Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio Live, Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be, however you may be listening or watching iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio FS one. One hour from now, Joel Clack College Football playoff rankings out JAMAC is joining us today. We had so much fun on yesterday's show. It was a trading deadline and we just got crazy lucky this time slot gives us sometimes on breaking newsdays. You know, we started east noon, eastern to three, and so you know a lot of stuff happens, not early, not late, happens right in the of the day. So yesterday was so much fun. I was talking to two people last night. I got a call last night from an executive in the league and he's like, what did you think? And I thought Minnesota stole one and I can't believe the Vikings got a great tight end and two picks. The Lions got two picks, But when you get Detroit's picks, those are great picks because Detroit stinks and their top around picks. Minnesota stole a great tight end and got picks. So we had what a coach NBA coach fired. You had eight trades yesterday in the NFL, the most since nineteen ninety in one day on trading deadline. Absolutely Bonker's day. That was a great stat Yeah, I just saw it online this morning. Wow, most trades in a day since nineteen ninety. Well, I want to start with us. The Dallas Cowboys wanted to make a trade. They did. According to ed Warder, they went back and forth with Brandon Cooks, the well traveled, speedy wide receiver. He'd be a good fit for them. We talked about that yesterday on the show. But in the end, you have to pay him a fully guaranteed eighteen million next year, and the Cowboys can't because Dak makes forty nine million dollars next year. That is the number two cap hit in the entire league. Fans do something which I've never understood. Most of the things fans do I get fans always want their stars to be paid. Why you want your teams to be flexible? Aaron Rodgers fifty million, Green Bay didn't make a move. Dak Prescott, number two cap hit in the league, couldn't make a move. Dallas clearly wanted to make a move. It would have helped the team. For years, y'all were screaming, Dak deserves, he deserves. The NFL is an earn league. It's not a deserve league. DAC has never earned forty nine million. That that that Michael Parsons. Whatever the market bears, he gets what he gets. Dak is overpaid because Jerry waited too long. And therefore, I mean, if you go look at Dak Prescott in his career against playoff teams, He's won thirty five percent of his games. Mahomes has won sixty five percent. Mahomes makes thirty six million dollars. Kansas City made moves. They got that receiver from the Giants. Dak makes forty nine million next year. Mahomes thirty six million is a GM I sleep like a baby. Forty nine million for Dac next year. I am tossing and I'm turning Dak is a complimentary quarterback. This team's gone five and one last two years with Cooper Rush. He's Kirk Cousins. If you surround him with this, and surround him with that and surround him with that. Kirk and Dak are great, complimentary players. They're not leading anybody anywhere. It's very much too a Give him a good coach, a lot of weapons, great left tackle, you go win games, and Dak won games. His best year as a rookie, Zeke was a star. Best offense in line in football. Yes, so I look at Philadelphia in Miami right now. Philadelphia and Miami aren't paying their quarterbacks anything. They're just loading up their roster. I mean Philadelphia a J. Brown in the offseason. Then they get Quinn the edge rusher from Chicago. Those are two huge playmaking pieces because they don't have a quarterback making forty nine million. Big difference between deserve and urn. And I don't dislike Kirk Cousins, I don't dislike Dak, But y'all scream for your players to get paid. This is a hard cap. You need flexibility. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay's not flexible. Dallas Cowboys next year, Brandon Cooks has an eighteen million dollars guaranteed contract. Next year be one thing. If it was this year, it's next year because Dak's cap hit this year in bed, but the next four or five years is brutal. I mean, think about this. If I told you Jimmy Garoppolo had a forty nine million dollar cap pit, you would think that is outrageous. Next year, look at his career numbers with Dak. Both get hurt more than you'd like. Dak's got a better winning Garoppolo's got a better winning percentage, passer rating, yards per attempt, completion percentage, and playoff record. You would be it would be literally malpractice. If Garoppolo is a forty nine million dollar cap pit, you'd be like, that's outrageous. That's what Dak is. So Dallas wanted to make a move. I do not understand fans Oh was clamoring for pay my guy, pay my guy. It's a hard cap. You want flexibility, listen. I love Russell Wilson, but starting in a couple of years, I don't have it in front of me. But I looked at his cap situation. It's like fifty five million a year starting in a few years for like five years you are. It's not like it's not like the NBA where guys get to the end of a contract and you can trade people. And you know there's a lot of these league. I mean, the Warriors are literally like so much over the cap. Their owner pays this luxury tax in the hundreds of millions. But you know the Dallas Cowboys wanted to make a move and you wanted dak to get paid top of the market. Well, you can't have both. Philadelphia added a great edge rushing piece, Miami added a great piece. San Francisco added a piece. Dallas can afford you next year. Anybody that have to pay next year can't. Let's shift to this. Steve Nash fired during our show yesterday. Mutually parted ways. So I don't know Steve Nash well, but we work out at the same athletic club and play tennis, and so I've known people through the years that know him and in the NBA that know him. And the two things I was basically told yesterday, which are Nash had been and I said this yesterday. Nash had been talking all summer long that he was tired of babysitting this group. They were kids, especially Kyrie your babysitting. The second thing is, and it's a fair argument that Steve's not a confrontational guy, and this team probably needed a tough, confrontational coach. If you look in the NBA, where you got a lot of codd old superstars, confrontational coaches do well. The guy in Boston who got fired is going to get the Brooklyn job. Confrontational popa itch, confrontational, spolstral can be confrontational. Steve Kerr ty Lou by the way, willing to be confrontational. So Mike d'antoni's a very good coach, but he won't be confrontational. Mike D'Antoni bounces around this league. You've got to be willing to confront stars, and that's not Steve Nash's thing. He's a really nice guy. He is best served, as somebody told me yesterday, as a consultant, which he was I believe for the Warriors. That's how his relationship started with Kadi. He was a consultant for the Warriors. He's a great consultant, super super, super smart guy. Steve Nash is one of the smartest people I've ever talked to involved in American sports. Great guy, smart guy. He may be better served on a team with mature players that he doesn't have to babysit. I'm not saying he couldn't be a coach, but with this group, it wasn't gonna work. So Kevin Durant yesterday on the news that Nash has gone, I mean, you always shocked when a move like this happens, but as normal in the NBA. We had a tough star as a Rocky year last year, Rocky summer. We knew that everybody was being evaluated. We didn't have healthy team, just didn't play well, and that's what happens in the league. Happens. So that doesn't take away from Steve's basketball IQ, his you know how he teaches the game. I don't think that takes away from anything. Just then't we just didn't work out. I contend that you can't build a sharing, authentic team culture, and honest team culture around Kyrie Irving Colin. What about Cleveland? That was Lebron's franchise, and by the way, by the end of year two, started year three, Lebron was struggling with Kyrie. You can't he tried it in Boston, they tried to build it around Kyrie failed Cleveland before Lebron failed, Brooklyn failed. Okay, this whole Brooklyn thing has owas given Kyrie too much influence. Remember Kyrie's going home, that was the headline. Kd's joining Kyrie that was the headline. He's always had way too much influence here. And I don't believe you can build anything around Kyrie Irving. It's failed everywhere, and leadership lists and leadership is a weird thing. But Kevin Durant doesn't want to be that guy. Probably could be a leader, but he doesn't want to be. Kyrie's incapable of it. And Steve Nash is non confrontational with a team that was desperate probably for it. That's why where Brooklyn is going now with a coach, it may have a better chance to work out. But some people are just really, really talented. Kyrie's one of those. If you're building around him now, I'm gonna work. Didn't work in Boston, it didn't work before Lebron got there. To Cleveland, it's not working in Brooklyn. It doesn't work. And so I said it last year and I'd never said it before. He's the only star. I would have ever traded for rotational players. You cannot build anything around him. Doesn't mean he's not talented. He hit the shot that helped Cleveland win a title the Great Series against the Warriors. I mean it's an iconic NBA moment. Nobody's doubting that. But Snash has told people in the summer he was just exhausted from the constant babysitting. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon eastern a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. So I saw this story apparently Packer fans on the social media accounts, and I know it's a lot of Twitter and Reddit nerds, but nonetheless a lot of Packer fans on social media because the Packers didn't make a move they want their general manager, Brian gudencoons fired. Interesting this year started and I picked the Vikings to win the division, and I said, Green Bay's not gonna be the same team. Not a single Packer fan reached out to me and said, you're right, We're not that talented. I was an idiot. I was a moron. We are dominant, and I said, well, you don't have Davante Adams. We were seven to no without him. We are loaded. So clearly you love your players and your roster. Now you want him fired when I wouldn't put them in my top ten hierarchy. Remember j Mac was here. I said, they're not a top ten team. I watched the games. Not a single Packer fan ever said yeah, I think they're rosters a little overrated. Not one. You mock, you lexure. You criticize those who don't consider them a super Bowl team before the season started, so you must like their roster. Nobody wins just with a quarterback. I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways. You can't tell everybody that you are great and a super Bowl team and then you don't make a deal at the trade deadline and want the GM rip because you don't have enough players. You don't have enough players at least on offense. But Green Bay's defense is loaded with talent. It's underachieving. Is that the GM's fault. They got players everywhere. The special teams have been wobbly since Matt Lafleur showed up. Is that the GM's fault. You don't use Aaron Jones on a regular basis enough. Is that the GM's fault. Aaron Rodgers took top of the market money and refused to work out as much as he could have with rookie wide receivers. Is that the GM's fault. Mike Sando of the Athletic a great reporter. Mike Sando the Athletic Athletics got great reporters everywhere. I read it every single day of the year. An NFL anonymous NFL executive didn't paint Aaron Rodgers in a good light when it comes to his desire for wide receivers. An exact told Sando, very trustable, legit guy. There's so much there in Green Bay. We don't know when it comes to Aaron and his receivers. It's almost like, why would you spend premium draft capital on somebody he probably won't like. Nobody's good enough for Aaron. That's probably part of it too. You gotta think about that took him years to get Davonte Adams and him to the right place. I don't know. You give Patrick Mahome new wide receivers, they're good. In September, Jujuice Smith Euster doesn't take Mahomes long. It doesn't take Josh Allen Long. I mean Tom Brady, he got Mike Evans, Chris Godwin. Year one won the Super Bowl. So you all want the GM fired? Which is it is? Maybe at Matt Lafleur and Aaron Rodgers, they deserve the blame. You're blaming the general manager. You keep telling me how great your team is when I'm like, I take the Jets. A couple of weekends ago, remember that I picked the Jets over the Packers. Not a single Packer fan said that's interesting. We're overrated. Our talents not as good as people think. No one outrage mocked. Can't have it both ways. There are plenty of good players here. Absolutely, it's a very defensively. I love their corners. I think they got good defensive line talent, safety talent. But it's underachieving. Can't blame that on the GM. That's not a GM's issue, not out there coaching. So which is it? Are you a super Bowl? Because the teams I like in the Super Bowl have a bunch of good players. Buffalo has got a bunch of good players. Niners got a bunch of good players. Philadelphia has got a bunch of good players. Baltimore has got a bunch of good players. Kansas said he's got a bunch of good players. I mean a lot of you think DA it's a super Bowl team if they're completely healthy, they're interesting. I think they're on the fringe. They need another receiver. But you can't go both ways. You can't bang on the GM when you keep when you're outraged anybody, any time anybody goes. I don't know. I think Minnesota's got more good players. Maybe the first guy to run to your twit, Twitter, Reddit, social media and call out people, which is it? Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd week dayson noon Easter nine a m. Pacific. The college football rankings came out last night, and I don't I don't really have a problem. I don't buy Clemson yet. That doesn't mean Clemson couldn't impress me in the next five or six weeks. I've watched them a couple of times. I watched the entire Syracuse game. I don't really get Clemson yet yet. Teams grow, teams have a right to improve. Tennessee one, Ohio State, Georgia, Clemson, Michigan, five, Bama, TCU, Oregon, usc LSU. It sounds you know it feels about right. I've said this before and I'll say it again. I don't doubt that Ohio State's really good. But in the SEC, a much deeper conference, it's iron on iron, and Ohio State until they play Michigan is iron on aluminum. The SEC is much deeper. And I'll give you an example of this. I mean, like this week, Ohio State faces academic power Northwestern, followed by Indiana, followed by Maryland. In the last ten drafts, I always feel like I get a sense of what an SEC team is by week seven or eight. I don't know what Ohio State is. I was told how great they were last year. Then Oregon, a legitimate team, came into Columbus and knocked him off. So in the last ten drafts, so go to the last ten years in college football. Bama has been the SEC's best program on average over the last ten years, and Ohio State has been the best Big Ten program over the last ten years. If you take Ohio State and Bama out of their conferences, out of the NFL draft last ten years, the number of Big Ten players drafted last ten drafts, not including Ohio State guys three hundred and seven the number of SEC players not drafted last ten years, take out Alabama players is almost five hundred, so the depth of talent in the SEC is so much deeper. And by the way, Alabama was better than Ohio State the last ten years, so the best team in the SEC was better than the best team in the Big Ten. So until they face Michigan, I have no idea. I really don't. I keep a lot of what I see with Ohio State is just dominating average teams. This weekend in the SEC, it's another classic SEC weekend where I got Tennessee facing what are they facing Georgia and LSU facing Bama. You're gonna have a fifty NFL players on that field. So I'm gonna know over the course of the weekend. By week eight, I'm gonna be like, I know what these teams are. I don't know what Ohio State is. I'm not doubting they're very good, but this is one of the things where and we have a Big Ten contract, so you know, everybody here is very Big Ten friendly. The SEC is the best deepest conference, and I really do I'll argue for SEC teams always being in the College Football Playoff. If you think they're overranked, but at least I know what they are. Ohio State. I don't doubt they're great, But until they face Michigan, I'm not going to really know. I imagine, you know. I mean last year, an hour before kickoff, Buckeye fans thought they were going to crush Michigan and they got rolled. And they thought they were gonna crush Oregon and they got rolled. So I don't know. I never get quite a true feeling with the Buckeyes until they face another top five national recruiting team. I don't know. So everybody doesn't like Clemson in their top ten, I agree, I don't know. Clemson is Ohio State number two. Would they beat Mamma, would they beat Georgia? I don't know. I struggle sometimes getting a true test in that conference. It's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of pipe and hot faceball talk featuring the biggest name to newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe in analytics or the eye test, We've got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, so do yourself a favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob Parker on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Dolphins have improved. You know. They went and got Bradley Chubb, and Bradley's a really good player, so it was a great And they got Jeff Wilson the running back. But Chubb's the key, the pass rusher. So Miami fans are funny. It cracks me up. They want us, they want so badly for everybody to put their arms around the franchise. You've thought you're gonna be great for thirty years. You have nothing to show for it. So all of us cynics have been right thirty years in a row. Now you think, because two has got some weapons, your team's great. For thirty years, Dolphin fans have been whining about getting respect. We were right, you were wrong, you were over thirty. Now you're demanding you get respect. Through eight weeks. I like your team. I picked your team for the playoffs. But this whole two it thing cracks me up. Two hasn't changed. He's still smaller than you'd like. He's been injured in college and pro more than you'd like, and he lacks a power arm. Nothing has changed with two. It nothing. In fact, I'm more concerned about his health now with the concussions. The only thing that's changed is people around him. That's it. He hasn't changed at all. He has a really, really, really smart head coach, and they got him some weapons in a great left tackle. So what you're seeing with two and now is what he's always been like in college. If you surround him with a great coach and weapons and protection, he can distribute the ball and win games. That's what he was in college. But in college when he faced Joe Burrow, who had equal weapons, Burrow beat him because he's not Joe Burrow. He's not he's not that big. I don't think he's near that talented. So it's by away, Buffalo, Kansas City, Cincinnati. They got weapons, too, and more talented quarterbacks. But this need for Miami fans, for us to all embrace to a too is exactly what he's always been a little small, a little fragile, and lacks a big power arm. You can still win in this league without all those things. But it's like even in you know, I don't know anything about acting, but even an average actor, if you give him a great director and a great cast and a great script can be elevated to be pretty special for a movie. But no actor or a few actors get a great script back to back to back to back to back to back, and a great director back to back to back to back to back, and a great cast back to back to back to back. So at some point you need the actor to elevate and carry the film. That's a movie star that he didn't have the greatest script or the greatest director, annie makes it a hit movie. That's what Josh Allen does. Josh Allen has no running game for five years and he's still winning games. Patrick Mahomes with Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes without Tyreek Hill doesn't matter, wins games. Even an average actor if you get him, a great script can be elevated in a movie. Nobody's ever doubted, too. What can do that? At Alabama to a won a bunch of games when he had a great coach and great weapons. Nobody doubts that this need for Miami fans to just put her arms around too. Nothing's change with him. He just got a better coach and better weapons and a better left tackle. We've never doubted he could win that way. That's fine, but he's not carrying the film. And that's what Mahomes can do. And that's what Josh Allen can do. And that's what Joe Burrow did to carry Zach Taylor, a terrible offensive line and a flimsy organization historically to a super Bowl. That wasn't a great script, he didn't have a great director, he didn't have a great cast. He carried him to the super Bowl. Road game, road game, cold weather, road game. Two is what two has always been. And he's out really good people around him. I saw that. I saw that in college. Nobody doubts he can deliver the ball. He's a very accurate thrower of the football and third down he's been like seventy two or something completion percentage. But this need for everybody knows what two is. Nothing's changed, just got better people around him. One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like. All Right, first college football playoff rankings came out last night. I'm sure Joel Klatz all worked up about that. Let's bring on the class to the voice in college football at Fox. He is the voice of college football. Don't mess around with this guy. What's going on? Man, you'll be calling Texas Tech TCU. Yes, sir, So let me just say that everybody gets you know, these I don't get all worked out. I mean I said I don't. I don't buy Clemson yet. But teams should have a right to improve. Sure. I think Oregon should get a mulligan. All new people go to the South get beat by Georgia. I think they're actually better than people both think, you know, get half a mulligan called up socialdelis you get the mulligan too, And apparently they did get it well. Well. I do think if you have new team, new quarterback, new staff, in your first game is a tough one and you don't play well, it's like, well, in the NFL you get preseason games. In college it's like go, yeah, it's hard. I mean, there's so much to unpack with the with the first rankings and let's look at them. Your your sentiment, yeah, I would love to. We can put them up so that everyone kind of knows, you know, that's watching. Um. I think your sentiment is wrong though, which is like you're you're basically saying it doesn't matter. Here's the toxic top six up on the screen, Tennessee's number one, Ohio State two, Georgia three, Clemson four, Michigan five, Alabama six. Your sentiment is kind of like, well, it doesn't really matter. No, my sentiment is, um, I mean, my sentiment is I've been told forever how great Ohio State is. I watched Oregon walk in there last year and punch him in the forehead. I was told by every Buckeye fan how great they were last year, and Michigan physically rolled them. Yeah, is until they I'm sorry, are we are we ranking last year's one? I'm confused. I have a hard time with Ohio State. We'll see what you What you just did is exactly what the committee did and what they didn't. What they didn't do and what you failed to do is rate these teams on what they do this year. These listen. A team's life cycle is twelve months. That's it, right, And what you see reflected in these committee's rankings that they gave us a night ago are basically ghosts of championship pass reflecting how they view these teams. You just did it right there with Ohio State, and the committee did it with Clemson. The ghosts of Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence and Hunter Renfro forced them to put Clemson with a worse resume ahead of Michigan and ahead of TCU. Yeah, I think Michigan's better than Clemson. I do too. I think that TCU's resume is far better than Clemson right now than Clemson was a victim of brand bias. And that's what's inherently bad about our sport is that there's there still brand bias. So and here's why it matters. And this is one of my big takeaways from last night. Everybody always just oh, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, it'll play itself out. But that's wrong, right, that's wrong. Let me tell you why it is wrong to think that these rankings don't matter because of two reasons. Number one, this is how you build your resume. Like you don't make cookies and just say like, ah, the amount of sugar doesn't matter. Well, of course it does. It's part of the recipe. This is the recipe to get to the playoff. Yeah, right, So you build your resume based on who's ranked and who's not, and what happens in those games when you play those ranked tams. So that's number one, and number two is this sport is still about perception, much more than maybe any other sport on the planet. True. So perception is how you get into the playoff, and perception is also how you become better. Why is that column? This is the question you should be asking, like, why, Joel, that's an interesting perception. Why is perception so important? Why? Because we don't draft, we recruit in our sport, and so it matters what the athlete in high school thinks of the program, and more importantly, what the sentiment nationally is of a program. So when UTAH and TCU are clearly not given the benefit of the doubt, Utah, yes, and I can explain that, well, I understand a shot of LSU, but their tenth well five spots higher than the ap Yeah, I digress. No, don't don't take me off point here. Don't take me off point perception. I'm talking about perception here and when when you're recruiting, and that perception is that your program has a glass ceiling and the burden of proof is on you because you're the little guy, and I'm a college kid, or excuse me, a high school kid, and I get a TCU letter or a Utah letter, then that perception seeps into how I view that program. Meanwhile, Clemson and Alabama are getting ranked this year based on gross of ghosts of championships past. Alabama has lost the game, so the committee tells us like, well, TCU has been behind in a few games. Oh, you mean, like when Alabama was behind when the clock struck zero. I'm sorry, wasn't that the point of the game. But Utah, in the end win your games. You can't get rolled. I don't disagree with that, but you could say the same with LSU. By the way, the loss that Utah had at Florida is a far more acceptable loss than LSU losing on a neutral to Florida State in a neutral I mean, by the way, LSU of the top ten teams, only team to lose at home, only team. But you're so in a sport where it's ridiculously difficult to win on the road. You look at all those losses of the one loss teams where they happen on the road. But LSU gets the benefit of the doubt after getting trounced at home. Come on, give me a break. Well, what are we doing? Well? That that's the year world sounds very idealistic. Okay, it's it's perfect. We're only judging on this but this year, this year. But if this life cycle of these teams is one college football a little bit to an invitation, it is a playoff exactly. Okay, okay, But since it is, let's take the rules of invitational. So here's where history matters. If I'm dead set tied on a team and there are going to be an invitationals, who do we invite? It's like a wedding. You like her, I don't you like him? I don't. We got one invitation left. It's an invitational. So I am not supposed to look at and say, boy, I've seen Saban in these big games, and I've seen that coach in big games and he stinks. Yeah. But the but the point, I give the SEC the benefit of the data, loot. I do the same, And I'm not saying that they shouldn't be given the benefit of the day. By the way, I said Tennessee should be ranked one, they're not in the AP and I put them at number one. Based on that. Right, their win is against Alabama is the best win in the country so far. M Tennessee is really good. Georgia really good. Bama I still think very good. I see. I think LSU has developed and gotten much better. Say here, I think Ole Miss is very good. That's fine. Five teams that I have in the top fifteen in the country. So I'm not This is not an SEC argument. This is an argument that this committee goes in there and I feel like their frame of mind is wrong. I think you've got to rate teams in a brand less fashion and in a one year model, like that's what this team is. By the way, Zach Evans transferred out of TCU, and this day and age in college football more than any other, these teams are one year old, all of them. Because of the transfer portal, because of nil you cannot rate teams based on what they've done in the past. I just don't agree with that. In particular win, TCU's resume is just better than Clemson. They've got two better wins than any one won Clemson has. They've got a better strength of strength of record. Okay, so we think we both think TCU should be ahead of Clemson, but there is something to be sell. Give an example. So there are times I have in an invitational, which is college football has got a little bit of a field of that is that you I guess you invite me on here, and it's my history of great segments that keeps bringing me back. That's right, or you wouldn't be here. I see what you pread A lot of people to the curb. I know, I know bottom line shows so, but the point is it's an ideal take. The truth is when I watch certain teams like I'm giving Oregon. I had this discussion yesterday with a huge college football fan who I respect, I said, when I watch Oregon play UCLA, I wouldn't even have to follow recruiting. I can tell you who's got more four and five star athletes. Okay, I'm waiting for this coaching staff and they're doing it to get these guys in Unison. So they go to play Georgia first game, Well, Kirby's got that puppy rolling, and so Oregon looked a part against Georgia and then you're like new quarterback, new staff, new players the South. I think if Oregon right now today, I watched them visually, they have dominated PAC twelve recruiting to a large degree of the last seven eight years. They look better than UCLA. I don't care where the better coaches. They are bigger and stronger and more dynamic. And so part of this is what my eyes see when I see Ohio State role over these marginally athletic Big ten teams I struggle with. I don't know who Ohio State is until they play Michigan, I will not know. I know what Alabama is good not great. I watch I've seen it and by the way, this weekend. But none of this is telling me that you should rate based on history. I thought you were trying to make an argument about history. No I'm saying is it's the ideal arguments to me always. He got to be careful about it because I do consider who your coaches in his history and big games and to his teams get better, you know, like you'll see sometimes teams Cliff Kingsbury, his teams get worse. But this is totally unfair to a guy like Max Duggan, right Like again, this is a guy that's put himself in the Heisman Trophy race by by many accounts. When you ask voters. Max dug In the quarterback for TCU. It's good. It's probably fourth in the country right now in terms of the Heisman Trophy race. So you know, Quentin Johnston their wide receiver, one of the least wide receivers in all the college football. It's good. TCUs the only team in America that just three hundred passing yards, two hundred rushing yards and has scored twenty touchdowns both passing and rushing. Like, none of that enters into the equation. Why because Clemson won a couple of championships years ago, Like, it doesn't make any Let me ask you this, who has better players? Who recruits at a higher level. I'm asking I hear what you're saying. Clemson looks bigger, faster, stronger than t hear what you're saying, but they don't play that way. Well, by the Lakers have historically better players than everybody else. They suck. But when I watch so, like, at some point, don't we have to look at what's going on on the field. Great example, when I watched the Lakers, they're not dynamic enough. Well neither is Clemson. So hold on, no, no different Clemson's dynamic. They're not they're not playing well? How they're not playing well? They had to pull their quarterback? What he played like crap? I watched the whole game, but that to beat Syracuse on the at home. Well, Syracuse always gives Clemson trouble, don't They've watched I mean Notre Dame just rolled up and thumped Syracan Michigan in the Clemson and Syracuse have a weird rivalry thing where that those games are always closed. You cannot be serious right now? All right, I got something else I want to get. All right, let's go, let's go, let's move. Okay, hold on, so um it was crazy. I got this late because the Michigan Michigan State tunnel thing. It was and so you know, when stuff like this happens, I never want to be first, like let's just watch it. Yeah, and I want to hear stuff and see video. You saw that Michigan Michigan State Tunnel thing. Yeah, my takeaway was who is this poor Michigan kid getting attacked? That was my takeaway on the video I saw. Am I missing anything? My interpretation? What I saw was Michigan kid getting attacked by like four kids. Well, but I don't have all the information outside of like viral video. Yeah, and that's why I've tried to stay away from exactly what you're talking about. My take is more from the it's really bothered course, and it should bother you. It should bother anybody. It should bother you, whether it's happening in the tunnel at Michigan or on the street corner right with it with security cam footage. This was a bad look all around. And I've stayed away from trying to place all the blame on any one team, coach or player, right, And so my take has been really threefold, Colin, when it comes to this incident. Number One, I do not think it's the inherent issue of the stadium. We've been playing games for ninety five years at Michigan Stadium and it's it's not been a big deal for a long time. And then it is this game, and that's unfortunate. The second thing that I would say is I always think about what would I be thinking if I was a teammate sitting in the locker room and this is happening, right, and I'm not involved. I'm a teammate, whether it's a Michigan State teammate or a Michigan teammate, And the bottom line is, if I'm a teammate, I would be incredibly frustrated at the incident overall, and in particular because if I was a Michigan State teammate, of these guys that instigated this brawl, now all of a sudden, the entire program is painted with a broad brush. We're undisciplined, you know, we're we're out there and we're right list and this and that and that's that's that's wrong. I would be incredibly frustrated. And now all of a sudden, they're going to get all those distractions. They've got eight players suspended, They're porno the program. I feel bad for the players at Michigan, and I feel bad for the players at Michigan State as well that weren't involved in this. And then the last thing that I would say is I just want to make sure that this runs its course. If law enforcement is involved, let it run its course, right. I don't want to go in there guns blazing with some hot take about any one person or coach in particular, because I want this investigation to run its course so that it can come to a quick conclusion. I want to see Claud. Let me see your top ten. This is class top ten, Claud's top ten, so let me get they're otherwise known as reality. So I like Tennessee. So I'll say this, I like Oregon more than Clemson. I don't have a problem with any of this. I like Oregon. I'd put Oregon one spot ahead of Clemson. I mean, Oregon did get their doors blown off. You can't just tell me that like that game didn't have Okay, I'm not so I'm giving them kind of the benefit of the doubt, but at some point you just gotta be like they that game did happen. So I've got them seven, Oregon eight, UCLA nine. Let me ask you this, and this a perfect top ten. I think Michigan's better than Ohio State. I saw him both play Penn State, and I saw Michigan had an eighteen to one first down advantage. That Michigan game should have been seventy to seven. Penn State couldn't compete. Penn State competed with Ohio State. I'll give you in an analogy. You love analogies. Those two cars, if Ohio State and Michigan or cars, I know, I like the blue one well, I know that the blue one has fifth gear, but I've seen the red one go to sixth and seventh, and I don't know if the Blue one has to see that. Last week against Penn State, against Penn State the nine minute mark, in twenty six seconds of that game, they're down twenty one six and within a minute nine of game time and six snaps of the football, they're up thirty to twenty one. Did you say that seventh gear? You say they were down? Yes, I didn't say they were down there. By the way, they were also on the road, and I could go in a long dissertation of how difficult it is to play on the road in any conference. But six snaps of the football, they all of a sudden they go down the field and three score and three plays and score JT two molo ou game wrecker, strip sack gets it next play touchdown, and it's like what just happened? James Franklin in that entire place one hundred and eight thousand went from we're gonna beat to Ohio State to oh my god, we just got an avalanche of Buckeyes poured on our head. Congratulate seventh year Ohio State for coming from behind. My blue car didn't trail. Wow, my blue car had a lead five hundred. Not saying that Michigan's bad, I'm just saying that I've seen fifth gear from them. I haven't seen sixth and seventh. I've seen it from the Buckeyes. All Right, you know I'm playing on the road. I'm not saying it's not hard, but sometimes, Oh he's so wrong, and I'm going to back it up with data. Here he goes again with his sentiment, and Ye, of the top twelve teams in the CFP rankings, there have been seven losses. Only one of them have been at home. I don't know that was LSU at home, right, So like it doesn't happen. Look at the best teams in the country. Where are all their losses? Oregon lost basically on the road to Georgia, USC loss on the road to Utah, Ucla loss on the road to Oregon. Alabama loss on the road to Tennessee. I mean, like this is the only place that teams lose. So now all of a sudden, you've got Bama and Tennessee on the road, Like watch out. I'd make an argument the better team one Alabama is not as good as Tennessee. Okay, is not as good as I'm saying. At the top of college football when you get to the point where you're playing a top fifteen team in their building, really hard to win, really hard to win. Alabama wins a lot of road games. Well really do they? Actually in the last two years they've struggled on the road. Remember last year or two point went against Florida, They lost against Texas A and m four overtimes against Sovereign. This year one point win and they should have lost against Texas. Then they go on the road and they got beat by Tennessee. In fact, their defense, they give up thirty two points per game on the road this year and only seven at home. So actually, they're a really poor road team and they're in trouble this week. That's called a data hammer that just landed on your desk. I work here on a tight land. I work in a tight rope. A lot of information you just got shoved off the volattle personalities, and I make it all cook because Jumbalaya of personalities. I was a strong breeze as you're walking on that tight rope right there. Okay, Texas Tech at TCU. You know what, I love God, I'm gonna love Texas Tech knocking the doors off tc I mean, if if it's a great game, great, I love it. You'll come limping back into the studio and apologize to him. I'm not a fan of anyone team. I'm just a fan of data Colin. Okay, his name is Joel Claddy. He's got a podcast. The guy used to just take a check and never see him. Now we worked too. Now we actually make him erna his check he's got. That was good, true, but very good. Okay, So he's got a podcast three times a week. It's good. It's good. Now, Yeah, I tuned in. You'd learn a little bit class show. Wherever you find your your podcast, I don't I listen to your pod. Did, and we'll still bring those uneducated takes. That's incredible, all right, Clatster, these were haymakers. Say this was fun. You know what we are a lot of times we're just jokes and fun. We're out there like uh you know, uh Penn and Teller today this was real. Was McGregor and Nate d third fight. I like it. I'm fighting their leg. That wasn't the d I like it Those were good fights, were good fights. All right, well done today, good jump by you.

Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio Live, Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be, however you may be listening or watching iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio FS one. One hour from now, Joel Clack College Football playoff rankings out JAMAC is joining us today. We had so much fun on yesterday's show. It was a trading deadline and we just got crazy lucky this time slot gives us sometimes on breaking newsdays. You know, we started east noon, eastern to three, and so you know a lot of stuff happens, not early, not late, happens right in the of the day. So yesterday was so much fun. I was talking to two people last night. I got a call last night from an executive in the league and he's like, what did you think? And I thought Minnesota stole one and I can't believe the Vikings got a great tight end and two picks. The Lions got two picks, But when you get Detroit's picks, those are great picks because Detroit stinks and their top around picks. Minnesota stole a great tight end and got picks. So we had what a coach NBA coach fired. You had eight trades yesterday in the NFL, the most since nineteen ninety in one day on trading deadline. Absolutely Bonker's day. That was a great stat Yeah, I just saw it online this morning. Wow, most trades in a day since nineteen ninety. Well, I want to start with us. The Dallas Cowboys wanted to make a trade. They did. According to ed Warder, they went back and forth with Brandon Cooks, the well traveled, speedy wide receiver. He'd be a good fit for them. We talked about that yesterday on the show. But in the end, you have to pay him a fully guaranteed eighteen million next year, and the Cowboys can't because Dak makes forty nine million dollars next year. That is the number two cap hit in the entire league. Fans do something which I've never understood. Most of the things fans do I get fans always want their stars to be paid. Why you want your teams to be flexible? Aaron Rodgers fifty million, Green Bay didn't make a move. Dak Prescott, number two cap hit in the league, couldn't make a move. Dallas clearly wanted to make a move. It would have helped the team. For years, y'all were screaming, Dak deserves, he deserves. The NFL is an earn league. It's not a deserve league. DAC has never earned forty nine million. That that that Michael Parsons. Whatever the market bears, he gets what he gets. Dak is overpaid because Jerry waited too long. And therefore, I mean, if you go look at Dak Prescott in his career against playoff teams, He's won thirty five percent of his games. Mahomes has won sixty five percent. Mahomes makes thirty six million dollars. Kansas City made moves. They got that receiver from the Giants. Dak makes forty nine million next year. Mahomes thirty six million is a GM I sleep like a baby. Forty nine million for Dac next year. I am tossing and I'm turning Dak is a complimentary quarterback. This team's gone five and one last two years with Cooper Rush. He's Kirk Cousins. If you surround him with this, and surround him with that and surround him with that. Kirk and Dak are great, complimentary players. They're not leading anybody anywhere. It's very much too a Give him a good coach, a lot of weapons, great left tackle, you go win games, and Dak won games. His best year as a rookie, Zeke was a star. Best offense in line in football. Yes, so I look at Philadelphia in Miami right now. Philadelphia and Miami aren't paying their quarterbacks anything. They're just loading up their roster. I mean Philadelphia a J. Brown in the offseason. Then they get Quinn the edge rusher from Chicago. Those are two huge playmaking pieces because they don't have a quarterback making forty nine million. Big difference between deserve and urn. And I don't dislike Kirk Cousins, I don't dislike Dak, But y'all scream for your players to get paid. This is a hard cap. You need flexibility. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay's not flexible. Dallas Cowboys next year, Brandon Cooks has an eighteen million dollars guaranteed contract. Next year be one thing. If it was this year, it's next year because Dak's cap hit this year in bed, but the next four or five years is brutal. I mean, think about this. If I told you Jimmy Garoppolo had a forty nine million dollar cap pit, you would think that is outrageous. Next year, look at his career numbers with Dak. Both get hurt more than you'd like. Dak's got a better winning Garoppolo's got a better winning percentage, passer rating, yards per attempt, completion percentage, and playoff record. You would be it would be literally malpractice. If Garoppolo is a forty nine million dollar cap pit, you'd be like, that's outrageous. That's what Dak is. So Dallas wanted to make a move. I do not understand fans Oh was clamoring for pay my guy, pay my guy. It's a hard cap. You want flexibility, listen. I love Russell Wilson, but starting in a couple of years, I don't have it in front of me. But I looked at his cap situation. It's like fifty five million a year starting in a few years for like five years you are. It's not like it's not like the NBA where guys get to the end of a contract and you can trade people. And you know there's a lot of these league. I mean, the Warriors are literally like so much over the cap. Their owner pays this luxury tax in the hundreds of millions. But you know the Dallas Cowboys wanted to make a move and you wanted dak to get paid top of the market. Well, you can't have both. Philadelphia added a great edge rushing piece, Miami added a great piece. San Francisco added a piece. Dallas can afford you next year. Anybody that have to pay next year can't. Let's shift to this. Steve Nash fired during our show yesterday. Mutually parted ways. So I don't know Steve Nash well, but we work out at the same athletic club and play tennis, and so I've known people through the years that know him and in the NBA that know him. And the two things I was basically told yesterday, which are Nash had been and I said this yesterday. Nash had been talking all summer long that he was tired of babysitting this group. They were kids, especially Kyrie your babysitting. The second thing is, and it's a fair argument that Steve's not a confrontational guy, and this team probably needed a tough, confrontational coach. If you look in the NBA, where you got a lot of codd old superstars, confrontational coaches do well. The guy in Boston who got fired is going to get the Brooklyn job. Confrontational popa itch, confrontational, spolstral can be confrontational. Steve Kerr ty Lou by the way, willing to be confrontational. So Mike d'antoni's a very good coach, but he won't be confrontational. Mike D'Antoni bounces around this league. You've got to be willing to confront stars, and that's not Steve Nash's thing. He's a really nice guy. He is best served, as somebody told me yesterday, as a consultant, which he was I believe for the Warriors. That's how his relationship started with Kadi. He was a consultant for the Warriors. He's a great consultant, super super, super smart guy. Steve Nash is one of the smartest people I've ever talked to involved in American sports. Great guy, smart guy. He may be better served on a team with mature players that he doesn't have to babysit. I'm not saying he couldn't be a coach, but with this group, it wasn't gonna work. So Kevin Durant yesterday on the news that Nash has gone, I mean, you always shocked when a move like this happens, but as normal in the NBA. We had a tough star as a Rocky year last year, Rocky summer. We knew that everybody was being evaluated. We didn't have healthy team, just didn't play well, and that's what happens in the league. Happens. So that doesn't take away from Steve's basketball IQ, his you know how he teaches the game. I don't think that takes away from anything. Just then't we just didn't work out. I contend that you can't build a sharing, authentic team culture, and honest team culture around Kyrie Irving Colin. What about Cleveland? That was Lebron's franchise, and by the way, by the end of year two, started year three, Lebron was struggling with Kyrie. You can't he tried it in Boston, they tried to build it around Kyrie failed Cleveland before Lebron failed, Brooklyn failed. Okay, this whole Brooklyn thing has owas given Kyrie too much influence. Remember Kyrie's going home, that was the headline. Kd's joining Kyrie that was the headline. He's always had way too much influence here. And I don't believe you can build anything around Kyrie Irving. It's failed everywhere, and leadership lists and leadership is a weird thing. But Kevin Durant doesn't want to be that guy. Probably could be a leader, but he doesn't want to be. Kyrie's incapable of it. And Steve Nash is non confrontational with a team that was desperate probably for it. That's why where Brooklyn is going now with a coach, it may have a better chance to work out. But some people are just really, really talented. Kyrie's one of those. If you're building around him now, I'm gonna work. Didn't work in Boston, it didn't work before Lebron got there. To Cleveland, it's not working in Brooklyn. It doesn't work. And so I said it last year and I'd never said it before. He's the only star. I would have ever traded for rotational players. You cannot build anything around him. Doesn't mean he's not talented. He hit the shot that helped Cleveland win a title the Great Series against the Warriors. I mean it's an iconic NBA moment. Nobody's doubting that. But Snash has told people in the summer he was just exhausted from the constant babysitting. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon eastern a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. So I saw this story apparently Packer fans on the social media accounts, and I know it's a lot of Twitter and Reddit nerds, but nonetheless a lot of Packer fans on social media because the Packers didn't make a move they want their general manager, Brian gudencoons fired. Interesting this year started and I picked the Vikings to win the division, and I said, Green Bay's not gonna be the same team. Not a single Packer fan reached out to me and said, you're right, We're not that talented. I was an idiot. I was a moron. We are dominant, and I said, well, you don't have Davante Adams. We were seven to no without him. We are loaded. So clearly you love your players and your roster. Now you want him fired when I wouldn't put them in my top ten hierarchy. Remember j Mac was here. I said, they're not a top ten team. I watched the games. Not a single Packer fan ever said yeah, I think they're rosters a little overrated. Not one. You mock, you lexure. You criticize those who don't consider them a super Bowl team before the season started, so you must like their roster. Nobody wins just with a quarterback. I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways. You can't tell everybody that you are great and a super Bowl team and then you don't make a deal at the trade deadline and want the GM rip because you don't have enough players. You don't have enough players at least on offense. But Green Bay's defense is loaded with talent. It's underachieving. Is that the GM's fault. They got players everywhere. The special teams have been wobbly since Matt Lafleur showed up. Is that the GM's fault. You don't use Aaron Jones on a regular basis enough. Is that the GM's fault. Aaron Rodgers took top of the market money and refused to work out as much as he could have with rookie wide receivers. Is that the GM's fault. Mike Sando of the Athletic a great reporter. Mike Sando the Athletic Athletics got great reporters everywhere. I read it every single day of the year. An NFL anonymous NFL executive didn't paint Aaron Rodgers in a good light when it comes to his desire for wide receivers. An exact told Sando, very trustable, legit guy. There's so much there in Green Bay. We don't know when it comes to Aaron and his receivers. It's almost like, why would you spend premium draft capital on somebody he probably won't like. Nobody's good enough for Aaron. That's probably part of it too. You gotta think about that took him years to get Davonte Adams and him to the right place. I don't know. You give Patrick Mahome new wide receivers, they're good. In September, Jujuice Smith Euster doesn't take Mahomes long. It doesn't take Josh Allen Long. I mean Tom Brady, he got Mike Evans, Chris Godwin. Year one won the Super Bowl. So you all want the GM fired? Which is it is? Maybe at Matt Lafleur and Aaron Rodgers, they deserve the blame. You're blaming the general manager. You keep telling me how great your team is when I'm like, I take the Jets. A couple of weekends ago, remember that I picked the Jets over the Packers. Not a single Packer fan said that's interesting. We're overrated. Our talents not as good as people think. No one outrage mocked. Can't have it both ways. There are plenty of good players here. Absolutely, it's a very defensively. I love their corners. I think they got good defensive line talent, safety talent. But it's underachieving. Can't blame that on the GM. That's not a GM's issue, not out there coaching. So which is it? Are you a super Bowl? Because the teams I like in the Super Bowl have a bunch of good players. Buffalo has got a bunch of good players. Niners got a bunch of good players. Philadelphia has got a bunch of good players. Baltimore has got a bunch of good players. Kansas said he's got a bunch of good players. I mean a lot of you think DA it's a super Bowl team if they're completely healthy, they're interesting. I think they're on the fringe. They need another receiver. But you can't go both ways. You can't bang on the GM when you keep when you're outraged anybody, any time anybody goes. I don't know. I think Minnesota's got more good players. Maybe the first guy to run to your twit, Twitter, Reddit, social media and call out people, which is it? Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd week dayson noon Easter nine a m. Pacific. The college football rankings came out last night, and I don't I don't really have a problem. I don't buy Clemson yet. That doesn't mean Clemson couldn't impress me in the next five or six weeks. I've watched them a couple of times. I watched the entire Syracuse game. I don't really get Clemson yet yet. Teams grow, teams have a right to improve. Tennessee one, Ohio State, Georgia, Clemson, Michigan, five, Bama, TCU, Oregon, usc LSU. It sounds you know it feels about right. I've said this before and I'll say it again. I don't doubt that Ohio State's really good. But in the SEC, a much deeper conference, it's iron on iron, and Ohio State until they play Michigan is iron on aluminum. The SEC is much deeper. And I'll give you an example of this. I mean, like this week, Ohio State faces academic power Northwestern, followed by Indiana, followed by Maryland. In the last ten drafts, I always feel like I get a sense of what an SEC team is by week seven or eight. I don't know what Ohio State is. I was told how great they were last year. Then Oregon, a legitimate team, came into Columbus and knocked him off. So in the last ten drafts, so go to the last ten years in college football. Bama has been the SEC's best program on average over the last ten years, and Ohio State has been the best Big Ten program over the last ten years. If you take Ohio State and Bama out of their conferences, out of the NFL draft last ten years, the number of Big Ten players drafted last ten drafts, not including Ohio State guys three hundred and seven the number of SEC players not drafted last ten years, take out Alabama players is almost five hundred, so the depth of talent in the SEC is so much deeper. And by the way, Alabama was better than Ohio State the last ten years, so the best team in the SEC was better than the best team in the Big Ten. So until they face Michigan, I have no idea. I really don't. I keep a lot of what I see with Ohio State is just dominating average teams. This weekend in the SEC, it's another classic SEC weekend where I got Tennessee facing what are they facing Georgia and LSU facing Bama. You're gonna have a fifty NFL players on that field. So I'm gonna know over the course of the weekend. By week eight, I'm gonna be like, I know what these teams are. I don't know what Ohio State is. I'm not doubting they're very good, but this is one of the things where and we have a Big Ten contract, so you know, everybody here is very Big Ten friendly. The SEC is the best deepest conference, and I really do I'll argue for SEC teams always being in the College Football Playoff. If you think they're overranked, but at least I know what they are. Ohio State. I don't doubt they're great, But until they face Michigan, I'm not going to really know. I imagine, you know. I mean last year, an hour before kickoff, Buckeye fans thought they were going to crush Michigan and they got rolled. And they thought they were gonna crush Oregon and they got rolled. So I don't know. I never get quite a true feeling with the Buckeyes until they face another top five national recruiting team. I don't know. So everybody doesn't like Clemson in their top ten, I agree, I don't know. Clemson is Ohio State number two. Would they beat Mamma, would they beat Georgia? I don't know. I struggle sometimes getting a true test in that conference. It's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of pipe and hot faceball talk featuring the biggest name to newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe in analytics or the eye test, We've got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, so do yourself a favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob Parker on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Dolphins have improved. You know. They went and got Bradley Chubb, and Bradley's a really good player, so it was a great And they got Jeff Wilson the running back. But Chubb's the key, the pass rusher. So Miami fans are funny. It cracks me up. They want us, they want so badly for everybody to put their arms around the franchise. You've thought you're gonna be great for thirty years. You have nothing to show for it. So all of us cynics have been right thirty years in a row. Now you think, because two has got some weapons, your team's great. For thirty years, Dolphin fans have been whining about getting respect. We were right, you were wrong, you were over thirty. Now you're demanding you get respect. Through eight weeks. I like your team. I picked your team for the playoffs. But this whole two it thing cracks me up. Two hasn't changed. He's still smaller than you'd like. He's been injured in college and pro more than you'd like, and he lacks a power arm. Nothing has changed with two. It nothing. In fact, I'm more concerned about his health now with the concussions. The only thing that's changed is people around him. That's it. He hasn't changed at all. He has a really, really, really smart head coach, and they got him some weapons in a great left tackle. So what you're seeing with two and now is what he's always been like in college. If you surround him with a great coach and weapons and protection, he can distribute the ball and win games. That's what he was in college. But in college when he faced Joe Burrow, who had equal weapons, Burrow beat him because he's not Joe Burrow. He's not he's not that big. I don't think he's near that talented. So it's by away, Buffalo, Kansas City, Cincinnati. They got weapons, too, and more talented quarterbacks. But this need for Miami fans, for us to all embrace to a too is exactly what he's always been a little small, a little fragile, and lacks a big power arm. You can still win in this league without all those things. But it's like even in you know, I don't know anything about acting, but even an average actor, if you give him a great director and a great cast and a great script can be elevated to be pretty special for a movie. But no actor or a few actors get a great script back to back to back to back to back to back, and a great director back to back to back to back to back, and a great cast back to back to back to back. So at some point you need the actor to elevate and carry the film. That's a movie star that he didn't have the greatest script or the greatest director, annie makes it a hit movie. That's what Josh Allen does. Josh Allen has no running game for five years and he's still winning games. Patrick Mahomes with Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes without Tyreek Hill doesn't matter, wins games. Even an average actor if you get him, a great script can be elevated in a movie. Nobody's ever doubted, too. What can do that? At Alabama to a won a bunch of games when he had a great coach and great weapons. Nobody doubts that this need for Miami fans to just put her arms around too. Nothing's change with him. He just got a better coach and better weapons and a better left tackle. We've never doubted he could win that way. That's fine, but he's not carrying the film. And that's what Mahomes can do. And that's what Josh Allen can do. And that's what Joe Burrow did to carry Zach Taylor, a terrible offensive line and a flimsy organization historically to a super Bowl. That wasn't a great script, he didn't have a great director, he didn't have a great cast. He carried him to the super Bowl. Road game, road game, cold weather, road game. Two is what two has always been. And he's out really good people around him. I saw that. I saw that in college. Nobody doubts he can deliver the ball. He's a very accurate thrower of the football and third down he's been like seventy two or something completion percentage. But this need for everybody knows what two is. Nothing's changed, just got better people around him. One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like. All Right, first college football playoff rankings came out last night. I'm sure Joel Klatz all worked up about that. Let's bring on the class to the voice in college football at Fox. He is the voice of college football. Don't mess around with this guy. What's going on? Man, you'll be calling Texas Tech TCU. Yes, sir, So let me just say that everybody gets you know, these I don't get all worked out. I mean I said I don't. I don't buy Clemson yet. But teams should have a right to improve. Sure. I think Oregon should get a mulligan. All new people go to the South get beat by Georgia. I think they're actually better than people both think, you know, get half a mulligan called up socialdelis you get the mulligan too, And apparently they did get it well. Well. I do think if you have new team, new quarterback, new staff, in your first game is a tough one and you don't play well, it's like, well, in the NFL you get preseason games. In college it's like go, yeah, it's hard. I mean, there's so much to unpack with the with the first rankings and let's look at them. Your your sentiment, yeah, I would love to. We can put them up so that everyone kind of knows, you know, that's watching. Um. I think your sentiment is wrong though, which is like you're you're basically saying it doesn't matter. Here's the toxic top six up on the screen, Tennessee's number one, Ohio State two, Georgia three, Clemson four, Michigan five, Alabama six. Your sentiment is kind of like, well, it doesn't really matter. No, my sentiment is, um, I mean, my sentiment is I've been told forever how great Ohio State is. I watched Oregon walk in there last year and punch him in the forehead. I was told by every Buckeye fan how great they were last year, and Michigan physically rolled them. Yeah, is until they I'm sorry, are we are we ranking last year's one? I'm confused. I have a hard time with Ohio State. We'll see what you What you just did is exactly what the committee did and what they didn't. What they didn't do and what you failed to do is rate these teams on what they do this year. These listen. A team's life cycle is twelve months. That's it, right, And what you see reflected in these committee's rankings that they gave us a night ago are basically ghosts of championship pass reflecting how they view these teams. You just did it right there with Ohio State, and the committee did it with Clemson. The ghosts of Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence and Hunter Renfro forced them to put Clemson with a worse resume ahead of Michigan and ahead of TCU. Yeah, I think Michigan's better than Clemson. I do too. I think that TCU's resume is far better than Clemson right now than Clemson was a victim of brand bias. And that's what's inherently bad about our sport is that there's there still brand bias. So and here's why it matters. And this is one of my big takeaways from last night. Everybody always just oh, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, it'll play itself out. But that's wrong, right, that's wrong. Let me tell you why it is wrong to think that these rankings don't matter because of two reasons. Number one, this is how you build your resume. Like you don't make cookies and just say like, ah, the amount of sugar doesn't matter. Well, of course it does. It's part of the recipe. This is the recipe to get to the playoff. Yeah, right, So you build your resume based on who's ranked and who's not, and what happens in those games when you play those ranked tams. So that's number one, and number two is this sport is still about perception, much more than maybe any other sport on the planet. True. So perception is how you get into the playoff, and perception is also how you become better. Why is that column? This is the question you should be asking, like, why, Joel, that's an interesting perception. Why is perception so important? Why? Because we don't draft, we recruit in our sport, and so it matters what the athlete in high school thinks of the program, and more importantly, what the sentiment nationally is of a program. So when UTAH and TCU are clearly not given the benefit of the doubt, Utah, yes, and I can explain that, well, I understand a shot of LSU, but their tenth well five spots higher than the ap Yeah, I digress. No, don't don't take me off point here. Don't take me off point perception. I'm talking about perception here and when when you're recruiting, and that perception is that your program has a glass ceiling and the burden of proof is on you because you're the little guy, and I'm a college kid, or excuse me, a high school kid, and I get a TCU letter or a Utah letter, then that perception seeps into how I view that program. Meanwhile, Clemson and Alabama are getting ranked this year based on gross of ghosts of championships past. Alabama has lost the game, so the committee tells us like, well, TCU has been behind in a few games. Oh, you mean, like when Alabama was behind when the clock struck zero. I'm sorry, wasn't that the point of the game. But Utah, in the end win your games. You can't get rolled. I don't disagree with that, but you could say the same with LSU. By the way, the loss that Utah had at Florida is a far more acceptable loss than LSU losing on a neutral to Florida State in a neutral I mean, by the way, LSU of the top ten teams, only team to lose at home, only team. But you're so in a sport where it's ridiculously difficult to win on the road. You look at all those losses of the one loss teams where they happen on the road. But LSU gets the benefit of the doubt after getting trounced at home. Come on, give me a break. Well, what are we doing? Well? That that's the year world sounds very idealistic. Okay, it's it's perfect. We're only judging on this but this year, this year. But if this life cycle of these teams is one college football a little bit to an invitation, it is a playoff exactly. Okay, okay, But since it is, let's take the rules of invitational. So here's where history matters. If I'm dead set tied on a team and there are going to be an invitationals, who do we invite? It's like a wedding. You like her, I don't you like him? I don't. We got one invitation left. It's an invitational. So I am not supposed to look at and say, boy, I've seen Saban in these big games, and I've seen that coach in big games and he stinks. Yeah. But the but the point, I give the SEC the benefit of the data, loot. I do the same, And I'm not saying that they shouldn't be given the benefit of the day. By the way, I said Tennessee should be ranked one, they're not in the AP and I put them at number one. Based on that. Right, their win is against Alabama is the best win in the country so far. M Tennessee is really good. Georgia really good. Bama I still think very good. I see. I think LSU has developed and gotten much better. Say here, I think Ole Miss is very good. That's fine. Five teams that I have in the top fifteen in the country. So I'm not This is not an SEC argument. This is an argument that this committee goes in there and I feel like their frame of mind is wrong. I think you've got to rate teams in a brand less fashion and in a one year model, like that's what this team is. By the way, Zach Evans transferred out of TCU, and this day and age in college football more than any other, these teams are one year old, all of them. Because of the transfer portal, because of nil you cannot rate teams based on what they've done in the past. I just don't agree with that. In particular win, TCU's resume is just better than Clemson. They've got two better wins than any one won Clemson has. They've got a better strength of strength of record. Okay, so we think we both think TCU should be ahead of Clemson, but there is something to be sell. Give an example. So there are times I have in an invitational, which is college football has got a little bit of a field of that is that you I guess you invite me on here, and it's my history of great segments that keeps bringing me back. That's right, or you wouldn't be here. I see what you pread A lot of people to the curb. I know, I know bottom line shows so, but the point is it's an ideal take. The truth is when I watch certain teams like I'm giving Oregon. I had this discussion yesterday with a huge college football fan who I respect, I said, when I watch Oregon play UCLA, I wouldn't even have to follow recruiting. I can tell you who's got more four and five star athletes. Okay, I'm waiting for this coaching staff and they're doing it to get these guys in Unison. So they go to play Georgia first game, Well, Kirby's got that puppy rolling, and so Oregon looked a part against Georgia and then you're like new quarterback, new staff, new players the South. I think if Oregon right now today, I watched them visually, they have dominated PAC twelve recruiting to a large degree of the last seven eight years. They look better than UCLA. I don't care where the better coaches. They are bigger and stronger and more dynamic. And so part of this is what my eyes see when I see Ohio State role over these marginally athletic Big ten teams I struggle with. I don't know who Ohio State is until they play Michigan, I will not know. I know what Alabama is good not great. I watch I've seen it and by the way, this weekend. But none of this is telling me that you should rate based on history. I thought you were trying to make an argument about history. No I'm saying is it's the ideal arguments to me always. He got to be careful about it because I do consider who your coaches in his history and big games and to his teams get better, you know, like you'll see sometimes teams Cliff Kingsbury, his teams get worse. But this is totally unfair to a guy like Max Duggan, right Like again, this is a guy that's put himself in the Heisman Trophy race by by many accounts. When you ask voters. Max dug In the quarterback for TCU. It's good. It's probably fourth in the country right now in terms of the Heisman Trophy race. So you know, Quentin Johnston their wide receiver, one of the least wide receivers in all the college football. It's good. TCUs the only team in America that just three hundred passing yards, two hundred rushing yards and has scored twenty touchdowns both passing and rushing. Like, none of that enters into the equation. Why because Clemson won a couple of championships years ago, Like, it doesn't make any Let me ask you this, who has better players? Who recruits at a higher level. I'm asking I hear what you're saying. Clemson looks bigger, faster, stronger than t hear what you're saying, but they don't play that way. Well, by the Lakers have historically better players than everybody else. They suck. But when I watch so, like, at some point, don't we have to look at what's going on on the field. Great example, when I watched the Lakers, they're not dynamic enough. Well neither is Clemson. So hold on, no, no different Clemson's dynamic. They're not they're not playing well? How they're not playing well? They had to pull their quarterback? What he played like crap? I watched the whole game, but that to beat Syracuse on the at home. Well, Syracuse always gives Clemson trouble, don't They've watched I mean Notre Dame just rolled up and thumped Syracan Michigan in the Clemson and Syracuse have a weird rivalry thing where that those games are always closed. You cannot be serious right now? All right, I got something else I want to get. All right, let's go, let's go, let's move. Okay, hold on, so um it was crazy. I got this late because the Michigan Michigan State tunnel thing. It was and so you know, when stuff like this happens, I never want to be first, like let's just watch it. Yeah, and I want to hear stuff and see video. You saw that Michigan Michigan State Tunnel thing. Yeah, my takeaway was who is this poor Michigan kid getting attacked? That was my takeaway on the video I saw. Am I missing anything? My interpretation? What I saw was Michigan kid getting attacked by like four kids. Well, but I don't have all the information outside of like viral video. Yeah, and that's why I've tried to stay away from exactly what you're talking about. My take is more from the it's really bothered course, and it should bother you. It should bother anybody. It should bother you, whether it's happening in the tunnel at Michigan or on the street corner right with it with security cam footage. This was a bad look all around. And I've stayed away from trying to place all the blame on any one team, coach or player, right, And so my take has been really threefold, Colin, when it comes to this incident. Number One, I do not think it's the inherent issue of the stadium. We've been playing games for ninety five years at Michigan Stadium and it's it's not been a big deal for a long time. And then it is this game, and that's unfortunate. The second thing that I would say is I always think about what would I be thinking if I was a teammate sitting in the locker room and this is happening, right, and I'm not involved. I'm a teammate, whether it's a Michigan State teammate or a Michigan teammate, And the bottom line is, if I'm a teammate, I would be incredibly frustrated at the incident overall, and in particular because if I was a Michigan State teammate, of these guys that instigated this brawl, now all of a sudden, the entire program is painted with a broad brush. We're undisciplined, you know, we're we're out there and we're right list and this and that and that's that's that's wrong. I would be incredibly frustrated. And now all of a sudden, they're going to get all those distractions. They've got eight players suspended, They're porno the program. I feel bad for the players at Michigan, and I feel bad for the players at Michigan State as well that weren't involved in this. And then the last thing that I would say is I just want to make sure that this runs its course. If law enforcement is involved, let it run its course, right. I don't want to go in there guns blazing with some hot take about any one person or coach in particular, because I want this investigation to run its course so that it can come to a quick conclusion. I want to see Claud. Let me see your top ten. This is class top ten, Claud's top ten, so let me get they're otherwise known as reality. So I like Tennessee. So I'll say this, I like Oregon more than Clemson. I don't have a problem with any of this. I like Oregon. I'd put Oregon one spot ahead of Clemson. I mean, Oregon did get their doors blown off. You can't just tell me that like that game didn't have Okay, I'm not so I'm giving them kind of the benefit of the doubt, but at some point you just gotta be like they that game did happen. So I've got them seven, Oregon eight, UCLA nine. Let me ask you this, and this a perfect top ten. I think Michigan's better than Ohio State. I saw him both play Penn State, and I saw Michigan had an eighteen to one first down advantage. That Michigan game should have been seventy to seven. Penn State couldn't compete. Penn State competed with Ohio State. I'll give you in an analogy. You love analogies. Those two cars, if Ohio State and Michigan or cars, I know, I like the blue one well, I know that the blue one has fifth gear, but I've seen the red one go to sixth and seventh, and I don't know if the Blue one has to see that. Last week against Penn State, against Penn State the nine minute mark, in twenty six seconds of that game, they're down twenty one six and within a minute nine of game time and six snaps of the football, they're up thirty to twenty one. Did you say that seventh gear? You say they were down? Yes, I didn't say they were down there. By the way, they were also on the road, and I could go in a long dissertation of how difficult it is to play on the road in any conference. But six snaps of the football, they all of a sudden they go down the field and three score and three plays and score JT two molo ou game wrecker, strip sack gets it next play touchdown, and it's like what just happened? James Franklin in that entire place one hundred and eight thousand went from we're gonna beat to Ohio State to oh my god, we just got an avalanche of Buckeyes poured on our head. Congratulate seventh year Ohio State for coming from behind. My blue car didn't trail. Wow, my blue car had a lead five hundred. Not saying that Michigan's bad, I'm just saying that I've seen fifth gear from them. I haven't seen sixth and seventh. I've seen it from the Buckeyes. All Right, you know I'm playing on the road. I'm not saying it's not hard, but sometimes, Oh he's so wrong, and I'm going to back it up with data. Here he goes again with his sentiment, and Ye, of the top twelve teams in the CFP rankings, there have been seven losses. Only one of them have been at home. I don't know that was LSU at home, right, So like it doesn't happen. Look at the best teams in the country. Where are all their losses? Oregon lost basically on the road to Georgia, USC loss on the road to Utah, Ucla loss on the road to Oregon. Alabama loss on the road to Tennessee. I mean, like this is the only place that teams lose. So now all of a sudden, you've got Bama and Tennessee on the road, Like watch out. I'd make an argument the better team one Alabama is not as good as Tennessee. Okay, is not as good as I'm saying. At the top of college football when you get to the point where you're playing a top fifteen team in their building, really hard to win, really hard to win. Alabama wins a lot of road games. Well really do they? Actually in the last two years they've struggled on the road. Remember last year or two point went against Florida, They lost against Texas A and m four overtimes against Sovereign. This year one point win and they should have lost against Texas. Then they go on the road and they got beat by Tennessee. In fact, their defense, they give up thirty two points per game on the road this year and only seven at home. So actually, they're a really poor road team and they're in trouble this week. That's called a data hammer that just landed on your desk. I work here on a tight land. I work in a tight rope. A lot of information you just got shoved off the volattle personalities, and I make it all cook because Jumbalaya of personalities. I was a strong breeze as you're walking on that tight rope right there. Okay, Texas Tech at TCU. You know what, I love God, I'm gonna love Texas Tech knocking the doors off tc I mean, if if it's a great game, great, I love it. You'll come limping back into the studio and apologize to him. I'm not a fan of anyone team. I'm just a fan of data Colin. Okay, his name is Joel Claddy. He's got a podcast. The guy used to just take a check and never see him. Now we worked too. Now we actually make him erna his check he's got. That was good, true, but very good. Okay, So he's got a podcast three times a week. It's good. It's good. Now, Yeah, I tuned in. You'd learn a little bit class show. Wherever you find your your podcast, I don't I listen to your pod. Did, and we'll still bring those uneducated takes. That's incredible, all right, Clatster, these were haymakers. Say this was fun. You know what we are a lot of times we're just jokes and fun. We're out there like uh you know, uh Penn and Teller today this was real. Was McGregor and Nate d third fight. I like it. I'm fighting their leg. That wasn't the d I like it Those were good fights, were good fights. All right, well done today, good jump by you.