The volume. The Three and Out Podcast with me John Middlecoff is presented by FanDuel Sports Book. There's no better place to make every moment more than with FanDuel, America's number one sports book. Very easy to use, safe and secure. You get your winnings fast. I cannot recommend it enough. Love gambling with FanDuel. If you are a new just download the fan Duel Sports Book app to get started now. Signed up with promo code Colin so they know we sent you. What is going on everybody? John middlecop Three and Out Podcast? How are we doing? Not a beautiful night? I mean it's freezing cold and Kyler Torres acl it looks like the Patriots win a game. We will dive into Monday and Night football. Some thoughts on the Cowboys, Some thoughts on the Chiefs. Who you know? I think some say squeaked by, but a win's a win. In the NFL in December something with the twenty twenty draft and Zach Wilson and Trey Lance. Now this brock Purty thing. Uh. Some thoughts on not forcing quarterbacks and I think too many teams often do it and a couple of years later they immediately regret it, and some thoughts on Mike Leach, who, as of recording this is about ten o'clock at night on Monday, doesn't look like he's doing well at all. And I watched his career closely when he was at Washington State and my last year doing the West Coast, he took over Washington State, and he's just one of my favorite characters. I mean, I think he's universally just one of the most unique characters we have in all of football. Authentically, not many like him. They're just there, just isn't and obviously an innovator in a game that you know is always seeking innovation. So he was definitely ahead of his time, and let's face it, not only impacted the game, but I would say changed it and influenced it basically college and pro. His concepts are everywhere, so I'll give some thoughts there as well as the Middlecoff mailbag at John Middlecoff is the Instagram firing those dms at John Middlecoff is just my name on Instagram firing those dms. And if you listen on Collins Feed, make sure you subscribe three and out feed. Appreciate everyone that listens. I appreciate everyone that shares it with your friends and uh yeah, let's dive into some football. Okay. Sometimes on these Monday night games, you lose track of time, and you know, you come in late. I'm not a big pregame show, like, I'm not looking to get RG three's takes on my Monday night, so i usually come in right around six twenty. But I'm never I'm always confused as six fifteen or six twenty five Mountain Standard time here in Scottsdale, and sometimes I'm too lazy to check my phone to see the exact kickoff time. So I realized that looked down, it was like six twenty two. I'm like, turn on Monday night football, and the first thing that came on my television was a dude on a cart. I'm like, this game had to just kick off, and I look as thirteen whatever fifty five, I'm like, is that? Oh my god? And it was pretty clear, very fast that it was Kyler Murray. I immediately check on my phone and see the injury, and obviously, by the time I'm recording this, all reports are that he tore his ACL, which is an absolute devastating injury for the team, even for a guy having a rough season. They drafted this guy number one overall and they gave him, you know, a two hundred plus a million dollar contract and guaranteed him one hundred and sixty one hundred and seventy million dollars. That's just that is a crippling injury to a franchise. And really tonight in this season, this team, this team is a disaster, and that feels like icing on the cake, Like what are they doing? How does after tonight with him? Now? Who knows? I mean, this is the a c L. Injuries can take you nine to twelve months. He's a running quarterback. He's a guy like for him to come back, he has to be like a wide receiver or a dB. He's sometimes quarterbacks and just live in that pocket. That's not how his game is predicated on excelling. So that injury. Obviously it's December twelfth when he tears his ACL who I would say that for sure puts early next season in jeopardy. And who knows what that has in store for next year for Kyler? This post contract has not gone well. Obviously Night's out of his control. But what's going to happen with Cliff Kingsbury and Steve Kahn. In my opinion, I would blow the thing up. I would completely start over. This feels like and felt like Tonight watching and really a lot of this season beside when Kyler would just make the miraculous play every once in a while, and this year he did it a lot less than previous years, like a rudderless ship. And I don't want to say this team quit because Hopkins was trying at the end, and I think Colt McCoy is trying, and Buddha Baker when he plays, tries, and JJ Watt tries. They just feel like they have no direction. They just feel like all this talent feels like it's being wasted. You know, the Rams over the last month, since Cooper Cup's been injured and Stafford's been out, and then Aaron Donald gets injured and Jalen's kind of a shell of himself, they're playing with a practice squad level roster. But a couple of weeks ago against Seattle and obviously the other night against the Raiders, it felt this team is throwing every single punch they have, and of course they do. They have Sean McVay coaching them, so even on the season from hell for the Rams. They don't at their first round pick, which is gonna be a top five pick. Their team, their record sucks. I mean they might win five games at best. When you watch them, you respect them. When you watch the Cardinals, it's hard to really respect what's going on. And Michael Bidwell, I have no clue why extended Kingsbury and his general manager after last season, and I know Kingsbury was going into the last season of his contract. This is in college. You're not worried about recruiting. Why didn't he coach it out because he made the playoffs? Who cares? You? Guys got boat race? You were curb stomped on Monday Night football last year and this year has bled right into that. The majority of the season, they've looked like that game on Monday Night, and now Kyler's injured. I would completely start over. To me, it makes no sense to roll it back and keep doing whatever the hell they're doing. I would, honestly this offseason think about selling some of these parts and just tearing this bad boy down to the studs and maybe doing a complete redo. It's like you know when super rich people they buy a house, they're like Yep, we just wanted a lot. We don't want any part of the house. We're gonna bold the whole fucking thing and build a new house. And now we might bite a lot next to it and do the same thing and build a mansion. That's what I would attempt to do, because this Cardinal franchise tonight felt kind of like the ending. It had been trending this way, but I don't know how you recover from the night. And on the flip side, I think people think that I'm like a Belichick homer, that I'm over the top and hyperbolic on how great he is in his career. It's like, well, what do you do with without Brady? And I think this season and honestly even last are a pretty good example. Mac Jones is pretty average. He'll never be any better probably than the fifteenth quarterback, and clearly and you could win with the fifteenth quarterback. Kyle Shanahan's gone to the NFC Championship in a Super Bowl with Jimmy Garoppolo, who's right around there. The difference is Kyle Shanahan's had a loaded team, star players at different positions. I mean, an excellent defense with a ton of impact guys, and Belichick has a good defense and really no impact guys on offense yet this year and after now, right, he's seven and six, he's playing the Raiders, who I like, the Patriots this week playing the Raiders, and then he ends with the Bengals, the Dolphins, and the Bills. If he's able to get to ten and seven this year and make the playoffs again in a conference with really good quarterbacks and teams with way more talented talent on his team than him, that is impressive. Now can we be critical? He is the general manager. He's picking the team, obviously, and most people with a working brain and that watch football have been critical of the way Bill has built his teams. But you can also give him credit because the general manager, which is him, he's pretty average, and they're competing and I don't know, I mean, if they win this week against the Raiders, they'll be eight and six, and then they basically just have to find a way to win two of the last three, and who knows, maybe that last week at Buffalo. Buffalo has the number one seed and they don't have anything to play for, so they just got to find a way to either the Bengals, who they'll be an underdog against, or the Dolphins both games at home to win one of them. I think we have to agree that if he goes back to back seasons with ten wins with Matt Jones as his quarterback, all these random guys playing wide receiver and beside Jude On, not that many impact players on defense. Some of these young cats he's drafted at dB look pretty good. But this is not the O seven Pats. This is not the twenty fifteen Pats. This is a I would say average at best NFL roster, and you could argue it's problem bottom twenty. Also, again, he created this and he chose this guy to be his offensive coordinator. I don't think there's a head coach in the NFL who could make the playoffs with Matt Patricia as his offensive coordinator. Now, you could argue, maybe Belichick's ego is so big he's trying to prove to everybody, Look how great of a head coach I am, Look how great of a leader I am. That I can make the playoffs with Matt Patricia, a lifetime defensive coordinator who check his defense is honestly not that great. One of the worst head coaches we've ever seen, and Joe Judge, a special teams coach who was also one of the worst head coaches we've ever seen, coaching my quarterbacks. Those two guys running my offense, my quarterback and my offensive line and calling the plays, and I'll make the playoffs with them if he does that again. He created this. We'll have to give him, as the kids say, his flowers. Because tonight ugly game. I'll be honest, didn't watch one second of the regular broadcast, not one second. Tonight was all Peyton and Eli. And for the most part this season, I've watched the regular broadcast because bringing Joe and Troy the game has felt a lot bigger than me, and tonight with these two teams, especially the Cardinals and Max, pretty boring to me. I couldn't take it. So I just from the start of the kickoff to the end of that game, it was Peyton and Eli and whoever they had on, from you know, Key and Peel to Bill Simmons. They could have had on nobody. They could add on a dog. And I was watching them the night and they entertained me. And the game was not that entertaining because the Patriots. When they win and if they get to ten wins or if they end up nine and eight, the only way they win is like tonight, they can't get into a shootout. It's why they have no chance against the Bills. The Bills have way more firepower than them. It's why when they play teams with offensive weaponry and they can score twenty four plus points, they're at a huge disadvantage. That's why when you look at their schedule, the Raiders like them against the Raiders. Don't like Derek Carr matching up against them the Bengals, that's gonna be a tough matchup for him. The only saving grace on the you know it's at home. Maybe Belichick can throw some curveballs at Joe Burrow. Gonna like the Bengals there. But I got news for you. When twa Tango bay looa rolls into New England and it's freezing cold, and it's it's uh snow's coming down, sleet's coming down, it's wet, you can't grip the ball. I don't like to. I'll promise you that Tyreek and Waddle, but I don't think their quarterback and get them the ball. So if they can win the beat the Raiders game, they can beat the Dolphins game, and maybe hope that the Bills don't have anything to play for. The Patriots could be in the playoffs now. They're pretty clearly like last season would be a one and done team because at the seven seed playing the two seed, which would probably be the Chiefs. Audio's bill, but I do give you credit if you go ten and seven back to back years and make the playoffs back to back years with Mac Jones. So that game was the end of the Cardinals, and the Patriots just won't die and they never will die as long as Bill Belichick is their head coach. Football season is underway, so now is the perfect time to download fan Duel, America's number one sports book because right now new customers get a no sweat first bet up to one thousand dollars. That's free bets back if your first bet doesn't win, just sign up using the promo code. Colin. FanDuel has all your favorite bets, from money line to point spreads to player props. You can combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payout with the same game parlay. 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Gambling problem called one one hundred, next step or text next step to five three three four two Arizona one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org slash chat Connecticut one hundred gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash RG Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop Louisiana or one eight hundred two seven zero seven one seven for confidential help Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and Why or text hope and Why four six seven three six nine, New York, Tennessee red Line one eight hundred eighty eight nine seven eight nine Tennessee one hundred five two forty seven hundred, Wyoming. Visit www dot one hundred gambler dot net, West Virginia, Okay. I wanted to hit on a couple of teams that I don't want to say lay duds because I think the games were a lot different, but head disappointing outcomes. The Chiefs were a heavy favorite on the road against the Broncos who were terrible, and the Cowboys. I think it was like seventeen points, I mean a massive, massive favorite against the terrible Texans. And I want to start with the Cowboys in general, when you're a good team, I allow you a somewhat of a dud or under performance late in the season against a bad team. Why we're all humans. And I know, you know Belichick for years, right when he had his really good teams, they could be playing the worst team in the league, be a twenty point favorite, and he would talk about the opponent on a Wednesday like they were the eighty five Bears, you know, like they were the ninety three Cowboys. You'd be like Jesus Bill this team is one and thirteen. You're acting like they got seventeen Pro Bowlers and their coaches going to the Hall of Fame and he was great at it. Now, there's a difference between saying that publicly and getting your players to believe it, because ultimately, like one, you know thing that's always said just around the sport of football is the eye and the sky doesn't lie. Mean the tape, right, what you put on tape is your resume in the sport of football as a coach and as a player. He can't watch the Texans and think they're very good. I mean there were one ten and one going into that game. For a reason. They stink. They don't have many good players. And when you're the Dallas Cowboys and Mike McCarthy and the coaches, because listen, having been around coaches, the one thing I couldn't relate, I could never relate to two things when a player is bad, like trying to figure out how to coach them up, and two taking bad opponents seriously, like keeping the same level of focus when you're playing the Texans as you would when you're playing the Eagles or the Chiefs. Right, That's why most the coaches are kind of crazy that way. Players are much more like us normal people. Right, It's easy to get up for the big games. The divisional opponents. It's another thing. An uncommon opponent who stinks like I allow you to not be focused. The only result I care about in terms of judging you is winning the game. Because hell, I remember in twenty nineteen when the forty nine ers made the Super Bowl, they lost to a terrible Falcons team. So this this happens throughout the season. Like, you can go twelve and five, Potentially one of your losses, baby, two of them are gonna be when you were the heavy favorite in the game. Right, it's not always you're just losing the good teams. You get up for big games. So the Cowboys finding a way to win that game. Now they lucked out Dak Prescott's arms hit, He's lucky that guy didn't have a clear route to the end zone and walk in a pick six. And then they get the ball basically inside the five yard line and they can't get it in. I mean, their play on fourth down was pretty fucking embarrassing. But Dak, who's let's face it. Then a little pedestrian lately let him down the field. They had a game winning touchdowns z he punched it in and they won the game. And that's I'm gonna judge them how they look against the Eagles at home, and if they can win that game, then I will take them seriously as a playoff opponent. But I'm not coming to any judgment against the Houston Texas because I know if I was in those shoes, if you're listening, were in those shoes, probably wouldn't get your best effort. Or maybe not that I don't get your best effort on game day, I don't get your best effort during the week. And when part of football, unlike these other sports, you don't get to play every day. So how you approach the week, Like one thing that's cliche, but it's very true. Was like your focus, your preparation during the week leads to success on game day unless you're some genius. I definitely never was. I had to study to have a chance when I took a test, and even then I probably was going to struggle to get like a B. But I'm not the most intellectually smart guy when it came to the classroom, right. But if I was going to have success in the classroom. I really had to study and it was difficult for me. It turns out, you know, I got some learning disabilities. Maybe it can't keep all that. Maybe I just didn't care. Who knows. But part of being a football player is you know, approaching the week very seriously, and usually when you play shitty teams late in the season, you know the focus may wane. And then the Chiefs a lot different than the Cowboys. Despite the game being close. They were up twenty seven to nothing. Twenty seven to nothing. This is not college football. Twenty seven to nothing in the pros in the first half, I mean that that's the equivalent on a Saturday game of like forty eight to nothing. That is blowout city. But then somehow before halftime they're only up twenty seven to fourteen. But to me, once you're up twenty seven or nothing, the team, like the Denver Broncos stink. I mean, they are really bad. Now, obviously they made this a game. My homes turned the ball over, But like, I don't have any takeaway from that Chiefs game beside of what I already thought about them is to meet them and the Bills, and I guess you gotta throw the Bengals in there too, like they're really really good. All three of those teams can win the AFC, and I'm going I'm not going to bet against the Chiefs. I don't. I'm not confident they're gonna win the AFC, but I'm not going to pick against them in any of the games they play against the Buffalo, against it Sinnatti, I will go down picking that team. But that is going to be my team. And like I said yesterday, if the Bills do make it to the Super Bowl, whether they play the Eagles, whether they play the forty nine Ers, I don't care the Cowboy, I don't care who they play. I'm picking them to win it. But when the Chiefs play the Bills in the AFC, I'm gonna pick them to win the game. Bill's incredible Dome team. The Chiefs, They've been through the Ringer, they know how to win in a lot of different places. Of twenty seven to nothing, giving them a little bit of the pass. I was thinking about this because Mike White, who is clearly dramatically better than Zach Wilson. I mean, listen, no one's trying to be mean when we talk about these quarterbacks. Like it's all relative. You're being judged by really good players. So when people say two is not that good or two is overrated and Zach Wilson stinks, yeah, relative to top fifteen starters, Like that's just a fact. And Mike White, you just watch the Jets play. They have a pulse now because of that guy. Now he a little bit will get into the Niners here in a second. Like they're built with defense. They have really good wide receivers who do a lot of their you know, I mean Garrett Wilson, Elijah Moore. Those guys can crush and the shorten the intermediate passing game, and obviously their running game is good. And the forty nine ers like Rock Purty in a game and a half has looked better than Trey Lance ever did. And Trey Lance and Zach Wilson went two and three. But you know the craziest part about that draft is it was fucking loaded. Do you know the guys that came after those two guys, Kyle Pitts, Jamar Chase, Jalen Waddle, Haney Sewell, j C. Horne, who had a sweet pick yesterday, Pastor Sertan who's like a faster, Richard Sherman, DeVante Smith, Baller, Justin Fields, who is clearly better than those two guys, Michael Parsons, Rashawn Slater, and Vera Tucker who's injured for the Jets, who's also a stud. So this draft was absolutely loaded. And my point of this exercise is the Jets fell in love with this guy who beat absolutely nobody, had one good season, who a lot of people felt like maturity was a question mark. The forty nine ers fell in love with this guy because maturity was not a question mark, really high level, but his football based off one season, small level, who knows who needed a lot of work mechanically. I did the math the forty nine ers and two seasons since drafting Trey Lance. Remember they didn't just drafting number three. They traded three first round picks, the twelve pick that year and two other first round picks. Those that led to Tyree Kill and Bradley chup some valuable assets, and Trey Lance has started two games start to finish. He's played in other games he came in and a half when Jimmy got hurt, and this year he got hurt early in the Seattle game, but in games that he started and finished, they are one and one. The other twenty eight games they have played non playoffs these last two years, they are eighteen and ten. So they're proving that if they could get a redo on that, just like the Jets, they would do a redo. Now, Zach Wilson and Trey Lance have a lot of years left. These guys are twenty two, twenty three year old guys. They have a lot of career left. Well. Trey Lance couldn't beat out Jimmy Garoppolo because they fixed the job. Like if they would have had an open competition, Trey Lance would not have been the starter this year. They fixed the job for Zach Wilson and clearly by mid season they realized, we can't do this anymore. And I guess ultimately what I was thinking about when I looked at this draft and was thinking about this morning is when you forced quarterbacks in spots and the Jets are kind of a poor man's version of the Niners, right, and you have a really good team, it really bites you in the ass because think of what those teams could have done with that pick. I mean, the Jets could have traded back, they could have taken these guys. The forty nine ers could have sat at twelve and taken Micah Parsons or hell, maybe they could have traded up, got Jamar Chase, taken Piney Sewell, I don't know, drafted one of these offensive linemen. They could have done a lot of different things. And I think it shows you when you like brock Purty and Mike White came in and what brock Purdy did against Tampa was insane. If you have a chance, go to Brian Baldinger Baldy's Twitter account and just watch his breakdown of what brock Purty. There's two minutes. It's easy to do. Like that wasn't fake what we saw, And there have been a lot of rumblings in San Francisco, like Kyle was pretty intrigued with brock Purdy over the summer, Like brock Purty pretty easily won the third strings job. And if it wasn't for Jimmy coming back, and let's face it, the reason Jimmy came back because they had some reservations on the quarterback. They could say whatever they want, but Trey Lance was all over the place and there listen, I understand, I like betting on big fast, strong arm guys. But that doesn't mean he's going to turn into Justin Herbert and Zach Wilson was like this raw guy who actually had this great film against nobody with this big arm. And both these teams are absolutely loaded, and they've invested all this in a quarterback. And I would argue that both those quarterbacks are probably not the long term answer. So the example I'm gonna use here is like I talked yesterday about it with the Lions, you don't need to force the quarterback. The Houston Texans, for example, have no choice. They're gonna have the number one pick. I would just take Bryce Young. You gotta try, But so many teams that have a decent base, like do you need to do it? Like Seattle for example, they are going to get the Denver Broncos pick, just like the La Rams are going or excuse me, the Detroit Lions are gonna get the La Rams pick. Take a sweet player, like just let things breathe. Unless you believe that guy is gonna be to me, he's gotta be at minimum, he has this ceiling to be a top twelve guy, and you believe it, But if you're wrong, it bites in the ass, and it bites in the ass fast, because you can use that on immediate and an impact player, whether at a pass rusher, whether an offensive tackle, whether it a linebacker, whatever, and you can dramatically help your team. And I think we've seen in the history of the league so many quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers wasn't the time ten pick. It was twenty fourth. Brock Purty was mister irrelevant. Now I'm not saying Brock Purty's gonna be coome Aaron Rodgers, Dak Prescott fourth round, Russell Wilson third round, Kirk Cousins fourth round. We think that all these top picks hit at quarterback. I mean, a couple of years ago that draft, greatest quarterback draft ever. No, not really. I'm recording this before the Monday night game, but we already know what. Mac Jones is very very average talent. Zach Wilson and Trey Lance are never gonna be as good as justin fields. He's just dramatically more talented than both the guys. Now, Trevor Lawrence is a good example to this day. The Jaguars do not regret that pick. They would take him over and even he has been somewhat of a roller coaster ride. There was that article a couple of weeks ago about Andrew Luck in his retirement how he regretted the way he handled it. But to me, as a player, Andrew Luck is such an outlier. He came to a team that had just been the number one pick in the draft and immediately they went to the playoffs, and let's face it, looking back at that organizational structure kind of a joke. They did have some good players, but what he did there is not something that's very normal. So I think teams have to be very very careful about the hype machine. And the hype machine on quarterbacks trump's every other position by tenfold, and it's easy to talk yourself into it, but when you miss, you regret it immediately. Sometimes, like Jalen Hurts, who might win the MVP this year, was a second round pick. I just think you can find value and you don't have to force the pick super high if your team is already pretty good. Now. I understand the Jets were not good at the time, but god do they regret that pick a year and a half later. And last but not least, as of recording this right now I'm you know, I'm not the most religious guy, but I've been thinking a lot about Mike Leach and obviously he's what seems like, just based on Internet reports, fighting for his life in a hospital in the South and let's pray to God that he can make it through this. But you know, some of these these reports coming out, I would say, are a little ominous and not the most positive reports. At anytime, you know, you're over sixty years old, you're in a hospital. Hell, I've seen it with you know, my dad's been sick before he passed away in another situation where it was it was not good. You know, you just you never know once you get to have a certain age, anytime you go to the hospital, it's it's it's scary. But I do want to just talk about it positively. What an absolute legend this guy is. I mean, I think the coolest part about the sport of football. And it used to be like this in basketball and baseball. But in baseball now the gms are the stars. Coaches don't matter. And when I was a kid in basketball, I mean there were some huge personalities from pat Riley's to Phil Jackson's even that is waning a little bit, right, because it's a front office led sport. Football is still a sport that through the history of time. Obviously, the players and the quarterbacks are big stars, but the coaches are every bit as big. And the personalities of the coaches in college in pro football really make this thing that we all love so much cool and fun and interesting if we just consider football a big television show, because ultimately that's what it is. Power five college football in the NFL, the coaches are absolute major major You know that they play a major role in that television show. And I would say Mike Leach is one of the most unique characters we've ever seen college or pro one. He did not play college football. He went to BYU and he played rugby. He got his start, which to me, this always hits home at cal Pauly where I went to college, and he just kind of worked his way up. But to me, what's so cool, just kind of looking at his records over the years is he's never got the shot. Who knows, maybe he never wanted and he clearly made a lot of people uncomfortable with the big boys. He's never got some premium job. Ohio State, USC Texas LSU. Right these Michigan, Hell, Oregon and Washington these schools were never gonna hire him. He went to Texas Tech, Washington State and now Mississippi State, and you know what he did at all of them. He won the influence he had on the sport of the spread offense. Historically, I remember being in college and his offenses at Texas Tech were by far the most potent, and everyone said his quarterbacks do not work in the NFL. So it basically was like an indictment of his offense was like RinkyDink, and at the time it was somewhat true. But it worked because he couldn't just run the same offense that Texas and Oklahoma were running or he would have got his ass kick. So he spread that bad boy out from learning from how Mummy at Kentucky, and he lit up other teams like a Christmas tree. And under him he developed guys like Cliff Kingsbury and Lincoln Riley who played quarterback for him and then became coaches. How Wes Welker, one of his better players, is now a coach, and I would imagine one day might be a head coach in the NFL. So he influenced the coaching profession, but from an offensive profession. Think how many people that you hear talk over the last definitely the last decade, and I would say even more recently. It is such a positive now to say, yeah, I use Mike Leach's air raid concepts in our passing game. It's like a point of pride. I bet if you talked to Nick Saban, if you talked to Urban Meyer. Obviously Lincoln Riley uses it. These guys speak about this guy in reverence for his offensive mind, because when you hear him talk, he doesn't sound and honestly, he doesn't even look like many other football coaches. But like I said, the thing that was most powerful about Mike Lee is how consistently good as football teams were at non consistent football programs. At Texas Tech, he never had a losing record. He won eleven and two there one time, eleven and two at Texas Tech and have them obviously competing to be the number one team in the country when Crabtree beat the University of Texas in the game. Then he went to Washington State, he inherited a team that was one and eleven, a complete joke, an awful football program. Within three years, he had a stretch. He went nine and four, eight and five, nine and four, eleven and two, and he lost to Washington the Apple Cup, or he would have gone to the Rose Bowl. He had Washington State a game away from the Rose Bowl, and then from there he goes to Mississippi State, which is clearly probably the worst program in that division. And last year he went eight and four and he beat Lane Kiffin in the Egg Bowl. Like, you hire Mike Leach, you are guaranteed to win. Now, I understand he's a different cat, and he's not I don't think he's the easiest to deal with. When I the year I scouted on the road for the West Coast, it was his first year at Washington State, and I remember going into the school like you know, as a scout. It's a little different now with technology, but you'd like go in really early in the morning, like seven o'clock, and usually, depending on what the football program's doing, sometimes you watch tape for a couple of hours, take some notes, then you meet with the coaches, or maybe you meet with the coaches, then you go to practice and you watch tape. Every school is a little different, but I remember going to the school probably you know, between seven and eight, and sometimes the first guys you run into are like the gas. And I remember talking to the GA who was actually the guy who La Garrett Blunt hit at Boise State. I forget. I think his last name's Hout and he was Mike Leach is GA, and I remember asking, like, where's Leech. He's like, yeah, man, Leech doesn't get into the office till noon. I'm like, till noon, what's he doing? Well? He stays we have like offensive met at like ten o'clock and midnight. He's a night owl. So I'm like, that's that's the craziest thing of ever most coaches, Sean McDermott, Andy Reid, Belichick. These guys are getting there like fourth Sean McVay. These guys are getting there like four thirty five in the morning. The Leach gets there at noon. It's like, that's the coolest shit I've ever heard. Guy's a different cat. And then within a couple of years he had them winning eight nine games and competing with Washington and Oregon and USC to be the best team out West at a program that has no business doing that. And I'll never forget when Washington hired Washington State hired him. They asked their ad before they hired him. He had just fired his coach and they go, well, who are you going? What search firm are you going to use? And the ad said the search you're looking at him, I'm the search firm. And he knew right away. Went after Mike Leach after the Craig James thing happened. He locked him in the in the shed when to get out of concussion. Craig James's Dad's a complete loser. But that that is just It would hurt your heart if you're a football fan if Mike Leach can't make it through. So prayers up for the big guy and football cannot afford to lose an absolute gem of a human. Hey, let's dive into the Little Middlecoff mail bag. Start with Cam. This is an old school account at John Middlecoff. Is the Instagram fire in the dms. That's how you get your question answered here on the show, Love the podcast. Isn't Tom Brady to the Jets like the obvious move? If he continues his career elite offensive weapons, good enough old line assuming health studs everywhere that can compete with the top end teams in the NFL. Bill's Chiefs, Bangles. Everything has been a home run for two seasons now, Zach Wilson the exception. I know what's the Jets and he was a Patriot for however many years. But if he's obsessed with winning and his being an assassin looking for an opportunity, why aren't the Jets is team stay close to a kid staying close to his kid out east. You know, this is a good point which I have not seen raised by anyone else. They do make a lot of sense, right. They are loaded defense, multiple wide receivers, more and Wilson. They're gonna get Bruce Hall back, they got a couple other running backs, Their old lines pretty good. They got picks. Only thing I would say is his relationship with the owner, Bob Kraft is. I mean, it feels like he's a second father. So now you could say he sniffed around with the Dolphins, so maybe he's not worried about playing in that division. That would be the only hesitation I have for thinking that he won't go to the Jets is he wouldn't want to have to play against Bob Kraft, not Belichick. Not the Patriots, but Kraft. Now that the Patriots story, or excuse me, the Dolphins story that they got fined might throw that theory out the window. The other thing is the Shanahan offense which this team runs, does or is predicated on your quarterback moving around, not like Lamar Jackson, but you gotta be able to boots and waggles and just scramble the left and scrambled to the right after the playfake That is not Tom doesn't move. Now you could argue, who are the Jets change your offense around him? Yeah, I would say the more and more I think about it does make some sense. So maybe you're onto something. Have you noticed that there's a large amount of bad coaches in the league this year. I think there's objectively ten coaches that are bad Staley, Josh McDaniels, Dennis Allen, Hackett, McCarthy. You know McCarthy ten and three and you twelve and five last year. So I'm gonna take him off. Lovey Smith, Kingsbury rule now, Wilkes right now, Saturday. That's not even including coaches like Arthur Smith, Eberflus and even someone like Stefanski whose time maybe running out. What do you think, oh, and Todd Bulls, I think it's football. Most coaches are not good, or excuse me, most coaches are. You are looking to replace kind of like a offensive guard or a corner. If you're the owner, like when I was in the league, you're constantly thinking like how do we upgrade our right guard or right tackle, or left corner or starting safety and our second wide receiver. Just that's the way teams operate. You know, if your team's just solid, if your team's good, you're still thinking about, you know, replacing a couple of guys. If your team sucks, your GM, your coach are thinking about replacing all the players. Well, your owner is thinking about replacing your coach. So I would imagine if if I'm Dean Spanos, if I'm Mark Davis, if I'm the Bensons, if I'm the Walmart people, if I'm the Texans, if I'm yeah, all these people, I mean the Panthers already interviewing people, I would imagine or say's already sniffing around Arthur Smith. To me, there are positives there, But how's he going to find a quarterback? Now he is starting Ritter, We'll see how good he is not the biggest fan. I mean, Todd Bowls is gonna be one and done. If Brady leaves the Bucks, which he's gonna do, whether he retires, goes to another team, how are they not going to fire Todd Bowls? Feels like a lock? But I also think this represents if you went to like oh seven or two thousand and two or nineteen ninety six, and you just looked at all the head coaches, You'll see good ones, right Parcels, Mike Holmgren, Bill Cower, who you know, Tony Dungee, whoever? John Gruden back that note now, and then you'll probably find a ton of coaches you're like that guy, that guy who's that. That's just that's the way the sport is. You know, for every Lincoln Riley and Nick Saban, a lot of crabby coaches, you know, that's the way. It's very very difficult. For every Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, there are average, below average quarterbacks starting. It's no different with coaches. It's very very difficult to find good ones. So I don't think this year is any different than a couple years ago. Freddy Kitchens, Pat Shermer or Joe Judge. You know you go through the names, You're like God, these guys stink to question that must be discussed on the podcast. How much credit does Dan Campbell deserve for the success of the Lions offense? Do you think he is played? He is calling any of the plays, he did take over play calling last year, and is a former tight end. All the credit seems to be going toward Ben Johnson. I'm a longtime Lions fan, and I'm worried that once good old Ben Johnson leaves in the next year or two, the Lions are doomed. Honestly, I don't know the inner workings of the Lions. I don't think Dan Campbell's calling the plays. Watching that game last night, they zoomed in on the play caller. I do think he plays a role in the identity of the offense, the physicality, the toughness of their offensive line. That they've been one of the better running teams. It feels like, I don't know if statistics match up, but they feel like they can run the ball on anyone. Their defense has gotten a lot tougher, so to me, he is in the mold of like John Harbob, Mike Tomlin, like, that's kind of gonna be his deal. Little ra rayy, tough guy leading the troops in the battle. He's never gonna be viewed as like Kyle Shanahan or Sean Payton. It's just not his deal. So yeah, he is gonna be dependent on coordinators. But I don't know if the Lions offensive coordinator is getting a head coaching job this year. Could be wrong. We've seen crazier, but I would just take a deep breath and enjoy the positivity that is coming your way. And if the Lions start losing assistant coaches to head coaching, you're in very very good ship. But I think we're at minimum still a year away from that. I would be very very proud of the squad this year, coaches and players. Longtime listener, longtime listener, big fan, But gotta say I get consistently irritated by the nauseating references to TB's age, but more specifically the avocado ice cream praising. Anyone with the Pulse knows TB is forty five years old. And while I understand he is an outlier and a freak, and how he facilitates his diet and physical and mental preparation. It is ridiculous to continually applaud him for eating avocado ice cream. I mean, it's twenty twenty two, and every single player in the league, especially the Vets, are more or less making the decisions like Tom Brady is in regards to their fitness, nutritional intake, etc. Tom Brady is not the only guy with admirable diet restrictions. I mean, who are we kidding by implying this. We need to stop this cliche. We blow the guy in f already without making him seem like a hero for choosing to eat ice cream made from avocados. We'll keep listening and recommending your podcasts. And yes, I'm a Salty Jets fan. When I bring up the avocado ice cream, I hope you know it's like ironically it's in jazz. It's like I'm joking. I'm fucking with Tom Brady, like it's a joke. Who doesn't like normal ice cream? I do think, Yes, a lot of pro athletes, especially as they get into their thirties, make changes to the diet just like most of us normal humans. Any human that doesn't want to be a fat slob, like we gotta eat different foods. You know, I would say, the last week and a half, I've had a terrible diet. When I gain a little weight, like it's from my eating, when I'm disciplined with my diet, Like discipline with your diet is I would say the number one hardest thing, whether you're a pro athlete or whether you're a normal human being, something we all battle. And I think it's fair to say, non joking, the avocado ice cream is a joke, Like Tom just you don't need to eat avocado ice cream. But like he's disciplined for working out in food is I mean, up there is unprecedented. It just is, you know that being said, Like, yeah, he's not alone, but he's also forty five years old. Now he's playing shitty now. But what he did is I don't know if ever gonna be. I mean, he's having an outlier career. And I do think you gotta give the guy some credit. I mean, he dedicated his entire life, gave up his family. Man, he gave up his family. But if you're eating avo kind of ice cream, I would say, like most normal people, I think you're kind of a weirdo. So listen, I have a lot of reverence for Tom the player, as he's like football Jesus. I don't know if you saw the clip going viral. The forty nine ers lined up from guard to wide receivers. Dre Greenlow took the ball that he intercepted Tom Brady and he's like, man, I don't want to do this, but can you sign my ball? Aaron Banks, who went to Notre Dame, stood there and asked him to sign his jersey and take a picture. I mean, these guys, the reverence the other players in the league, These guys that are twenty one, twenty two, twenty three years old, they have for Tom Brady. Think about a lot. If you're twenty three years old. When Tom was becoming a megastar, you were eight nine years old and like oh seven and the undefeated team, and then you get to play against him. So like when I bring up the avocado ice cream or anyone does, the talks about it. It's because we've never seen anything quite like this. The players haven't, You and I have it. Nobody he has now. He sucks right now. He's terrible. It's hard to watch him. I'd never watched Willie Mays for the Mets. But I would imagine that's kind of what it looks like. It's honestly kind of sad. Now is he going to retire? Who knows, but we can we can't be hating on Tom. Tom, and I know personally like Tom's been a huge reason that the NFL has been more popular, Like he's their biggest star for basically the last two decades, definitely the last decade and a big reason people just that there's not a woman that doesn't know who Tom Brady is. There are a lot of women that don't know who Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are. I mean, Tom is the most transcendent star football has and more than likely this could be his last couple of games. Tom Brady to the Niners makes too much sense. Who on earth would you trust more to manage a game on a team that has defensively driven He's done it before with the Patriots early in his career, and he's a million times better now. Also, who would you want to mentor Trey Lance other than the best quarterback ever? It's a no brainer, Purdy, bro I want Purdy mentoring Trey Lance. I would say Trey Lance's career is like in major flux right now, not that the Niners are gonna get rid of him or anything, but like there is absolutely zero chance Tom Brady or not Tom Brady, Trey Lance is gonna be the starting quarterback going in the offseason. That's what happened last year. Same thing was Zack Wilson. Those days are over. Like it's just not going to happen for either guy. And clearly it's different. Like I said, the players don't like Zach Wilson, players like Trey but he's not gonna just be handed the job anymore because that doesn't happen in other positions and it happened at quarterback and it kind of backfired. Now. I think the forty nine ers are not going to sign Tom Brady. I also don't think Tom Brady's gonna want to go to the Bay Area. Like I said, I think Tom Brady is headed to the Vegas Raiders with his avocado ice cream. As somebody with a degree in finance and mid level experience in different financial sectors, what's the best way in your opinion, to track a career within sports? NFL, NBA teams with hundreds of millions of dollars circulating through these leagues, there has to be some entry for a career, like even a relatively small market team like the Houston Rockets in the NBA. Any advice, I think the easiest way to get involved in careers that are difficult because ultimately a lot of these teams, the Houston Rockets, the Houston Texans, the doubt whoever, they're not enormous operations. Right. So, if you're a finance guy, Welsh Fargo or Bank of America are massive companies. They have branches in every city everywhere you go, right, so you can get a job and kind of get your foot in. That's not the case with pro sports. Every you know, certain cities have pro sports teams and then their operation is not nearly as big as you think. I think the easiest way is just get your foot in the door is in sales. You're a business guy, get in sales if you have like some extroverted tendencies, or you think you can close and if you ticket sales, suite sales, and then kind of get your in there that way. Now, if you have a law degree, maybe try the contractual stuff. But you have to realize, like these people, obviously they're enormous businesses that they're all managed by business people. You know, all these teams have a president of business operations. They have law firms, you know, they have the big accounting firms. It's not like they just have football coaches or basketball coaches managing their money. So what I always recommend is, and I did not have this, use LinkedIn to your benefit. Use LinkedIn or Instagram or even Twitter, and find people that have roles that like this guy manages a salary cap, or this guy is the president of the team, and shoot him an email. You know, think about this, like if you're a coach like Nick Saban, Kyle Shanahan, Andy Reid, whatever, you get a million coaches or a general manager right like Hawie Roseman, John Schneider, you name it, a million young outs and young coaches try to contact these guys. How many young workers contact the team president. Probably not as many as you think relative to the coaches. So I actually think it's an easier entry point is the business side. But use technology to your advantage. There are a lot of those avenues when I in college, like a six h seven when I was twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, they didn't even exist, well, I had to go old school away send a letter they got immediately probably thrown in the trash. Technology. Baby, It's got a sound falls, but it also has its benefits. You have a great pod, but for fuck's sakes, can you go one show without mentioning Staley or small arm quarterbacks? You're turning into skip well. I mean, I think Brandon Saley stinks and I don't like small arm quarterbacks beside Purty, who's kind of growing on me. So no, I don't think I can skip a show with doing that first time in your DMS from Nova Scotia, you're my go to podcast. Can't deal with other podcasts. Two questions for you. In the past, you have talked about how who the top coaches are and how even they needed the right people around them Bill with Brady Read with Mahomes, Walsh and Montana. Have you ever seen a really good coach that could have been an all timer, but because of ownership and general manager decisions didn't succeed and was considered a mid of the road or bad coach maybe never got another chance. Secondly, I'm not a Raider fan, actually a Vikings guy, but I've always found their franchise to be interesting. I know they are not one of the wealthier teams and they are paying Josh McDaniels big bucks, but they have to fire him, right, Josh McDaniel is one of the most overrated head coaches ever. He has got to go on the coaches, you know, Freddy Kitchens, Jim tom Seula, you give them Mahomes, you give them Josh Allen, who knows. I mean, I'm sure it's happened, you know, I'm big believer that cream eventually rise at the top. I think most coaches figured out, and the ones that don't we're never going to figure it out. Same thing with players, and there are probably individual examples of a player that got screwed of a coach that got screwed. But I think for the most part, the good coaches are the ones that you know of in the main sports, and the bad coaches are the ones that he dun't. Now, there are probably some mid level guys that could have been a little bit better if they had the right quarterback. But then there are also you know, this guy doesn't want me to talk about brand Stalley, but what if Brandon Staley had Baker Mayfield. What if Brandon Staley had Geno Smith, I mean, would he have lasted two seasons? You know, I think that happens more often where an average coach, an average below coach, gets a decent talent and that guy's able to just have a longer career than he probably should have. The Raiders are a fascinating franchise, you know. I spend a lot of time around them when I was in the radio business, and they have a collegiate field to them. A lot of their former players take a lot of pride. I mean their owner Mark obviously, his dad's Al Davis. I mean, they just love the Raiders. But it's a pretty dysfunctional place. It's a lot of lifetime employees. You know, most good businesses, you know, higher from outside, especially as you get bigger and bigger and money quadruples and you know, ten x, twenty x fifty x, because you need different voices, you need different thoughts. It's not really the way the Raiders have ever operated. And yeah, I mean even when they try to do something like hire Josh McDaniels, it fails. Now, I've had a lot of people dm me that go Josh McDaniels. He's the most overrated coach of all time and you watch his team like that was one of the most embarrassing sequences we've ever seen. I mean that was as someone that's hard on some of these other coaches, that's that's inexcusable. Like that's just one of those things where you get over the headset as the head coach and you have to have some understanding of what's getting this defense that under no circumstances they get in one on one man coverage on the outside against Baker Mayfield. So yeah, I mean, I don't know if he's gonna be one and done, but I think the Raiders are in major shambles. And like I said, I believe Tom Brady. I think the owner will basically mandate to Josh and I don't think Tom Brady's gonna have as many options as people think, just like last time he did not have that many options. But I think the Raiders are going to be an option and I think they'll trade Derek Carr. Can you explain how everyone jumps on the Eagles saying, oh, they found a way to beat the Colts, but then the Cowboys roll them and they become a bad team. I'm not even sure what this question is asking. I think we spend too much time like worrying what a couple people say, talking heads say, you know, like the buzz on a team good or bad. Like ultimately, if you're a Cowboy fan and you're ten and three or you're an Eagle fan and you're twelve and one, right, like, it's pretty clear team's pretty good going to the playoffs. All you want when the season starts is to be in the dance and have a shot. And unlike the other sports, like if you get into the basketball playoffs, if your team's not that good, you can easily get swept in the first round. If you get to the NFL playoffs, it's fucking one game. I mean, the forty nine ers were underdogs both times last year and whoop that? You know what? The Rams went on the road, like the Bucks were much better last season, and before the game got weird in the second half, kicked the crap out of the Bucks. The Bengals went on the road to Kansas City, their four straight AFC championship game. Every single human alive, including Bengals fans, Chiefs are gonna win this game. And what happened? You guys? Went to the Super Bowl, So I'm not quite sure your questions asking, But I wouldn't worry about that crap. Like, even if you're a Vikings fan, everyone's kind of shipping on you, calling you frauds. Well, just find a way to get the two seed, because you know what happens. If you get the two seed. You're guaranteed two home games, two games assuming you win the first. But like, that's a pretty big deal. Get the two seed. You can call me a fraud all you want. If the team I'm on, if the team I'm coaching, the team i'm a fan of, gets the two seed. So I think we worry about too much about the outside crap. Love the show bro refreshing to have a personality with good takes. I agree question with Lincoln, chip rule and Big Dick Fick from joining the Big Ten. Ranked the top three coaches in the Big Ten, I would go hardball one. I would reluctantly say Ryan Day, but I'm not you know, he's forty five and five, but I just do not trust him in a big game. He could shut me up. He beats Georgia, who knows he can win the national Championship. I don't think he will. I think George is gonna shove them around. But you can't ever just beat the Ohio State as talent. Who else would be there? Rule on No, Lincoln, Lincoln would be right. Lincoln and Luke Fickle I would have really really high I mean, Luke Fickle took Cincinnati to the playoffs. That's pretty impressive. I'd probably go Lincoln then Luke Fickle. I think PJ. Flex is pretty good. You know, say what you want about James Franklin. Not a great in game guy. It's college football. Just recruit your ass off. You're in games, Like, yeah, they're never gonna win the national championship, but Penn State's gonna win ten eleven games every year. Like Penn State is pretty good between nine and eleven games. Yeah, they're not Michigan Ohio State, and he's not mister dynamic coach, but he can recruit and their team always is super loaded, and if they ever just hit on the right quarterback, who knows, maybe they could win the Big Ten. I think the Big Ten coaching is really really good. Obviously, adding Matt Rule, we'll see. I think it's not that I'm not bullish on him. Because clearly he's pretty into it. But you know, you watch him talk, it's a it's a little political, you know, in terms of he's just kind of a politician, which James Franklin is too. That's he's going to be a recruiter. What's his scheme? Tough guy, canny recruit to Nebraska. I don't know, we'll see. I guess I'm not as I'm not not bullish because you've got to be excited for the higher he's one, but it's gonna be tough. Like, I know you can win a Penn State. I know you can win at Wisconsin obviously, Michigan, Ohio State USC. To me, Chip isn't I don't think Chip even makes the Big Ten. What would be one take I have? I do not think Chip Kelly makes the Mick Ten. If I was the UCLA after next year, I would fire Chip Kelly and I'd hire Jonathan Smith at Oregon State. LA guy winning at Oregon State. You know, loves defense, can really coach the run game. Just need some players he'll be able to recruit at UCLA. That's what I do. So the Big Ten, you could argue coach for coach. Now it's hard when you get Sabin and Kirby in your conference, but the Big ten might be deeper with coaches. Okay, appreciate everyone listening with your friends. Check out The Volume's YouTube page, and yeah, I will talk to everyone later in the week. Peace The Volume