Hour 2 - The return of Nick Saban?

Published Jul 17, 2025, 8:31 PM

3-time National Champion Urban Meyer joins The Herd

Colin tells you why Nick Saban returning to coach in the NFL is a real possibility 

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Here we go. It's hour two. It is a Thursday. It greats me back with you and we were talking about your clast hour Jmat sports are cyclical. The best college football team I've ever seen in my life was Nebraska when they that the year they dismantled Florida. I was actually there, the Steve Spurry or Florida team, Fiesta Bole, Lawrence Phillips, Tommy Fraser, their second team. We would have been a high end bowl team tom Osbourne and they've never, ever, ever, for a lot of reasons, been able to reclaim that glory. Now, I they're not. Matt Rule's done a nice job. They're not. They're not the same. The sport outgrowing. It happens all the time. When I grew up in the seventies, the Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Kansas City Royals had the best rosters in baseball, the Pirates, where I can go through the entire roster of the Reds. Oh and I can go the Yankees, by the way. We're the Yankees, by the way. We're terrible in the eighties. But things changed with cable TV money, and now the Royals and the Reds and the Pirates they don't have any money. And I just saw this. According to a recent poll featuring this is by on three, it's a very very good company, very shrewd. If you follow college football, they're excellent. According to a recent poll featuring nil collectives, GMS agents and administrators, here's who spending money in college football. And that's what you got to do to win. Texas number one. Texas Tech has a billionaire donor. He went big this year. Ohio State three, Oregon four A and m and Miami five, Michigan SC seven, USC is about eighteen million now, Tennessee nine, Auburn ten, SO four SEC schools in the top ten. Nobama. So Nick Saban saw this thing coming. Saban's like exit stage right. Two years before he left, he was grumbling about what was happening to college football, and I had a very good source close to Saban saying he was like, we can't compete with Texas. They got two billionaire donors. And remember it was like two years before Saban left they played Texas. Remember that game. I think it was in Tuscaloosa, and you watched that game and you went, oh, snap, Texas is way bigger upfront and faster. Texas had better players. Saban was still the better coach, but Saban saw it, he knew the problems, and so I don't buy that Saban's coming back to Alabama. I don't think he's coming back to college football. I do believe the NFL hires seven new coaches a year, and I think he brings instant credibility to anywhere he goes. Remember in Miami with the Dolphins, if the team doctor allows Drew Brees to play, he never takes that Bama job because he was getting things going there in Miami. And with that Urban Meyer, three time national champions now joining us live as we're getting fired up for the college football season. So it's interesting. But just about Nick. Nick is one of those guys who's older like Pete Carroll, but he doesn't play old, young, dynamic. He's an innovator, and I do think Nick and Belichick are tight. I do think, like Jim Harbaugh, there's that little, that little scratch. Nick's never failed at anything right, He's been good, and that Miami thing is a little unsettling. I do think Nick would take a call about an NFL job. Do you urban.

You know I have not talked to him about this. I could guess because I know him fairly well and competed against him, that it's not a little scratch. It's probably a pretty big scratch. That that's the one area that he is not you know, you know, he was, like you said, he's getting things going on Miami. I actually visited him when he was down there. But I don't think he'd go back to college. I don't see that fit. I think you're you know, the whole idea that where the heck is Alabama? Why are they not in the top ten and spending I don't understand that one and pushed a board. I'd be asking some hard questions, say what's the problem here? We can't compete, we can't pay our players. So I agree with you, I would say very little to no chance he would get involved in college, but I think he would take phone calls from the NFL.

Yeah, I mean, let's talk Jim Harbor. Jim Harbaugh was rumored for years to go to the NFL, and he the minute Justin Herbert needed a head coach. Jim's like, yeah, I like that one. As you well know, you can win a national championship without a great quarterback in college. But I would argue in the NFL, they're all bad jobs if you're bad at quarterback. So I mean, to me, I think Nick's gonna I mean, like, when you look at the NFL, it almost feels like it's a quarterback driven league, does it not.

Well, that's kind of what got me, not kinda. I mean, I still think Trevor Lawrence will go down as one of the great quarterbacks. I think he's gonna end up having a great career. But that's so intriguing when you see a player of that caliber. If Nick Saban can get that kind of position where he he believes that this is a Hall of Fame, future Hall of Fame quarterback or a world champion quarterback, the more I'm thinking I think he's going to take that call. I really do, And I've not talked to him about that. He's got to doing a great job on game day. And I know Mark Ingram and him play golf together and he has a great life. But he's a competitor and I think he do very well.

So we've been talking about JJ McCarthy. Full disclosure, I liked bo Nicks better than JJ McCarthy. He'd had like five college coordinators. He was good with all of them. I watched him beat Justin Herbert as a freshman when Herbert was at Oregon. He was a freshman at Auburn, and I watched him beat him. So I thought bon Nix was going to work. I think Caleb does. I like Drake May, I love Jayden Daniels. Going into NFL. I was hit and miss on JJ McCarthy, and my criticism was like an Alabama quarterback never trails, not asked to carry a team, doesn't get hit much. Great coach, I mean, this is one of the Ohio state quarterbacks haven't historically been great. They always have the better coach and the better roll line and the better receivers. I'm not a huge believer in JJ McCarthy because he hasn't been he hasn't lived that NFL college life where you have to throw to non NFL receivers and you don't have protection and you play from behind. Where are you on JJ? I know you may have to be diplomatic, but where are you on him as a talent?

No, I don't have to be diplomatic. I'd like JJ. I covered him in quite a bit on Fox Big Noon. We had him all the time. I thought he was a great game manager. To say he's going to be a great NFL quarterback I got. I'm skeptical a little bit because I think he's a tremendous athlete. He knows how to distribute the ball. But he like you said that last year, that Wolverine football team that he was a quarterback, the national champions. They were loaded, They had a great defense, great offense line, best offense line in college football. He did not get hit much. And if you remember his junior year, he had really or his third year his he had a hard time completing the ball downfield. They were not a downfield throwing team and he struggled with that. So I think if they surround him with great players, I think he'll be successful. But that's like all quarterbacks. But there's a lot of question marks about JJ McCarty because of what you just said. Has he really had to bring the team from behind, He has a skill set. The thing that I like best about JJ McCarty he's a competitor and he's a selfless player. There was times they won games where he threw the ball fifteen times and you never heard it complain about it. So I'm a JJ McCarthy fan. I like him, but there's some skepticism out there about it.

Okay, So I think the guy that two years ago didn't work for me, and I think I think he has a chance to be the best quarterback in college Football's Drew Aller.

So.

I watched him two years ago and I thought he was a bit wild, and then last year I watched him. He was defeat were better, he were composed, he was more accurate, and I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh, this guy can really play. Give me your break. I think Penn State's gonna play for the national championship with Texas. I think this kid. The difference between sophomore junior year or what I saw him two years ago. In last year was like, oh, that's a first round quarter. What do you think?

I think night and day, very concerned about you. Ally is actually from Ohio and I saw a high school tape on him and then we covered him his sophomore year and he struggled. Last year he was much better fundamentally. But the question I have for Penn State. They have two great running backs, they have one of the best offensive lines in the country, certainly in the Big Ten. Do they have this skill on the outside? Last year they did not. That was not a typical Penn State receiving corps and I don't know if they made it better. You know, I keep trying to research that and we'll see him early in the season, but I'm hoping they have better skill on the outside. I think everything about Penn State is a nationalist championship contender. My question is do they have NFL draft picks on the outside like they used to?

You know, I was you know when And this happens a lot in life, where you see something happen and then you're worried about it, but it actually plays to your benefit. So when the NIL came out, I think a lot of coaches like Dabo Sweeney are like, I don't want to pay my players. That's not what college football is about. Here's where the NIL helps coaches. Because you spend so much time raising money to pay the players, you can't buy out coaches anymore. Alabama can't paid Kaylin Debori sixty million and pay Saban more money and pay they don't have the money. And so I do think coaches. I mean, like Lincoln Riley, I know the number. He's not going anywhere. There's no way. They just spent three hundred million on facilities, eighteen million in NIL. He's got an eighty million dollar buyout. So I think NIL actually urban protects the staff. You probably get a year or two more than you used to. What say you?

Every time I come on your show, you come up with something, Colin, I'm like, what is he talking about? And this is one of those moments I think you're right, You're absolutely I never thought of it that way. But how about the Wolverine is one of the best brands, and biggest brands are expected at twenty seven dollars twenty seven million dollars shortfall, teams are going to start I'm worried about this start dropping sports. Where is this money coming from? And what you just said to go pay off a coaching staff as the head coach has a buyout, but then you also have to pay off all those assistant coaches. So this is one of those moments calling you got me again. I think you're absolutely right that you're going to see that the Texas A and M paidoff coaches like they used to. I don't think you can do that anymore. There's not enough money.

Finally, I think the best player in college football and he won't be eligible as Jermaine Smith. I think Ohio State's receiver agreed, and I'm trying. I'm trying to think of somebody. I'd have to go back to Hugh Green that played for Pittsburgh, where I literally saw somebody and I thought, oh, he'd be an elite NFL player as a sophomore in college. Jamar Chase at LSU felt like that, You're like, yeah, he's an NFL player, plan on Saturdays. He's way too good for college football. How do you coach a guy that is so good and so gifted? How do you keep him engaged? How do you keep him focused? How do you keep him happy? Because he didn't even look like a college player.

I've had I can't say I've had a Jermaine Smith Jeremiah Smith, but I've had a couple that you just got to constantly challenge him. The best thing that Ohio State has is incredible defense. So his biggest challenges a lot of times aren't necessarily the games on Saturday. It's the Tuesday and Wednesday practice. And I felt that when I had to Nick Bosa, or I had Percy Harvin or some of those guys who are just so much better than really everyone else a lot of times, baron everyone else should play until you get to those big games. Then you challenge the heck out of him in practice. And that's a good thing about Jeremi Smith and Ohio State. His biggest you know, his biggest challenges a lot of times are going against each other in practice. That's when iron charps is iron. And I've dealt with that, and I know that's what's happening in Columbus. They got some good corners and that's one of his biggest challenge to motivate him every day to go to work.

Jeremiah Smith not German. I made a mistake, Jeremih Smith. Finally, Texas Ohio State play in the opener. We all want to see arch Manning. I want to see arch Manning. What what will you need to see? How are you going to view that game? I don't care a lot about stats. I want to see what happens when he faces pressure. That's what I want to see. That this will be the best front he faces. My guess is what are you looking for from arch Manning?

Really interesting to hear and I got a strong opinion because I coached Tiamo when after he won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore, he won the national championship as a junior. His senior year, the scrutiny, the expectations, we'd beat Tennessee by fourteen points, he'd throw the ball, and he'd be getting hammered by the media. He didn't play well enough. So I think this will be the player with the highest expectations in the last decade. I put it at the tebow level, where is anything going to be good enough other than a perfect game. And he plays in the SEC. He's going to face SEC defenses each week. He's placing the play the ol State buckets early. I think he's a tremendous talent. But Sark, I'm glad he's got a head coach like Sark that knows how to handle pressure like this, because the pressure on him will be immense, and it's going to be pressure. I think it's we have a witness this kind of pressure on a player. I'm saying since Tim Tebow's senior year at the University of Florida, NonStop even win to get We went twelve and zero his senior year and nothing was good enough. And I worry about that. That wears on you, that wears on the staff, but most importantly, it's gonna wear an arch manning.

So I did a national championship bubble yesterday. I think there's five to six teams. Yeah, okay, So here I have Clemson, Bama, Notre Dame. I don't know if Clemson has the athletes they I don't know if they match up with Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Penn State. I just don't know if they do. But I like their coaching. Quarterback Bama Notre Dame. I have to watch them play because I don't know what they are at quarterback at Bama's playing a guy who hasn't played he's been there three years. But there are five teams that I believe look different. I love the staffs, I just they're different to me, like like the backfield for Penn State is just different. It's all NFL guys. Anything you disagree with here.

No, I would probably throw one other team on the bubble, though. I would throw that LSU team on the bubble. You know. I think coach Kelly is a heck of a coach, and they got a returning quarterback that I think is just stud So I would throw one more out there, and LSUS never would be short. They were the one team, and I know you can't just stereo type of team. They were the one team when I coached the SEC. Them and Georgia came walking out of that tunnel. They look different, and that stadium is a tough place to play. I like it. I'd like your tough five. But I'd throw one more bubble team in there, and that's LSU.

Urban Meyer, three time national champion coach, is always you're making time for us and we love that.

Thanks, good to see it.

Great to see you urban Meyer on our show, which is you know, Fox Sports College Football hind Big Noon, Big Noon. Things happen on that show. From what I from what I hear. I read a lot and there's a lot of stuff. There's a lot of moving parts on that show. I'm not going to get into it, but big Noon Nurse things moving there. The wheel is spinning there. That's what I hear. They want to pull stool and sit down and read about it. From what I hear.

Anyway, Hey, it's me Rob Parker.

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Hope you guys caught that Urban Meyer who knows Nick Saban very well, very very well, said he doesn't think it's a small itch. It is a big, big scratch. Nick Saban and the NFL. I would not have spent ten minutes on it yesterday and almost led with it today. I think nothing against being an analyst, but I just think he's very much. If you told me Saban has a doppelganger, kind of a similar personality, I would say it's Jim Harball. Those guys are just different level intents and hardball love Michigan Alma mater. Saban loves Bama the minute an elite quarterback was open with a decent roster, hardball Bowls, and Bama's not getting him back. Bama can't. These colleges can't afford buyouts for their coaches. Everybody complaining about Calin de boor Bama and that kind of money. They can't buy him out and buy Saban. That alone would be one hundred and fifty million dollars. Saban's not coming back for two years. He'd want four or five years guaranteed at fifteen million a pop. Like Lincoln Riley at USC They're gonna win eight games this year. He's going nowhere. They just spent three hundred million dollars on facilities. They spend eighteen million dollars a year. Where do you think that money's coming from and they're not going to pay eighty million dollars to get rid of Lincoln Riley. So you know, I think urban Meyer was surprised on that, But I think college coaches should love the ni Hel. It's guaranteed them another year or three. At the college level. You can't run out Brian Kelly ls. You can't afford it.

Colin Hey, when did I thought sports was a young man's game? When did we start talking about Bill Belichick, who's seventy three going to North Carolina, Nick Saban, who's in his seventies going back to football, Lebron in his forty.

What's going on here? Why are we so obsessed with the old guys?

Is Andy Reid and Sean Payton? Are they crushing?

Are we talking about them?

We're not talking about them, We're I mean, Bill Belichick's been one of the biggest stories in sports this year, and now Nick Saban's threatening to take over the summer the baton Lebron just handed him in mid July, and now it's gonna be Nick.

I'm gonna take middle aged old guys over young guys. Everybody looks at Silicon Valley Zuckerberg's not twenty four. You know who's the smartest guy in Silicon Valley? If you ask people, Larry Ellison at Oracle, I think he's in his seventies. That's the guy that that's Elon Musk. If you ask Elon who's the smartest guy, they're all like, oh, yeah, it's not Tim Cook at Apple, it's Larry Ellison at Oracle.

Aren't they putting age limits or term limits or whatever it's called on politicians who are like eighty.

Four and in Congress? Why don't we have coaching age limits.

Let's get some new blood in there, some creative young people to try some new stuff. I'm sorry, Like, Nick Saban was an amazing coach, had a great run. I don't need to see him going back to football.

Do we? Yeah? Let me see. You want that coordinator from uh?

I want to find the next Dan Lanning? Yeah, I want That's what I want.

I want the next young, hotshot guy who's gonna be awesome and creative and smart.

Dude, you're in the interesting business. Saban to the Cowboys. That is literally fifty segments. The first two weeks of the NFL seas has.

A tire fire waiting to happen. And you know that Jerry Jone. Isn't that doing over what Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson, isn't that not doing that all over again?

Jerry's eighty two years old. He wants to win. Saban wins, Saban win. Everybody wants everybody wants the hot shot young guy. You know who's the best coach in the NBA? Eric Spolster or Steve Kerr. You know who was the third best coach until about two years ago with the health issues, Greg Popovich. You guys have all these young guys. Look around, who are the best coach? Dabo Sweeney is not thirty six years old. Look around at who is dominating sports? It is the hardballs are not in their forties. Larry Ellison, Now I've been told, is eighty Warren Buffett just retired at eighty something?

Is it forty fifties different from mid seventies?

Not really?

Okay, seventy five is the new fifty five? Is that what you're saying?

Well? I think people, I mean I was talking to a friend the other day. You don't have to like Trump, but he plays much younger energy wise, he doesn't sleep. He literally doesn't sleep. Biden was his age. Trump isn't. Pete Carroll and Nick Saban to me have the energy of a fifty four year old. I mean, there are people in our business that are fifty and feel like it and sixty and don't. So I don't buy. I mean, all I know is this when I would never in a million years have a thirty year old financial planner, I wouldn't even consider having a thirty year old attorney. I have no interest in it. Giving me older guy who's been around the block, who's failed. Warren Buffett just retired at ninety four. I'm sorry that. I mean, I until a couple of years ago, he was as sharp as anybody talking. Still is talking about the market. Jmack with the news. No, no, turn on the news.

This is the Herdline News.

All right, let's get started with the Kansas City Chiefs Colin Rashi Rice. Remember he was lost last season with the knee injury back in the Week four. Pretty gruesome. I believe it was against the Chargers here at so far. Well, the report just came out that Rice, due to some off field issues, has been sentenced to five years probation that's significant and thirty days of jail time stemming from his role in the multi car crash last offseason. The report adds that with the sentencing, the NFL can now expedite the disciplinary process, and Rice is likely, according to reports, to receive a multiple game suspension this season. Obviously, the Chiefs wide receiver group was garbage last year.

They need a healthy Hollywood Brown, they need a active Rashi Rice.

And obviously Travis Kelcey to return the form, but Xavier Worthy can't carry them with Rice out. They really need this guy back on the field.

Con Yeah, he's more of a gadget guy. I mean, it feels like a six game suspension to me. I mean, you're running from a hit and run accident and that's done. Nothing lower than that. I mean, there probably is something, but that brutal. He really developed from his rookie year to a second year. You were like, Wow, he's a volume receiver. He's really good. He's really really talented. But you know what, man, there is Kansas City's moved off a lot of receivers and they keep winning. They'll be fine. But that feels like a six game suspension minimum. Okay to me? All right.

Let's move on to Jamar Chase Colin. Oh boy.

He had the Bengals first ever season where they won the Triple Crown, leading the NFL in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns. Now he's got his site set on another record two thousand yards. Chase believes that we'll see one very soon, saying in the next three years, somebody has to do it, if not me, What do you think of two thousand yards?

Is that reasonable?

I don't think that's what you want. I don't want one receiver getting two thousand yards. First of all, if you get to eighteen hundred, you're gonna be overcompensating as a team trying to get him the ball. But I mean, by the way, you look at a lot of these guys that did it. Are there a lot of Super Bowls? I guess Cooper caught?

You're what one?

Julio Jones went to one. Let's take Terry Rice out of the equation. Antonio Brown is a goofball. I get the angle for two thousand yards for chases. Their defense is so bad they just hemorrhage points all games. So they're chasing, and Burrow's got to be throwing, so Chase is gonna be putting out massive numbers.

Yeah. I mean that's a really good point in today's football if you have a receiver with two thousand yards, because so many teams place zones, so many teams don't allow you to throw stuff over the top. So to get two thousand yards, you have to have one hundred and thirty catches, and they have T Higgins. So what that tells you is they're trailing, they're in shootouts. I don't want, you know, if I have two thousand yard receivers, I would take that every day over a two thousand yard receiver. I want a balanced offense. I mean again, two thousand yards means you are getting into track meets. Those teams don't win Super Bowls.

I mean the Bengals, I think scored like over thirty points like six times and lost a bunch of those games. Like that defense is just bad. By the way, we should find out what's up with Hendrickson and their first round pick. Cincinnati is just a mess. Let's go to the NBA Colin final story. The Lakers are in the news again, and it's not necessarily Lebron, but there are reports today that say the one of the reasons the Lakers haven't really done much this offseason is they are saving their cap space to make a run at Nikola Jokic or Jannis in the next.

Couple of seasons.

Obviously, Jokic and Luca are very close friends, and people seem to think, hey, well, wait a second. Jokic did not sign the extension this summer. He said, let's see what Let's wait till next summer. Now, obviously he can make more next summer, but it.

Might be two things.

It might be like, I can make more, sure, but I don't want to see if for good they won the title and then lost in the second round back to back years.

Okay, so this will be I'm gonna push back. Luca fits better with Yannis because Yannis is a great grim defender, which isn't Jokic needs the ball, Yannis doesn't. So Jokic is gonna take the ball out of Luca's hands and doesn't protect him on the back end as a defender. It sounds great. Yannis and Luca wins titles. They compliment each other perfectly. One defends greatly, one doesn't. One needs the ball, one doesn't. Yannis doesn't have an outside game. So he's not gonna get he's not gonna take any shots. He's gonna get Ali oops, He's gonna get shook stuff close to He's gonna get stuff close to the basket. Jokicch and Luca sounds better than it would be two now. I think Jokic, because of size, is a better defender than Luca. I don't think he's a terrible defender. Luka is, but I I don't think that. I think that. I mean again, they'd be good. But I think one of the reasons Jokic works with like Gordon, Gordon doesn't need the ball. Gordon's a great defender. Jokicch sometimes has to be protected a little bit defensively. Luca has to be protected defensively. Yannis and Luca is perfect to me.

You know, listen, this is not a bad take by you.

It's better than your old man football take from a few minutes ago.

But I do think you're right.

Jiannis would be amazing. Like, listen, you want to try to cut off Luca.

Drives, He's just gonna throw it up in the air and Gianni will catch and dunk everything. But I just also think Jokic and Luca the passing on that team that would might be the highest IQ team in basketball history.

You don't what in the world would you have to give me to get this story? Feels like such nonsense. I would not give up Jokic. There is no package, none that you could offer me in the NBA. It doesn't really give me chat Holmgren an SGA not interested.

I take k Colin. It's different.

What if Yoki says I'm not signing an extension, trade.

Me, get me out of here. Denver would be.

Handcuffed and say, well, fine, we could just play it out and then lose him for nothing, or we could just trade him now and get whatever the hell we can.

Okay, why would he do that. He's an international player. They don't demand trades.

They have not They have not demanded trades. Who's to say that they're not going to start doing that? Giannis Jo kicch let's.

That's not Jokic. Yokicic wants to hide. You can hide in Denver if you're a basketball hide in LA. No, you can't. Not with the Lakers. Now that that story doesn't have any legs, he I mean these international guys. One of the reasons. Yannis is loyal to Milwaukee because the big city's south. On the train down to Chicago. He can hide in Milwaukee. Jokicic can hide in Denver. Sga can hide in Oklahoma City.

Hey you know who's hiding in La Sho?

Hey o Tani. I haven't seen him around lately. He's hiding very well out here in Los Angeles town, so it could be done. Yokich is seven feet talls like you.

Yeah, I don't. I actually ran into yokitch at at a restaurant in La He's so if he wasn't that big, you'd never know.

He has no risk in the show or.

No, No, he didn't mention you. No he didn't. I'm not sure he knew who I was, but somebody pushed me toward him, and his brothers knew. He didn't.

I've heard the brothers are not to be trifled with.

Yeah, I just I don't buy that. The idea that everybody wants to play for the Lakers, No they don't. They don't. Thirteen percent taxes, Lebron's gonna run the ecosystem. There's a lot of politics for the Lakers. They do have new ownership, which is is. You know, here comes some real competency. But I don't know the.

President was helping all the rich guys. Jokis doesn't have to worry about the taxes. That's not an issue. And by the way, I mean a flight to from LA to Serbia in the offseason, that's a that's a that's like a puddle jumper. That's no big deal. I think LA makes a ton of sense.

Jmak with a news.

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So Caitlin Clark announced that she won't participate in the WNBA All Star festivities due to injury. And this is once again the WNBA not having everything lined up, so they put the All Star Game in Indiana because they got so heavily criticized for butchering her first year and then they didn't have their officiating right, and she's been getting pushed around in clobber. It's very much Michael Jordan who got hurt in year two. Jordan breaks into the NBA and as a phenom, doesn't look like anybody else, and they didn't figure out the officiating for years and years you were tackling him, so she reinjures her groin. The officiating is the low spot of the league. It looks like they've got their travel and their marketing upgraded. The players recently voted her as the face of the league. So slowly they are kind of putting their arms around it, coming to terms with the fact that they're their top salesman and their top face is Caitlin Clark. That didn't like it. They're acknowledging it, but they're not all lined up. The officiating remains suboptimal, and she's making the right decision in my take for her. Now she's getting to a point where she should be play for the Fever, play in the Olympics, and then you know they've just the WNBA has gone through several stages. They the league wasn't ready for should have been the Olympic movement with women's basketball was petty, tribal, and clueless. The travel was second tier, the marketing was bad, the players were petty. But it's all kind of coming around. Everybody's kind of getting used to it. WNBA players now I think a little more than gotten criticized so broadly and so punitively that I think they're coming to terms with girl can play. But the officiating is bad. It is bad. We talked about it yesterday. I don't know the specifics, but college officials make more than WNBA officials. That is indisputable. That can't be the case. So she's not going to participate. It's in Indiana. It would have been perfect, but they're just not quite lined up yet. The other thing, I think we made some news today Urban Meyer. I believe Nick Saban, not that he's unhappy broadcasting, but every time I watch that show he's on, I want more of Nick Saban. And he's an expert. I mean, he just walked out as the greatest coach in college football history. I'd are you Urban Myers too, and I think Saban has that Jim Harbaugh itch and I said the nil Bama is not a top ten NIL team they're collective is not close to Oregon, Michigan, USC, Ohio State, Texas, Texas Tech, Michigan. It's not or Miami. So they're not going to buy out Kaitlin the Boer and pay eighteen million a year to players and pay Nick one hundred million for five years. They're not going to do it. They're not in the top ten according to an on three poll, which is a great, great company. They're not Auburn's got more money than they do, Okay, so they're not going to do that. He's not going to Bama. I don't think he's going to college football and urban Meyer discussed that thirty minutes ago.

I don't think he'd go back to college.

I don't see that fit.

I think you're you know, the whole idea that where the heck is Alabama? Why are they not in the top ten and spending I don't understand that one and push the boar. I'd be asking some hard questions, say what's the problem here? We can't compete, but we can't pay our players. So I agree with you. I would say very little to no chance you would get involved in college. But I I think he would take phone calls from the NFL.

I absolutely believe that is true, and it comes down to basic math. I mean, an urban knows him well. Is that the NIL now makes it almost impossible to roll fire a coach with four years left on his contract because these guys are all making ten million, now forty million, and then you're gonna have to pay Nick eighty to one hundred million. Nick's not coming back for a year, even if he retires early. He wants a five year no cut deal. And I would argue, probably at eighteen to fifteen million bucks a year, so you're paying sixty seventy for him or whatever or eighty. You're not going to pay off a guy at thirty forty to fifty million killing the board to get him out of the room. It's not gonna happen. Those days are over. So I mean there may be an exception, I doubt it very seriously. NFL's totally different. He failed, although he had it. There were a lot of sign that it was going to work if Drew Brees signed with the Dolphins, but the team doctor said no, can do so. And the other thing that works in Saban's favor is this coming draft. It would be a perfect time to leave. This would have been a bad year. He'll have another great year on television. So he's the best college coach ever. He's a super star broadcaster. And it's a great quarterback draft. And so he used to coach in Cleveland. Now I like Stefanski a lot, But if he could get arch Manning and you bring in Nick Saban, I mean, Jimmy Haslam likes star power. He wanted to draft Baker Mayfield and Johnny Manziel and he wanted Deshaun Watson. Jimmy Haslam, who by the way, I think he's a Tennessee booster, a Tennessee gret. He gets the power of Saban, Saban arch Manning in Cleveland, it'd be the most talked about team in the league. Wouldn't be the best, maybe be the most talked about team in the league. Jimmy Haslam sec guy, big money guy Tennessee. He knows the sec. Keep your eye on Cleveland with Nick Saban and I and I think he's a huge donor to Tennessee. And I also think keep your eye on the Dallas Cowboys. I think that Brian Schottenheimer thing is gonna be a mess. And by the way in a right now they're saying there's minimum four, possibly six first round quarterbacks, So you don't have to be terrible to have a shot at a quarterback. If you draft eighth, you could get the third best quarterback. Because remember two years ago the quarterback class. Cam Ward's going to work in Tennessee. And if JJ McCarthy can play, and Caleb Williams can play, and Michael Pennix I think can play, you just solve six teams quarterback dilemmas. You're getting to a saturation point. How many teams next year?

Now?

The Rams to get Stafford a backup, I think would give up two ones to keep to move up to get a quarterback Cleveland will I mean, there's obvious teams that would, Indianapolis, the Colts would, but just keep your eye on it. It's urban Meyer did not push back on it. And when I intimated, when I said, do you think Nick has a little itch, just a little itch about the NFL? Urban said, it's more than a little itch. So there's a couple of people that know Nick Saban really well, Urban Meyer and Bill Belichick. I mean, if Belichick goes to college, Saban wouldn't revisit the NFL, and again, like Pete Carroll, he may be old, he doesn't act old. He didn't coach old. He doesn't think old. Belichick, Trump and Saban successful motivated. They're not going to sit back in retirement and go hang out on a lake. Some guys just need to work. They need to be challenged. And I don't think Saturdays on Television challenges Saban enough.

I don't let me hit you with one.

Okay, all this hot take happy hours started early, folks. Okay, Mahomes and the Chiefs backslide just a little. Andy Reid says, you know, I'm late sixties, I'm walking away. I got enough winning gun. That's a job Nick Saban has taken in a heartbeat. Now, the Chiefs will have their pick of anybody.

But if you could.

Coach Patrick Mahomes or like I said earlier, Josh Allen, I think those are the jobs Saban would go for it. Do you really think a seventy three year old he's gonna want to take on a Cowboys situation with an older owner no quarterback, or even the Browns with a young guy. I know you said there's six quarterbacks. He's not going back to the NFL to coach Drew Hour. I'm sorry that's not happening. I think Saban would only take elite and the best of the best, which is what he should do.

He's got a lot of better money.

Let me ask you, Zach Taylor doesn't make the playoffs again, Joe Burrow.

Sean McDermott, Now, Cincinnati's interesting because that ownership is so cheap. Right, we've articulated that. Hushbinzada has been on.

Here talking about it. I think you'd have to be careful going there, but right.

Sean McDermott gets bounced first round.

Yeah, buff Buffalo is it would be the perfect spot Kansas City if Reid walks away, I don't think Shanahan's on the hot seat.

But does he want to go back for brock Purty.

He wouldn't go West.

I had to get a rock perty with me.

Yeah, yeah, I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving Saturday sitting down making ten million for brock Purty. I can say that Power three Nat

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