of not only winning championships that developed an NFL talent, I think the recruiting process is different than everybody else's. And so Nick Saban is is going to tab you.

And I would use this example like Marty Cooper who obviously it was an amazing college receiver and before it like to the NFL, like he was not a big recruit coming out of South Florida, and you know, Miami at the time not move on him fast enough. He went went to a camp at at Alabama. Nick Saban watched him worked out, and he didn't care that he was at the time probably equivalent about three star. I don't even know if he was. He might have been a no star at that point. Nick Saban thought he

was had a chance to be special. He offered him and the pipe flying to South Florida was cranked up and going because Nick Saban trusts his evaluation. I feel like one of the things you have with the great Fruit they trust their own evaluations. And you know, I saw that it was a great recruit to l s u h trust his evaluations. He doesn't really care what your star ranking is, and so that was a big piece of it. Bruce making her way from the SCC to the to the Pact twelve USC and and Clay Hilton,

what's the leash like on him this season? That's a good question. I feel like, you know, two years ago their recruiting was really struggling with him being on the hot teaper so long, and then last year he shook up the staff. It was like, I had a great year. Um. But I think the assistance that some of these as systems they added really were good at developing relationships and

cultivating trust and everything like that, and that helps. And they got some time local players especially, and that I think it's given them some some some new energy and some needed momentum. But if they remember last year they played for the Pactbell title, they didn't win it. They didn't have anybody out of the conference It's also at the beginning of here they almost lost. They really mediocre Arizona program that was winless and almost lost. They were

trailing that game without a minute left. So you know, I think if they know, if they win nine games, you go nine and three, you know, USC fans won't think it's a great year. I don't know if you can fire him then I think if they go win en go tend and two. I really don't think you can fire him. The question is if you're nine and three, certainly eight and four, you know, can you you know, can you get Matt Campbell from Iowa State set and

would he want to come? Um, if you can get them, if you have an option out there that you think is they really makes a lot of sense and get people excited, then I think, you know that's going to put even more pressure on him. You know, as Mario Crystal bla guy where you'd be able to pull him away from from Oregon and the other side of the

conference is obviously recruited Southern California excepolutely well. He brings physical football, something I know a lot of old USC players really admire, especially in the days right now where they run an air raid, which you know, I think people like Graham Harold, but I think they're not thrilled over with USC being an air raid style team. So

you know, all those factors go into it. But to me, the biggest thing above all is, you know, for a lot of USC people, Looster's former players and powert brokers around the program. I don't think I really were, you know, felt like Clay helping should be the guy. So how do you how does he convince them that he should

be the guy going forward? I don't know, Suter. If he can win the Pactell title that's a ranked eleventh in the country, I think a lot of the people that matter at USC would just say, yeah, but the PAC twelve is really down. We should be better than this. I really think about the only real way he can prove to those skeptics that he should have the job going forward to get in the playoff I mean, get

into four teams playoffs and not be top twelve. And that was gonna lead me to my next question, because the changing of the guard in the Pack twelve with Larry Scott being gone, what kind of resurgence, like, how fast do you think we'll see a resurgence with the Pack twelve being in that picture regularly with the Big Ten, with the Big twelve, and with the SEC in the A C C because you know, for all intensive purposes, it's committing that kind of redhead step child like, Okay, yeah,

if you have one loss and you win your conference, then then we'll consider you for a playoff game. But for the most part, these guys are getting slacked left and right, and part of it is because leadership at the top. Yeah, I need to say that I'm not to advocate to Larry Scott and so he did to a job when I don't when I think he didn't focus on the most important thing as it relates to,

you know, running a Power of five conference. But ultimately, if the USC was in the position it was when Pete Carroll is a head coach, it didn't matter who was running the Pack twelve at that point of the Pac ten. At that point, you know, us like Larry Scott, ping the commissioner is not the reason why USC football went into a tail spin. It started with sanctions and then it went to some really bad leadership above the

head football coach. You know, you can start with you know, went from Mike Garrett's tenure had Hayden's decisions and then to the curious and bizarre hire of Lynn Swan And I think that or what leadership had way more, much more to do with why the Pack twelve as a football product has lagged. I mean, if you take a look at the rest of the league, I mean, I don't feel like the really um you know orribles. I

mean right now, christ Ball hasn't. It's not as scized when chip Kelly had them scoring in football is not like it's not the problem. Um, I don't think you know the place where uh that would help them back to all them mentally if chip Kelly got it going at at U c l A. Beyond that, I don't know if you looked at you know, Washington, Chris Peterson had did did very well for the Huskies. They didn't break into you know, they made the playoff, they didn't

do much beyond that. Um, you know, Stanford has back slid under David Shaw in the last few years. But beyond that, to me, is really comes back to the l A schools, right. I mean, USC is the pre eminent powerhouse. They're the ones that need to be a national title consenter. They have not been U C l A, which had some success under Jim Borra, has sputtered and

we'll see. Like I said, chif Kelly had a great resume coming out of Oregon and had success you know, early on in the NFL with the Eagles, but so far it's been it's been a struggle to elevate that program. That maybe year four this will be the year that they break through and that would be a huge thing for the conference. Right now, to me, it's really a usc shortcoming when you look at what what how people do.

The back will help more than anything. And with that said Bruce, So you mentioned Chip Kelly the I think he's the most. He's won his four games. He's been there three years. You know, I think they went four and eight a couple of years ago. But the Boosters that used to there's always the issue with the Bruins, like are they're gonna find somebody for the football program?

You know, how much time does Chip have left? I guess is the question as you know, if they go out this year the Bruins and again have three or four wins, does he come back to coach in two or do they have someone else take over. Yeah, I think if they are a three win team the last year, it's a hard know, like they played seven games and I think, you know, you could tell that they were a better team, but they call me and it was

in a pandemic and it was abbreviated season. I think if they go seven and five, I think there's a lot of people around your style figure like, Okay, now, all of a sudden, we got some momentum, We're started, We've turned the corner. Because I feel like they were definitely better last year than they were in his first two years. I mean, he basically flipped the roster and now a lot of guys that have played a lot of football there. Now, if they go five and seven, yeah,

there's more wins than they've had before. But I think then it's a tough sell. You have an a D. We didn't hire them. I think you have some expectations of Okay, maybe this just isn't a great fit here. But I feel like if they if they get to a plot season Bowls and I think you've seen some improvement, it would not at all surprise me if they won eight games this year or even more, because I feel like they have really kind of now established a culture or what he wants, Whereas when he was an orgy

and remember he was the offensive coordinator. When he jumped in there, they were already rolling under Mike Ballati, and then they really elevated when he became the head coach. Here, he took over was already a program that was sputtering. At the end of Gym More, they had they missed on a bunch of recruits, and I think it was a real cultural shift going from More to Kelly and how he was going to runny things and they struggled. Now I think they're out of that kind of malaise.

But let's see how much faster they can elevate and can they ascend to me a top twenty five program again. I think they have a real chance to do that this year. Yeah, and it's staying in the pact. Twelve. Herm Edwards, former NFL coach over at Arizona State. Ever, they're pretty optimistic about their team, but there's also a little bit of scandal there. How long do you see Herm lasting with the Sun Devils? Yeah, I think it's more than a little scandal, to be honest, When he

had through assistant coach to put on the show. That's a full blown scandal. You know, the question is, I mean, I've heard from our reporting that the A. D ray Anderson really wants to keep firm. They really they really would do whatever they tend to protect him. Antonio appears and the defense were here, but really kind of the de facto head coach running the program. Yet as a relate from the scandal, you've had three young assistants who

are position coaches put on leave. Now they're still being paid. But the question is it doesn't seem very plausible that these three young like basically entry level assistance, we're bank rolling some you know, this scandal as it relates to bring in players on unofficial business where they were you know, improper benefits also bringing players and from our report in the Athletic herm had had had met with players during

the dead curry during COVID, which would be a real violation. UM, I don't know how like the question is going to be some of the former assistances were no longer in staff. From what I've been told, they are going to be willing to speak to the m C and discuss some of these issues, and that doesn't bode well if you're hours on the state. They're real question to me right now is how quickly does this come to a head.

It does not look good for Arizona State. It's just a question of just herm and that staff they really make it through the season without this blowing up even further, because you know, everything I've heard is they want to basically have these three young staffer's kind of be the

fall guy for everything. And I don't know if that's entirely plausible, but if the administrations we are going to back them, you know, maybe they you know, the people who that core unquote matter at Arizona State on and the coaching like her, maybe they end up with show causes. But Mullan at Florida has a show cause for recruiting violations and he's still coaching there. And not only still coaching there, Florida gave him a raise in this offseason

of a million plus. So it's hardly today Town University is gonna handle scandal. Bruce On on a lighter note, speaking of of coverage, with what you do at the athletic um, it's an annual tradition with with the freaks and I took a peek at your list and and correct me if I'm wrong in the pronunciation. But Xavion for Kron from Southern Illinois, that offensive guard squatting eight hundred pounds and benching five hundred. Yeah, arguably the strongest

man in college football. He's a really fascinating story. Not just this our house in the waiver of football field. This is the guy who grew up, uh, you know, without a father around his Both his mother and his younger sister passed away in the last two years. Through it all, was able to still manage to get a four point o g p A is going for his master's um head coach there and killed him and he's like, this is the greatest leader I've ever been around. Just

to say enough good things about them. So one of things I love about the Freaks List is just because there are a lot of stories, maybe not exactly like that one of great perseverance and everything that maybe manifest themselfs like in the way you room more athletically, but also it speaks to some of the character guys and what they do and just being able to do it in this format where you can tell these stories and people may may click on the story to see the

three of the Sisty found left tackle at Alabama doing crazy split like box jumps or seeing some other freaky stuff. But then you you hear the story of a guy like with and it just kind of really resonates with you. Yeah, I mean I like it, especially because you don't just you're not amongst the power of five. You dip into the mac which I love in the Mountain West Conference and of course the FCS like what was the genesis

of the freaks um? A long time ago, I was doing a blog dot com, not going to be a magazine, and you do the term he's a free gathlete. And here's somebody who you know, like leg press twelve hundred pounds that you know some some you know, five seventh linebackers who was a walk on could do like you know, three sixty dunk or some freaky athletic thing. And I was like, I mentioned, there's ten guys I could do a little story on, and so it was ten, and I went to twenty five, and then when I got

to the athletic we went to fifty. And then as this thing has gone on, I've been doing it for fifteen plus years and had so much buy in from college strength coaches around the country, developed those relationships where now they've become a great source of intel um and coaches as well. And now you start hearing from the players themselves, and then you got to verify, you know, players telling you he did some things, want to make

sure that's in fact accurate. Um. But there's been so much fun from it that I was like, you know, this year, I think I could probably do a hundred because when ended up with a lot. So it's just a it's a fun process. I learned a ton about the players around the country, but also it's a great way to get ready for the start of the seat.

Absolutely now changing gears. I wanna go back to the Southeastern Conference here, Bruce and the news that came out that eventually the Longhorns and Sooners are gonna be headed to the SEC. Now I've heard from some people listen to my my radio show, there's like, well, the the SEC arrogance is that both these schools are not gonna matter.

You know, they're not gonna They're not gonna take down Alabama for example, in the in the SEC, where do you see them stacking up head to head once this let's say a year from now or two years from now, whenever this happens, Uh, will Oklahoma be relevant still? Will they still be at the very top of the SEC? Are they gonna be a mid level team? And what happens to Texas? I think that's Lincoln Rice on the head coach stern Ali stur interest to run defense. Absolutely

think they will be relevant. I think there will be a playoff top five team everywhere. It's gonna be a lot harder. You know, you're gonna face a lot better defense and a lot better caliber defensive linemen um and athletes in the SEC than he ever did in the Big twelve. But I think if you have that kind of talent that they've had, that kind of coaching, I think they will definitely still be a factor in Texas. It's a big TV because they were always in close games.

They won some, they lost some. You know, it was an underachieving program for a long time. Towards the end of the mac Brown here definitely for the Charlie Strong one and then from comperment start have to get the thing elevated in a big way or else they're going to be you know, somewhere along the line of probably what Mississippi and Missouri have been if they don't get it going. And that's not to say that, um, those are bad programs, but they're not. It's not going to

cut it. W you could what you could do with not always having your a game and maybe not developing talent as much as you need to. At Texas in the Big twelve, you can get away and go eight and four in the in the in the SEC. Right now, into that league, I mean, you're gonna you're gonna struggle that winning record. You may go six and six, maybe you go seven and five, but the chances would going

to win nine games. It's not gonna be it. It's it's probably the difference in a game and a half, I would say, each year, especially depending on how the schedules are getting getting straightened out. Do you think do you think Lane Kiffin is gonna find a way to win or help Matt Correll win the Heisman Trophy this year? Do you think he's gonna do everything in his power to make sure he does that. I think he's gonna try. I don't know if you know it would have helped

if he had a livea more. I mean, it's skill guy. Um, I don't think I think that's a real long shot for that to happen. But you know, one thing we've seen almost every year, whether it's Davante Smith or Joe or Joe Burrow or way back to Johnny football, somebody has come off and come out of the woodwork to make a run at the Heisman. I mean not Correl is probably better position right now than most of the

guys who won Heisman's before. But you know, at this point, I would say still a long shot because you know you have to you know they're gonna be help from their defense. They were horrible on the last year. They were barely a five teams. You know they're gonna have

to go be a top fifteen team. And otherwise he's just gonna put up big staff, which is fine, and maybe I get him invited to New York, but I think he's gonna have to do a lot better job taking care of the football and being a lot more consistent if he really wants to be in the Heisman concifration. So I want I want to backpedal to the to the conference shakeup thing. BRUSA and what happens to the team. I know the vultures are out the Big twelve? What's

left once Texas and Oklahoma leave? Do they to half of them go to the Pack twelve and they make it a mega conference? Do they go to the A C C? Like? How do you think this shakes out with what's left of the current Big twelve minus Texas

and Oklahoma. I think they're going to have to do a masterful job of trying to sell it and market themselves because right now, the idea of the leftover from the from the Big twelve, which don't have anywhere near the cache from a TV writings poll standpoint, you know, it's one thing to go partner up let's say the Pack twelve necessarily, but now also you're talking about instead of let's let's say they take the whole all eight of them, they're talking about splitting it twenty rays instead

of twelve. I mean, it's Case State and and Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Are they really going to be musty TV? For? You know, if you're the Pack twelve in the Utah Oklahoma State game, got to really get TV executives fired up. Those are two successful programs we're not talking about Canadas here um and yet I just think that that's not going to add to their bottom line in a profound way. If you're the Pack twelve.

Now I can see why you want to do it if you're if you're the Big twelve, because you just got gutted from the top of the food chain to keep a partner up with a conference that has USC and has Oregon and some big big markets Washington, Arizona State, and you know those are those are big markets. But I from the PacTel standpoint, I don't know if it

makes sense. And I even know if you're George cleopcom, you've gotta get a great feal for what USC values because they have a lot of cloud at this point, and they are attractive compared to the other other conferences in Power five. And if USC is looking at going, I don't want you guys to you know, it does nothing for us to bring in Oklahoma State or as good as Matt Campbell is what they've done at Iowa stake the last few years. I mean, is that a big sell for us to have Iowa State in there?

You know, Matt Campbell leading anybody that excited about Io State at that point. Um, you know, those are some hard questions that I think the PAC twelve has to sort out. I mean, if you're the A c C, I don't know necessarily what that what that brings to them to add some of these programs. I mean, it's just me. It's a hard sell to take take necessarily

to leftovers. As a straight on plan partner, Bruce, I'm looking forward to reading your stuff on the athletic during the football season, seeing you on TV and all that, and good health and we'll have you on to get Thank you my pleasure. Thanks for having me, guys. Cool. Thanks Bruce,