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00:00So, Mike, of course, he's the esteemed columnist at the Sporting News.
00:06He's on Fox Sports doing hoops and he's on Big Ten Network because he loves Indiana basketball
00:12and he's on coast to coast every week.
00:14He also has friends at the Pittsburgh airport.
00:18And what he does is he calls them to play jokes on me and has my flights canceled when
00:24I go into go to Steeler games.
00:27He makes one phone call and he's like, can you do me a favor and cancel that Monday morning
00:30flight back to New York City that Pharrell's on?
00:33And then sure enough, an hour later, I get a text.
00:35Your flight has been canceled.
00:37There are no other seats available until Tuesday at nine thirty six in the morning.
00:41It's all, of course, his fault.
00:42Hey, so let's start with this Penn State's Drew Allers coming back to his senior season
00:49in Happy Valley.
00:50And I said yesterday, Mike, I think he needs more seasoning.
00:53I've heard about his high draft stock.
00:57I am not buying it all that that kid is ready for the NFL.
01:01I never thought he was good at Penn State.
01:03In fact, I bet against him against Oregon because I said he'll be the guy to cost him
01:07the game. Sure enough, two picks.
01:09He cost him the game. He's not ready for the NFL yet.
01:12No, I mean that those what you're what you're hearing about him as a first round pick
01:18prospect is someone in the media trying to get attention.
01:21That's what it is.
01:22It's nothing more than that.
01:24And we shouldn't give credence to people who are just trying to get attention.
01:29We should give attention to legitimate analysis, legitimate reporting.
01:34And Drew Aller as a first rounder today.
01:37Come on. I mean, there's there's no way he gets past like three tests at the combine
01:43before they start knocking him down rounds.
01:46That's not happening now.
01:47He's a promising talent still.
01:49He's got a long way to go.
01:51And part of it has been that he has not had elite receiving talent at Penn State.
01:58I think everyone's acknowledged that.
01:59I mean, he doesn't have the Jahan Dotson's out there that they used to have at Penn State.
02:04They've had a pretty fallow period at that position.
02:08So it's harder for him to develop into a NFL style playmaker.
02:14But it can come and they may do well.
02:16Who knows in the portal at that position and and elevate Drew's development.
02:22But it's certainly not now.
02:24And that's why he wisely chose to listen to people who know.
02:30And I'm not saying me because I'm just talking about this for the first time.
02:33But listen to people who know and say, yeah, I need another year at Penn State.
02:38But you wrote about the kid that's leaving because it cost them him.
02:43And this is the cost of doing business now in college football with this transfer portal
02:50vacuum that sucks guys out of programs.
02:52Like how about the Marshall?
02:54They fired the coach.
02:55The entire team quit.
02:56The entire team is going to the portal and they canceled their bowl game.
03:00I mean, kids are transferring now like I'm walking down to my mailbox.
03:05That is true.
03:07Look, I don't blame this young man for doing this.
03:11In in the middle 2000s, probably around 2004, I'm going to say maybe a little right around then,
03:18Joe Flacco left Pitt after he was beaten out for the starting job at Pitt.
03:23And in that in that period, he had to transfer down a level in order to play immediately.
03:28He transferred to Delaware.
03:29And Delaware was a great program at that point.
03:31And it worked out great for him.
03:33And he had a tremendous career that included a Super Bowl ring.
03:36But now you don't have to do that anymore.
03:39And that's the right thing.
03:41You shouldn't have to sit out a year the first time you transfer.
03:45When you start doing it two and three times, I can be persuaded that that's not really right.
03:50But the first time it should be immediate.
03:53And that's what's going to happen here.
03:55Him having to leave the program now, I suspect that once he realized that he had if he once when
04:02Aller was coming back, that he had to leave in order to get some time as a starting quarterback
04:07and to get a reasonable NIL payout in the move that he had to do it now that the positions
04:15were closing around the country, other people were being recruited.
04:18He had to get on that merry-go-round.
04:21And look, the CFP championship is January 20th.
04:25If he happens to choose West Virginia, which is one of the schools that's been mentioned,
04:29they start classes on the 13th.
04:31So he's got to be there at some point around there.
04:34So I totally understand why he would have to leave.
04:37And I kind of think Penn State said, if you're going to leave, go ahead.
04:40Wait, wait a minute.
04:42No one goes to class.
04:44What?
04:45So wait, let me ask you this.
04:50Well, Rich Rod, we just mentioned earlier that he went back there after that messy divorce
04:55when he was in Morgantown the last time.
04:56I can't believe I'm seeing that guy go back to West Virginia after the way they hated
05:01each other's guts.
05:02But tell me how you think it's going to play out in Chapel Hill with Bill Belichick.
05:06What's your thoughts on that?
05:08I know you wrote about it.
05:09Yeah, I think it's a terrible hire.
05:11I don't think Bill Belichick, first of all, he has no experience at all at the college
05:15level, at the high major level, none, zero.
05:18He has less than I have because I'm sure I've been to more games than he has.
05:24It's absurd to pay $10 million a year to someone who's never done the job.
05:29And it's a much different job at the college level than it is at the NFL.
05:33At the NFL level, your job as a head coach is about 99% coaching and about 1% talking
05:42to the media.
05:43That's the split.
05:44If you're a college coach, it's about 35% coaching and then a whole bunch of booster
05:50stuff and fundraising and dealing with the media, as I mentioned, and having to recruit
05:58players.
05:59You can say, we're going to put it all over on this shelf and the personnel department
06:05led by Michael Lombardi is going to do that.
06:08But if you're not involved, you're not winning because if you have somebody big time coming
06:15in like Ryan Day or someone like that coming into someone's living room, and then it's
06:20like the GM from Carolina, where's he going to go?
06:24The coach couldn't even take time out to talk to him.
06:27Where's he going to go?
06:28He's going to go to the school that's really recruiting him.
06:31So Belichick has to be involved.
06:33He has no experience in that venue.
06:35I just don't see this working at all.
06:37And that doesn't even bring up the fact that he's starting this job.
06:40He will coach his first game at age 73.
06:43Hey, I'm old enough.
06:44I don't want to be in that.
06:45You know, I don't want to discriminate against that.
06:48But there just hasn't been a lot of success when they're mid-70s.
06:54I'll be lucky if I last five more years, Mike.
06:5973?
07:00Christ.
07:01I'll have a hip replacement, a knee replacement, a divorce.
07:06I'll be living alone, drinking out of a bottle.
07:09Honestly.
07:10DeBatza, you've seen him play 6'9", stretch.
07:14Is it true they're paying that kid over $7 million to play in Provo?
07:18No, my source says it's actually half that.
07:20It's still a lot, obviously.
07:22But my source says that those figures are overinflated.
07:27But I do have, again, reservations about that.
07:30Not about AJ.
07:31He's a terrific talent, and he'll do his best.
07:34But it's been pretty rare that teams that throw one one-and-done into a mix
07:41and not a full class of five-star guys like you've seen on occasion
07:45and are seeing right now at Duke with Cooper flags surrounded by five-star guys
07:50or at Kentucky when John Calipari was there.
07:54It's been really rare that you've had great success with teams
07:58that have brought a single such player into the mix.
08:01And it's pretty common, frankly, that coaches who've done this
08:07don't end up being in their jobs very long after this has happened.
08:11There's a long list of coaches who've tried this
08:14and within a few years found out that it destabilized their program
08:18and they're now looking for work.
08:21Mike, I watched Tennessee play Illinois in Champaign,
08:25and they both shot so poorly that entire game.
08:28And then, of course, Tennessee end-to-end bucket at the buzzer to win it.
08:32They got lucky.
08:33I still believe, Mike, that Auburn's better than them.
08:36Oh, I don't buy the poll at all.
08:39Look, I really like Tennessee's program,
08:42and Rick Barnes is one of the really wonderful men in coaching.
08:45But as with a lot of the teams at Tennessee,
08:47this one's offensively challenged.
08:49They are not the best team in the country.
08:51It will be very hard for them to win it.
08:53Auburn is better.
08:55As a college basketball team, I don't think they will win it either.
08:59But if you ask me to take any team to have the best record
09:04at the end of the regular season, the number one overall seed,
09:07I'm going with Auburn.
09:09Here's DiCorsi.
09:10Pharrell will be there for January 5th for the Bengal game,
09:13and he'll be there the following week for the wild card game with the Steelers.
09:16Can you have both of those Monday nights?
09:20Okay, let me know.