The Jason Smith Show with Mike HarmonJason Smith & Mike Harmon discuss some teams resting players and wonder any playoff implications such as the Bengals getting in.
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Hello, Welcome inside final hour tonight, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon, Live from the Tirack dot Com Studios. Tirac dot com. I'll help you get there an unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirac dot Com is the way tire buying should be. Well, here we are almost on the eve of the eve of the final week of the regular season.
Jet Show Jets.
It's like, I mean, like, do they really have to keep playing? I mean they really have to keep playing? I can't, we can't, we It's over.
I'm happy as hell that it's the final week of bear season?
Are you kidding me?
I can't even tell you that I'm excited about all the people they're talking to interview wise, because Mike Rabel's not gonna take this job. As much as I want. I want Mike Rabel more than anybody else, He's not gonna He's got options. He's interviewing with the Jets. Just Silipic, all right, I'm ready, you gotta call me, you gotta hire. The Jets are only gonna get people to be their GM or their head coach who would never be named a GM or a head coach in any other situation, Like it's the only chance to get it's one of thirty two, and it's I don't really want this, but nobody else. Nobody else is gonna hire Lewis Riddick as their GM, but hey, the Jets might. No one else gonna bring back Ron Rivera, who was like, what a worst record than Robert Sala the last few of that. But I want to let's talk to Ron Rivera. I mean, the one thing that it's last chance hotel Man. Yeah, And the one thing that.
Was positive about Rivera is what you he was part of rebuilding and changing what was going on in Washington. So at least that I can understand if you're trying to do a culture shift where you bring him in for a conversation.
Vrabel.
The last couple of years.
In Tennessee didn't go brilliantly at odds at times, it seemed with front office and everything. But again, track record of success history with what he did in New England, Brady endorsement, Belichick endorsement. You bring him in and you talk to him because he's a guy that has been a you know, exhibited leader of men. I mean, I'm going with the same thing in Chicago where everybody's doing all the pie in the sky wishing, wanting. Oh, Ben Johnson's expressed interest in the you know, Bears job. Has he expressed interest or is he intrigued by the offensive weaponry that maybe he could command there? But once he gets in there and he kicks the tired on the organization, much like your Jets. Do you want any part of that with the guys that are running.
I want more of the Bears and the Jets because the Bears leavest to have a future. You have really good young players, you have a franchise.
Quarterback rights don't have that, but you still But we've always talked about it, and it's one of the monitras of the show. A don't be stupid, b I can't fault a good strategy. And see, uh, if you have bad ownership slash upper management, you got problems. And what are the Jets and Bears have in common there?
Oh, I don't know, it's it's it's a big deal. But I mean, but look but Bears ownership and GM and and and and Warren running the show. That's like that. That looks like the forty nine ers of the eighties compared to the Jets. Well, where you have an owner and his teenage son who are running the team.
Yeah, but you've got Warren who keeps saying Poles is going to hire the coach, and he's he's got his hands in his back like he's operating him like he's a puppet. Like it's in Chicago nineteen twenty. I mean's on with all of.
This going on?
Now?
You know we have the drama of the teams that are out of it. Let's tell you who's gonna wind up making the playoffs in the final playoffs, Yeah, the Jets, and only if everybody else quit. Even then the Jets would have to pass the interview and they'd probably tank that. Let's start with the NFC first. It's either gonna be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Atlanta Falcons. Right, that's it. Everything else is set up. We talked about the seedings with the Lions and the Vikings. I like the Lions on something, You like the Vikings. I'll tell you what. Not only is Tampa Bay going to win because they have to win and get in right and New Orleans is I think they're starting Archie Manning at quarterback this week.
So New Orleans linus.
They have no offense. They're done. They're done, They've been done for months. They're ready to get to the offseason. Baker Mayfield is on a heater. He's gonna wind up getting some MVP love. They're oh stays hot and they're gonna win. But you know what, it ain't gonna matter because Caroline is gonna beat Atlanta. Just watch. They will put an end to this miserable stretch the Falcons have had where they made the move to Michael Pennix Junior, who has been okay, but he hasn't been lighting the world on fire like they thought he was going to throw.
B John Robinson. I mean that was a bullet and that was great, But once again, you've got a young quarterback and a coach that are you trusting what they're calling in Atlanta in crunch time, No, and.
He's made he's admittedly made bad decisions, you know, time out, no time out like he has done that day.
All of that stuff has just been absurd across the NFL, and we saw it rear its head with Atlanta as well.
They've never found their groove or identity. They're two inconsistent and this is a game where, Okay, we think we're going to walk out here and win because it's the Panthers. But I got news for you. Bryce Young has played his best football the last couple of weeks. This is a guy who was playing for his NFL life, and he knows if I have a good game here, maybe I get one more year to prove that I can be that in the third year, because I came back after getting benched when you didn't think he was gonna see the field at all, and he was terrible. And he has played Okay, now I'm not saying he's been a world beater, but he has shown a little bit more of the flare that made him the number one overall pick in the draft. Again, you got to get him outside the pocket. You got to get him making instinctive plays with his legs and Bryce s Young will be a different quarterback again. He'll be the same guy you saw at Alabama. How he puts throws where he does, he sees the field amazing. But you got to keep getting him outside the pocket. But he has played a he has played great football the last couple of weeks. And one more big game where you knock the Falcons out of the playoffs. Play well. He may walk into next year going okay, I got one more year in this fresh start to get it done. Get me the Carolina Panthers upsetting the Atlanta Falcons. They're playing at home, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game becomes irrelevant.
I love it.
Atlanta given seven and a half, forty eight and a half the total. The other thing you've seen is, you know, we've talked about it for years on the show doing this. The greatest post up player for me has been and Kwon Bolden in the final years of his career. Right, find the space, good hands, box out all of those things, and then do some red zone work as well. Keenan Allen doing a little of that with his run here in Chicago. That's been where he's been at his best, as he's not the same juggernaut he once was as a member of the Chargers. You're seeing that now with Adam Thielen and what he's meant for this second act of Bryce Young this year. The last couple of weeks, their connection has been fantastic. Last five weeks, he's got five or more catches in every game.
Yeah, all of a sudden, it's like six years ago, and wow, Adam Thieling's going to be the new Wes Welker for the Vikings.
He's not taking the cover off of things. That's not what his job is. His job is to move the sticks and keep drives alive. And he's been doing that in a big fashion. And going up against Atlanta opportunity once again. Yeah, Bryce Young has been phenomenal. I still think Atlanta wins. I'll take Carolina plus the seven and a half in Tampa minus fourteen.
Man, these points spreads fun.
It's like that one with Baltimore at minus twenty. Like, all right, let's just see how long before you can do the Queen's Wave and walk to the sidelines.
So we both like Tampa to get to the playoffs. In the NFC. The AFC is down to three teams for one spot. Right depending on how things go, it's either going to be the Broncos or the Dolphins or the Bengals. Let's go in show order. How we said, how we go in show order? We get the Bengals play the first game to borrow against the Steelers. I know it's on the road. I'll take Joe Burrow.
I'll take Joe Burrow. Yeah, he's on the defense. Pittsburgh's got a lot of struggles right now.
He is on an unreal heater. The Steelers are running out of gas. They're finding out that Russell Wilson isn't the savior that Mike Tomlin said he was the early parts of the year. They are struggling. They've got a lot of jags on offense, and this formula of trying to win every week sixteen to ten, you can't do it. And you can see them running out of gas and Burrowing Company are hot. They're gonna get the win. That's gonna put the pressure on the Dolphins and the Broncos for Sunday I'd love to be able to sit here and tell you, hey, the Jets are gonna be picking in the top five, top seven. They're gonna lose the Dolphins. But no, no, it's gonna be a typical Jets thing to do in what could be Aaron Rodgers' final NFL game. So you know he's gonna ball out not knowing how the offseason is gonna play out. And I'm not under any false pretenses that Tyler Huntley, who's gonna play quarterback because two is not gonna play, is gonna be able to come in and put enough points on the board. The Jets offense still has star power, and as we've seen, the Dolphins can't win without a tongue of ailoa. They can't run the football. It's not gonna be a game where suddenly, hey, all right, we're just gonna get the ball to eighth chn and got no, they can't even do that. They can't. Really, this is an offense that just sputters to a halt when two is not the core. And the Jets, as much as they mailed it in last week, they knew they weren't gonna beat the Bills. Hey, last game of the season at home against the Dolphins. Yeah, this is a game the Jets win. Maybe they wind up drafting tenth or eleventh because of it, but they send the Dolphins out of the playoffs with a big win. So now it comes down to the Broncos. And you know what, I know that that the Chiefs are starting Carson Wentz. The Chiefs are still going to win this game. They are the better team overall. The Broncos are coming back to Earth. Their defense is gonna cause enough problems for bon Nicks and the Broncos. If the season ended three weeks ago, boy, the Broncos really would have been the right spot because they would have hit their peak. But if you've seen they're starting to come down the other side. You can only do so much when you don't have great playmakers. And even though the Chiefs are playing without Patrick Mahomes are gonna rest a bunch of guys no pressure. They win this game, they knock Denver out, Miami loses, and the Bengals, the team nobody wants to play because Burrows do win five touchdown a week, are going to get into the playoffs.
Curious to see how many of the defenders sit down as well, right now, it's a ten and a half point line, Denver favorite at home. Forty and a half is your total. I think Wentz still has a little bit of an opportunity. He wants to show he still belongs, so it'll wing it around. Denver's defense remains one of its big strength vance Joseph's done a great job there throughout the year. Ten and a half. I'll take Kansas City with the points, but I think Denver does enough to win the game.
What a day for Carson Wentz four hundred and sixty yards passing and five touchdowns. What if he has a day better than any day Mahomes has had throughout this.
Year, that would be pretty crazy.
He all of a sudden like, yeah, wait, what do you need Patrick for it? Look at me, Look at look at the numbers I'm putting up here with these guys.
But legitimately it does open the door because we talked about the dearth of quality quarterbacks. Remember at one point we were looking at a list in the studio together and Zach Wilson was listed as a top three potential free agent quarterback. Right because you're looking at Brock Purty stand where he is, You're looking at Sam Darnald either getting franchise tagged or getting a deal where he and the Vikings figure something out. There's been whispers of whether McCarthy might get dealt coming off the two knee surgeries because you like what Donald's doing. You also signed Daniel Jones there, so you know, quarterback whisper O'Connell kind of thing. Maybe you can get some picks and opportunity and to move McCarthy and work with the two veterans and get more draft picks to build things up. Remember, Minnesota has done a lot of this damage. The offensive line got juxtaposed and bounced around a little bit with Derisog going down early, so you know, looking at what they've been able to do, fairly remarkable. But all of that to say, there's not a lot of huge quarterback options out there for you. Carson Wentz could play himself back into a position where he goes in battles with a rookie for starting job. How crazy is that? But he has one big game, it's the light. He's like calder Mote. That's all that matters. But look at the passing numbers for UH this year. For what would it take to Supplan. I mean you had three twenty and three on that Christmas Day game for Mahomes against Pittsburgh. I mean, that's that's really the big game. One ninety six and three that was a loss to Buffalo, two ninety one and three that was a win against Tampa and overtime going back to the beginning of November, like, those are the ones that stand out. Otherwise it's a lot of two forties, two fifties and twos. So there you go, buddy, There there's your aga. And two sixty nine and three against Carolina doesn't count, even though it was a three point win. It just doesn't count because, I mean, Carolina has had a nice run the second half of the year. But uh no, that's not not a big win. Uh So, yeah, I guess that Pittsburgh Christmas Day game when he got that cool ass code at the end of it is the win.
And he gave me get a real cool coat at the end.
That's that was pretty cool. That was a nice gift. I'm taking this home.
Yeah, of course, you.
Damn football cake, But I'm taking the coat and I'm going home.
But I'm telling you that I'll always take the better team than a team that that has kind of hit the top of the mountain to start and try to figure it out as they try to stop falling down it.
Yeah, it would be cool to see Cincinnati get in just for the purpose of some of the MVP chatter. Again, I think you've lost too many games. H Yes, your defense stunk, But I don't know.
Man, if Burrow gets in, if Burrow gets the Bengals in, and it's it's really at this point, I think Josh Allen kind of peaked a little bit too early and and and okay, now it's finishing. Yeah, he's not going to play Sunday. So I think it's it's if Burrow gets in and he gets and he gets the and he gets the Bengals in, he's going to be the MVP. If not, it's gonna right now he's Yeah, I think if he gets them in, he's the MVP. And if not, it's Lamar Jackson gonna get my money. I'm gonna get your money in on Burrow.
Now, well, you know what, I got nothing to do tomorrow? You want to go drive to Vegas?
Why do we have to drive? Can't we do stuff?
I mean, well, we got to get across state line.
We really do.
I don't think you could bet that in California really, I mean you could VPN and stuff.
I don't do that stuff. I don't.
I don't play games. Fine, she's kind of like people going on to Russian websites to watch games.
I'm not doing it.
I paid the man his money and see I pulled it back with Malkovich there. But Burrow at twenty to one is interesting, right, because Alan's sitting at minus three hundred minus two fifty and he's not gonna play.
So if the door was.
Really that wide open, those odds would have come down for Burrow, I think, and for Lamar Jackson a lot more than they have.
Yeah. No, I agree with you on that. I see you on that. They're they're projecting for Lamar Jackson. But I wonder if you see, if you see another big day from him, if you might see some movement over the weekend. Yeah, they play Saturday instead of Sunday, you might see some movement over the week.
I just go back to also the idea of all right, how much of those early games count as empty stats? I know the defense stunk, don't get me wrong. And obviously McPherson did not have the year that you expected McPherson to have after his big year a year ago. But all all of that to say, you know, when those losses are piling up, they'll still have to count, right. I mean, I'm not going Kirk Kurbstreet to say, hey, you know, let's forget about wins. Wins don't matter, winds are irrelevant.
No wait, wait, wait, I mean that.
Was kind of what he wrot.
We're trying to make his whole miss and they're actually important, and now Bama notes.
They actually are pretty important. Hang on a second, So.
Then he just bets really well, as he's learned gambling in these days, because you know, picked Michigan to win.
There's our picks as to who's making the playoff the final weekend in the AFC and the NFC. We got more football on the way now that we've had a chance to take a breath, as we get ready for the final four of the college football playoff next week, we will tell you the best thing about the playoffs so far. That's next Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon Liveromthetirack dot Com Studios, and uh we had a couple of bowl games tonight. We had the Duke's Mayo Bowl. We did.
Did you see the big twist at the end?
Wait? Wait wait.
Mayo bowl by the way, and jar will arrive tomorrow tomorrow.
So you not only ordered a bowl of Duke's Mayo, you got it to arrive tomorrow.
I mean Amazon overnight.
Yeah, but I mean wait, you can overnight mayonnaise.
Well, I said it would deliver it between four and eight tomorrow morning.
So you're staying up till four in the morning.
Yeah, Wait on, No, I got a couple of deliveries tomorrow coming at any time.
I gotta be ready. I'm gonna sit on the porch every truck that goes by. Are you here with my Mayo? Are you here with my Mayo?
No?
So I got that.
I got the bottles for the next round of glug either come tomorrow morning, or some boy a new set of headphones to replace those that I don't know what happened.
No, someone uses.
It to good health. Let's let's put it that way.
Uh.
And then whoever's got them, I don't know. Maybe I left them on my car when I drove out of here a couple of weeks ago.
I don't know.
But either way, uh so replacing those and then I've got a grading order coming back from trading cards. So like, I got a big day coming up, big weekend. But the the two But you.
Over, dude, you overnighted mayonnaise? I mean.
It tomorrow morning.
You you over mayonnaise. Yeah, it's okay, regular shipping. No, no, no, no, I want to overnight this mayonnaise.
I want to gave me the option to have it overnight. So yeah, I want it now.
Anyway, when they were announcing, you know they were in the line, you know, all the love for PJ Fleck and everything. Uh, the mascot took his head off and it was Flavor Flame.
Yeah. No, I saw jumping around tonight shore.
Yeah, so he was there.
But I saw the reveal that it was like as we were talking Patrick and Alex and I, it was like a masked singer reveal.
Yeah kind of Yeah, I think he was also on the mask singer.
I believe he was this next year.
I just want to be unmasked, and I wear something to be unmasked. Yeah, that's great, Okay.
I want what do you think he got paid for that?
Oh? I think he got paid in mayonnaise? Oh man, Yeah, you get paid in Hey, how about a lifetime supply. I'll take it.
Yeah, I get the basic one or doing one.
Or no, that was Cramer. We're going to give you a lifetime supply of coffee. I'll take it.
I'll take it.
But now that we're getting set for the final four of college, let's go. We're a little bit less than a week away, right, we're ready. They've owned the stories, the storyline all through the holiday. Now that we can take a breath, let's let's think back to all the controversy surrounding the beginning of the playoffs, and you understand what a load of crap it all is. All the questions over, oh, how does how does Alabama not get in? How does Miami not get in?
How do we.
They stink? How do we we saw them stake against Michigan who was playing fourth string guys in the defensive line. Uh, how all this, all this controversy over the early round matchups and how bad the seedings were and all you would you would have a better game here, and this is what's wrong with the player and everything has turned out to be crap. You know why, because the reason we have the expanded playoff is to make sure the best five or six teams get into the tournament. Right, I guess obviously it's about money. It's about the more teams in the better off it is. Yeah, but the one thing we couldn't have, especially after last year, was, hey, we can no longer trust the top four teams get in. Florida State was undefeated. Yes, they lost Jordan Travis and but wait a minute, why are we not We did everything you wanted us to do well. We got to make a choice. That fourteen playoff had was no longer feasible. It was no longer a model that worked because every year, what did we see? Hey, look at the snubs at five and six, because there's not a lot of difference between a team that's ranked fourth the team that's ranked fifth or sixth. Now is there a big difference between the team's ranked fourth, fifth and sixth and eleventh and twelfth. Hell yeah, as you've seen, there's a big difference. So the main thing that this this this playoff is supposed to do. It is supposed to say, hey, we got to make sure we get the best five or six teams in. As long as we do that, the rest of the teams can be whoever they want to be. And people can argue for a couple of days, but in the end you're arguing, like it's the NCAA basketball tournament, where all the snubs are a story for about eight seconds, and then we're playing the games on the first four, which is gonna be the first eight of the first twelve whatever they changed to, and then we're onto the games. Right, We're not talking about the snubs anymore. It lasted a little bit longer this year because you know, you play once a week and there is a long time between the unveiling of the playoff teams and when we played our first game. But in the end that went away, Right when when when when Michigan and and Miami all that went away? You got the best five or six teams in because that's where your your playoff final four and your champion's gonna come from. And what do we see right now? Of the team's ranked in the final AP and coaches pol top twenty five, we have the teams ranked three to four, five and six. Right we lost the top two teams. Okay, hey, but it's close. But it's not like we have a twelve that's won its way all the way up. And you know what, if you're a twelve seed that's win its way all the way up, more power to your congratulations. But you're gonna see that. Hey, it's gonna be the top five or six teams are the best teams in the country. They deserve it. They all deserve to get in, and the rest of the teams can be whatever it is, because now you're talking about the difference between a team ranked six and a team ranked twelfth, and not a team ranked fourth or fifth that have identical resumes or in some ways you have a better resume than the team in front of you. So the playoff has done exactly what they wanted to do. We got the best teams in. We have a great tournament so far. Yeah, you'd like the early round games to be closer, and I think they will. They'll they'll tweak it a little bit and next year, I'm sure it will be. Hey, if you win your conference, you get into the playoff, you don't necessarily be a top four seed, so they want good games and I understand that. But this is still the first year of this model, so there's gonna be some tweaks. But overall, the best five or six teams are in, and four of the best six teams are in the final four. So yeah, mission accomplished. They did exactly what they was supposed to do and it's a huge success.
Yeah, not to belabor the blowout thing, but we watched that during the four team playoff, right Oftentimes there wasn't really a great fourth team you liked, and there have been plenty of blowouts in that format, plenty of blowouts going back to the BCS format and all of those things, so you know you're never gonna get those out of the game. I think to your point that the final four that we have, being top six ranked, yeah, some of the automatic buy thing will probably get adjusted a little bit. I think if you're not if you're not from the big ten SEC or Notre Dame, you may lose out on that going forward, So some of that might go away in terms of those considerations. We certainly had a lot of consternation over the fact that Ohio State and Oregon met where they did. You know, do you really get an advantage, you know, being the dominant team the way that got bracketed out. Yeah, some of those little details will will get mitigated in and repurposed along the way. But if you're if you are a back end of the twelve team or eventually fourteen or sixteen or however how big it gets, yeah, you're you're gonna you're gonna have some some latitude, you know, in terms of that spacing. And maybe some of the secondary conferences don't mean to be mean about it, maybe you lose some of the benefit of the doubt and get left out of the dance. Uh and again another SEC or big ten team on the grand scale. I don't know how much complaining that'll be other than we start getting into the college basketball comparisons of mid majors. But yeah, if you do get those run ups, yeah it's better for business. But all of that to say, even when the twelve got announced, how great was it? People get be mad right and and have their bad takes herb Street and others After games and blowouts happened, and and you do your conference alignments and stump for the network you work with and whoever they've got TV rights to. That's gonna happen. That's always been happening, and that's not going to stop. And what it is, it's great for business, it's great for us. And where we have this final four, I mean, look at these look at these schools that are still represented, the conferences that are still represented, the SEC, the Big Ten, and Notre Dame its own little mini conference there that it's good. Hate watching is alive because you've got hate watchers for each one of these programs, right, People that want to watch Ryan Day fail, people that want to watch Notre Dame lose, people that want James Franklin to never get credit for winning a meaningful game.
Right.
We talked with Pete Futech about it and he laughed about it going well, looking at Boise State and SMU, yeah maybe they haven't done that yet. So all of that, and then Texas, Hey, welcome to the SEC. You're the last teams dan, So all all of that, right, So it gets people, It gets tongues wagging, it's obviously drawn eyeballs and the pageantry and the star performances Jeremiah Smith and others that have had their big moments on a giant stage. Yeah, it's great for business.
Now the other thing, and this is this is more of a it's more of a tweak, right because everything is working. But as we said, you know, there's tweaks going on. They're gonna tweak that. They're gonna tweak the home field. I'm sure they're gonna tweak the seatings. The other thing that's gonna get tweak. And we talked about strength of schedule will be a bigger deal next year because hey is a nine and three team from the SEC that's beaten three top twenty five teams better than in eleven and one Indiana team from the Big ten that really didn't beat anybody. So strength the schedule is gonna be a thing. The other thing that's gonna be a that's gonna be a big factor. Uh. The ACC this year is two and twelve in Bowls two and twelve, who's one of the only two teams that have won.
Mike Harmon, Fran Brown and the cues Ye your guy high, Uh, in your and on your Earth.
They may give it back it may, they may. It should look it should have been Hunter and Scataboo and McCord in New York. That's the three should have been. But one thing that's going to happen too that's a tweak is this is that ulis yes, more on strength to schedule, but there's going to be more of an emphasis. And rightfully, so I'm not saying this is a bad thing. The SEC and the eight and and the Big Ten are the two best conference in college football. And it's not close. Right some years the AC some years acy some years the Big Ten will be stronger like it is this year. Some years the SEC will be stronger. But these two conferences, more than anything, they are better than everybody else. And when you look at a squad like the ACC and they got a couple of teams, and it's like, dude, you're two and twelve, you're going there's going to be more of an understanding that, Hey, the Big Ten and the SEC, these teams are better. Right, They play a better schedule, they're tougher than the ACC and the Big twelve and the malway they're better. So when it comes down to a situation where hey, we have an eleven and two team and the Big Ten and we have a or we have a ten and two team in the Big Ten and an eleven and one team in the ACC. Well guess who's going to get that spot? The ten and two team in the Big Ten, because the schedule is going to be roundly agreed on that. It's tougher, the teams are tougher, and being ten and two in that conference is better than being eleven and one in the ACC. Because look, I love the ACC right, well, actually I don't. I can't stand the sent one syricus to leave, but I have nothing against them as a conference, But I understand that ACC is not nearly at the level of the other two, and that's the way it should be adjudicated. Where the best conferences, maybe those conferences get three teams each and the ACC gets two and the Big twelve gets one. However you want to put it out there, I think that's sort of gonna be the numbers that we see from now on.
Yeah, I think the hard part to the strength of schedule part of the discussion is you know, when you look at the way these conferences have ballooned, right, the Big Ten is gonna be twenty seven teams before long. Right, this is the way this goes, and maybe eventually, Nah, there's too much money involved. I was gonna say, Notre Dame actually officially becomes a Big ten squad unless they don't. But like you're gonna have situations like in Indiana where you don't quote play anybody and have big wins. Right, you have the narrow victory over Michigan, which looks a lot better I guess down the stretch. But again with non college football playoff bowl games, what does that Michigan in the Michigan Alabama game do?
Right?
With the number of guys that opted out and are transferring and the players that are involved and everything else, Like is that good? Is it bad or whatever? It's like the analogy I used when we were talking about this, you know earlier on in the process is you know, when you go and you give your earnings forecasting as a company, you can't lie outright, but you may sandbag things a little bit, waiting on deals that are kind of in place, and maybe you're done but could fall apart at the goal line. So maybe your your forecast is a little conservative, even though you think you can hit the home run because guess what when you then give your earnings for that quarter man, it was over the top. So no coach is going ahead going you know, we're an eleven win team, right, it's name that tune. You're gonna go, you know, on the higher end until the guy forces your hand. It's like, I want as long as a lead on this stuff as I can get. So, you know, for an Indiana, they got a lot of consternation and finger wagging after getting beaten, saying wow, look they didn't beat anybody good, like, that's not their fault. The schedule just happened to be this year. They had a good run and they didn't have some of the biggest big ten heavyweights on it. So you're you're not going to suddenly be able to say, okay, it's August first. I'm putting in we're going to be a nine or ten win team, So schedule me accordingly. That's how I think we're that good. So go ahead, give me the random scheduled generator and put a bunch of Bowerhouses on it because we're ready. No, it's not how it works. Sometimes you win, sometimes you know win.
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Now to a guy who is always winning the victaries, that's what he tells.
He's a champ.
It's special delivery.
Steve to say, point six points.
Will carry that the entire fantasy offseason, Thank you very much. Lake game in LA and the NBA went to the Lakers over Atlanta one nineteen, one oh two Lebron James with thirty points. The big NBA news earlier in the evening, the Miami Heat suspended Jimmy Butler seven games for conduct detrimental to the team. The Heat will now listen to trade offers. Kawhi Leonard of the Clippers could make his season debut Saturday after the knee entry. Sacramento Edge Memphis won thirty eight one thirty three Elite Monk with thirty one points. San Antonio won at Denver one thirteen, one ten Victor Wimbin Yama thirty five points, eighteen rebounds, Nikola Jokich in the loss forty one points, eighteen rebounds and nine assists. Cleveland is thirty and four. The Cavs won their ninth in a row one at Dallas one thirty four, one twenty two. Kyrie Irving of the MAVs was out due to illness at New Orleans fifty points for CJ. McCollum and a win over Washington one thirty two to one twenty the column from three point range ten of sixteen, just one turnover. New Orleans had lost eleven in a row. Boston is twenty six and nine after winning at Houston one oh nine eighty six. Jalen Brown of the Celtics was out again with a shoulder injury. Rockets forward Jabari Smith broke his hand at shoot around. He'll be reevaluated in four to six weeks. Wins for Detroit and Orlando and for Oklahoma City, which outscored the Knicks in the fourth quarter by eighteen beat him one seventeen one oh seven. OKC has won fourteen in a row. College football Bowl wins for Minnesota and Texas State. Dolphins quarterback Tutanga bay Loa is unlikely to play Sunday at the Jets due to his hip injury. College basketball wins for number eight Marquette over Creighton and number eighteen Michigan State, which won in Ohio State. The Dodgers signed Korean infielder High Song Kim three years plus a two year option and in the NHL Florida in a shootout edge Pittsburgh three to two.
Back to you, Thank you, Steve Though The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Carmen Livethtirack dot Com Studios. Coming up next to get ready if your team needs to make a big trade. There is an NBA superstar who a team has said, give us your offers. We are ready to listen. That's next, Jason to Mike Fox. Now, wait, this is the second time you played this song tonight, ty shirt. It's the second time. No repeats. It's a no repeat Friday.
There is a reason you're running, why you've been out a long time.
I got to double up.
He has been talking about it, like, you know, like just one of the things that was going around. Oh yes, I'm Whatever's like, all right, we took a couple of days with our families, uh and and to reset. And I appreciate all the folks that were in for us and with us during this time. Uh and now we're ready to dominate twenty twenty five.
Yeah, but it meant that you got a second again though I don't need to hear that, well, I.
Mean, you won't hear it today. I don't think unless it's the outro before burn, of course.
It's gonna be. Of course, you don't ever know.
We might go back to Buffalo Bill's song. I mean, I don't know. He's just happy as hell to have us back. Okay, like the smile on Tysirt's face the last two days. Look, there's a lot going on. There's been a lot of moving parts. So to get back to some semblance of normalcy with the normal squad has been very big. And Patrick, thank you for being with us tonight. Uh frostburg ailen a little bit ahead of their season finale with the Chargers and and the playoffs to come. But I can tell you know, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He was excited to have his back to play the Hobo drops and everything idea.
Hello.
So there you go, Jason.
I was very excited when Mike came back.
Thank you, thank you. I appreciate that.
Thank you.
Tocher it meant more glug yes, and you're and you're back as well that.
That oh yeah you're back to hijay.
Yeah. Uh So we talked about this last night. This is proving to you that we can be NBA inside Wizards when Jimmy Butler decided to get a little extemporaneous in his postgame press conference, say you know what I really want out of Miami now, and I'm gonna blow torch the doors off of this thing, saying that he's lost his joy. He's happy in Miamiah. He not happy on the court though, so I guess you know is you know who is his mail man. He's happy with his mail man. That was a dry cleaner. But he face coffee doing well. I'm sure happy with his coffee. Not happy on the court. Can you get that joy back? And Jimmy Butler said, probably not. We told you last night. He has played his last game as a member of the Heat and they're going to trade him. As much as pat Riley likes to have, you know, manly contest with people, he knows they have to trade him. And what happened tonight. Shams Tarani comes out with the with the story, Jimmy Butler has been suspended for seven games because of conduct detrimental to the organize. But what he said and they are now listening to offers for trade again. We could be NBA and ziye screw we told you this is going to happen last night, and the same thing is true that we said twenty four hours ago. Jimmy Butler is going to be a well sought after player because we have seen players who have worn out their welcome, lost the passion for playing for a certain team, suddenly rediscover it when they get dealt right. We saw Carmelo Anthony, we saw it with Chris Paul, we saw big time with James Harden. It's gonna be the same thing for Jimmy Butler. Not that Jimmy Butler is suddenly going to be a twenty five point a game guy. Again, you're not getting thirty one year old Butler. You're getting thirty five year old Jimmy Butler. But he does have a lot to offer with his special brand of volatility leadership that he has that you know, not it is not for everybody, but it might be for the right team that needs a little bit of what Jimmy Butler has. Need a little bit of that crazy, a little bit of that volatile, little bit of that crazy. I've known what I'm there right now. Too much crazy. Bet a little crazy can work, But he's only got one.
Like he's got the rest of this year, and then there's a player option for next year, which they say, well, he's expected to op out, like, well, yeah, unless he needs the fifty two million because things have gone south. But right now he's averaging over eighteen points a game. Gives you the locker room thing in spurts, if you've got a locker room that'll accept a little tough love along the way. And I think he just wants to plice some meaningful basketball whatever's going on with Spolstra, you know, and they didn't add on to the team the last couple of years. That's the subplot to all of this of hey, go make some moves, so we're really championship ready and he wants to, which is good.
And there's gonna be no shortage of teams that are out there saying we want a piece of Jimmy Butler because it's not gonna cost a lot for him, because now that he's pushed his way out, they know they have to trade him. Pat Riley has lost and because he's not the same player, it's not gonna be expensive. And the team's on his list. He's got Houston on the list, he's got Golden State he has Dallas on the list. All of these teams and he's got the Phoenix Suns on his list. All these teams outside of the Rockets are probably gonna be interested. The Rockets have a pretty good thing going on right now, and I don't know that they want to upset. Hey, we don't know how good we are, but we're at the top of the West. We've won twice as many games as we've lost this year. We want to kind of see what we have before you go crazy making, you know, bringing in you know, other people from the outside, but the other teams, and I'll take the Rockets off that list and I'll replace them with the Lakers, because the Lakers have shown if we think we need something, will be aggressive and go get it. You know, Lebron will trust Jimmy Butler. He's someone that can come in and play. Fits'll fill a lot of different roles, be trustworthy down the stretch to make big shots. Yeah, take the Rockets out, put the Lakers in, and I'll bet you that one of those four teams is gonna wind up with him because you know, even though it's on his wish list, they're all in the Western Conference and that's where pat Riley's gonna trade him.
Lakers with another big win tonight, seventeen point victory over Atlanta at home, trying to figure out how to get some depth and it'll be a little bit of creativity with the math, right fuzzy math when it comes to NBA trades where you have to match things up, but where there's a will, there's a way.
Now I'm telling you what, within the next week, Jimmy Butler is gonna be on a new team and you're gonna say, Wow, NBA insiders, right here.
Let's go add it to the job descriptions in my LinkedIn.
Exit out about a Fresca exit swollen dome for Mike. I'm Jason coming up next, It's burning Bernie Frattle. This as Fox Sports Radio.
