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00:00 All right, everybody, welcome in to the Big 10 show.
00:06 As you know, I am Adam Karriker and I'm joined today by Barrett Salley of CBS Sports and
00:11 Sirius XF.
00:12 How are you doing, my friend?
00:15 I'm good.
00:16 Little tired still from Monday night, but what a great semifinal day and looking forward
00:22 to what should be an incredible national championship game.
00:25 Now, let's be honest.
00:26 At the end of the holidays, do you feel refreshed?
00:30 Do you feel like you've had a vacation, especially covering college football?
00:34 There's really maybe Christmas Day, Christmas Eve.
00:36 There's really no off season, no off time, which is not a bad thing, by the way.
00:40 But is it kind of one of those things where you need a vacation from your so-called vacation
00:43 after the holidays?
00:44 Yeah, for sure.
00:46 I mean, it's it just seems like there's one thing after another, whether it be bowl game
00:50 or Christmas, which I like to cook on Christmas, you know, and then New Year's.
00:54 I never really go out on New Year's.
00:56 Usually I'm at the semifinal or the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
00:58 This obviously was the 30th this year.
01:01 So I actually did something for New Year's Eve and then bam, right back.
01:03 I've got two kids and they started school yesterday on Wednesday.
01:08 So it's like, you know, one thing after the other.
01:11 So yeah, when when the national championship game ends, it's like you get the chance to
01:15 sort of decompress a little bit, especially without the the February signing day being
01:20 a big thing anymore.
01:21 It's like, OK, calm down.
01:23 Let's see if we can get a vacation in or, you know, go somewhere for MLK Day or something.
01:28 But yeah, pretty exhausting that the end of the season is like the culmination of four
01:33 months of not sleeping.
01:35 And finally, we'll get to sleep in a week or two.
01:38 Now for those watching, to be clear, we love our jobs.
01:41 I know I do.
01:42 I know I love my job.
01:43 I assume Barrett does.
01:44 And I'm certainly not going to complain about stuff to talk about.
01:46 Personally, I was up in Steamboat.
01:48 I'm watching college football that I'm talking about it, that I'm watching college football
01:51 that I'm skiing and trying not to kill myself.
01:53 And I'm trying to make sure my kids aren't falling down 50 times.
01:56 They're watching college football talk.
01:57 It's a great life.
01:58 It is.
01:59 This is the Big Ten show.
02:01 I got our friends at the Jacobson Seed Company.
02:03 All right.
02:04 You're healthy, hybrid advantage farmers.
02:06 Thanks for watching the Big Ten show.
02:08 Everyone else as well.
02:09 But we can give you more than great Big Ten coverage.
02:12 We can help you with your fields.
02:14 Go to Jacobson Seed dot com.
02:16 Now there's a whole bunch of things to talk about.
02:19 I actually want to start off with bowl games.
02:23 Should they even be around anymore?
02:24 What are your thoughts on this?
02:26 OK, and I'm just going to read.
02:28 OK, you probably saw this, heard about this, but we haven't had a chance to talk about
02:31 this here on this fine program just yet.
02:33 Kirk Herbstree, who is a bowl game junkie.
02:35 OK, he said, and I quote, I think the 12 team playoff is going to create a lot of buzz.
02:39 Herbstree said, I'm a college football fan or basketball fan.
02:43 But can anyone here tell me about the NIT?
02:45 How is that going for you?
02:47 Do you know who's even in the NIT?
02:50 That's where bowl games are going next year.
02:51 I think you eliminate the bowls.
02:53 Nobody wants to play in them.
02:55 Don't play bowls.
02:56 Just have 12 teams.
02:57 We'll get excited about those.
02:58 And if you want to add five or six bowl games outside of that, then do five or six.
03:02 But we're getting to a point where it's ridiculous.
03:04 We're putting six and six and sometimes five and seven.
03:07 That's me, not him.
03:08 Six and six teams and bowl games that nobody cares about.
03:10 Players don't want to play in them.
03:12 Hell with it.
03:13 Don't have bowl games.
03:14 End quote.
03:15 So, what are your thoughts on that?
03:17 I love Herbie.
03:18 He's a good friend of mine, but he's completely wrong here.
03:21 You know, I think comparing it to the NIT is a little bit misguided because the NIT
03:28 doesn't draw eyeballs, right?
03:30 Bowl games do.
03:31 And people like to talk about the lack of attendance.
03:34 And I don't really care about lack of attendance.
03:36 These things are TV shows and they rate higher than a lot of NBA games.
03:41 And a lot of it is because of gambling.
03:42 It was that way before.
03:44 It's going to be that way even more moving forward.
03:46 But people like to watch football.
03:48 Football's fun.
03:49 College football players, and you know this better than anybody, generally speaking, like
03:52 to play the sport of football.
03:53 I mean, it's crazy, right?
03:55 But I think one thing that has happened over the last couple of years, yeah, you have more
04:00 opt-outs.
04:01 And I get that.
04:02 And in case of Malik Murphy at Texas, you have to transfer before the national semifinal
04:06 because it is your only shot or at least your most responsible decision in terms of your
04:10 future.
04:11 And look, I get that.
04:12 But one thing, after COVID, the last couple of years, the bowl game does not count towards
04:18 the redshirt rule.
04:19 You can play a fifth game and still redshirt as long as it's in the bowl game.
04:22 And that's perfectly fine to me because getting those practices with a roster that is a little
04:27 bit of a skeleton roster allows you to get some of these younger guys more work and actually
04:32 get them more reps in a bowl game.
04:34 And that's awesome.
04:35 To me, that's basically a spring practice session on steroids.
04:40 And then you actually get to play in a game that is more meaningful than a spring game,
04:44 obviously, but not as meaningful as an actual football game trying to win a conference championship
04:49 or anything like that.
04:50 So, you know, I'm fine with it.
04:52 And by and large, a lot of these players want to win bowl games.
04:56 It matters to them.
04:57 I mean, go back and look at the Tennessee game.
04:59 Those players were just thrilled about what happened.
05:02 Western Kentucky, in the famous Toastery Bowl, that game mattered.
05:07 Ask them.
05:08 It absolutely mattered.
05:09 So I'm fine with bowl games.
05:11 You know, college football is fun.
05:13 Football is fun.
05:14 You know, and I think from a development standpoint, you know, coaches learn a lot from them.
05:18 Now a lot of coaches now recently with everything that's been going on, don't get involved in
05:23 the game plan as much because they actually miss practice because they're out recruiting,
05:28 whether transfer portal or high school kids.
05:30 So it's just a different sort of world now, but I'm totally fine with bowl games.
05:34 So for me, I think football itself, the violent nature, which is being toned down for obvious
05:41 reasons, some of it's for the facade of player safety and it's a facade.
05:44 OK, because I don't believe that it's real.
05:46 I don't think they actually care genuinely.
05:49 It's a business ploy is what it is.
05:50 But I think one advantage that football has is every game is like an event.
05:55 You only play once a week.
05:57 It's not 162 baseball games.
05:58 It's not 82 basketball games and then four to six weeks of playoffs like the NBA does.
06:03 Every game is such a big deal.
06:05 My concern is that when you have 42 bowl games plus a national championship game, which is
06:10 43 this year, and then you add in college football playoff games and you add in everything
06:13 else, you start to dilute that.
06:15 So I don't know that I completely get rid of bowl games.
06:18 I do understand what you're saying.
06:19 I understand what Herbie's saying.
06:20 I'm somewhere in the middle.
06:22 I would have less when we started to go to six and six teams get in and then we're going
06:27 to make exceptions for five and seven as long as you're academically qualifying or whatever.
06:32 I never looked into the rules because I didn't care.
06:33 I didn't I didn't watch the Minnesota game this year.
06:35 The one five and seven team that got in, I actually picked Bowling Green to win and then
06:38 I got that wrong.
06:39 But my point is this.
06:41 Let's keep them, but just keep my opinion.
06:44 You have to win eight games to be in if you're a power five team.
06:49 And there's really only two major conferences going forward.
06:51 No disrespect, Big 12 and what's left of the ACC in the next couple of years.
06:54 And if you're a non power five team, you got to win nine games.
06:57 And so maybe you have.
06:59 OK, instead of 42 bowl games plus the CFP playoffs, maybe you've got 16 or 17 bowl games,
07:05 15 bowl games, and then the bowl games actually matter.
07:08 I think what would make a bigger difference is getting and finding a way to have a Jaden
07:15 Daniels in the bowl game to have your top tier players in the bowl game.
07:18 When Florida State has 20 guys opt out and then a 63 to three.
07:23 OK, that's challenging for me as a consumer.
07:25 OK, I'm sitting there in Steamboat playing Settlers of Catan with my family and the games
07:31 on somewhere in the right corner of my eye, because in a blink of an eye, it was thirty
07:35 five to nothing Georgian.
07:36 I couldn't care less anymore.
07:38 So there could be a way to incentivize players to play by revenue sharing.
07:42 OK, I've also of the mindset you're not honoring your contract.
07:47 Like if I'm an NFL player and we're out of the playoffs, I can't just no show week 16
07:51 and 17.
07:52 The only way I'm getting out of it is if I've got an injury.
07:54 OK, you're not honoring your contract.
07:56 So why are these players not getting fine?
07:58 Is that just me?
07:59 So what if let's just say you're a starting quarterback?
08:01 I'm just going to pull a number out of thin air.
08:04 Let's say through the revenue sharing, you would have made seventy five grand if you
08:08 played in the Citrus Bowl.
08:09 Yes.
08:10 Let's say if you don't play, you get fined the same amount that you would have gotten
08:14 paid.
08:15 So now it's one hundred fifty thousand dollars swing to play in one game.
08:19 I would have to think that would have motivated me to play in a bowl game a whole lot more.
08:24 I don't know.
08:25 What are your thoughts on that?
08:26 Because to me, it's about I want to keep football games.
08:30 I want to make a matter.
08:31 I want to keep them an event.
08:32 I don't want it to be one hundred sixty two baseball games in a year.
08:35 And then I want to find a way to get the big name players to play in these games.
08:38 What are your thoughts on all that?
08:40 I like the idea.
08:41 One hundred percent.
08:42 I think it's a great idea.
08:43 Incentivize them in some way, shape or form to play.
08:46 And I think you would see a guy like Jaden Daniels may be a perfect example.
08:49 Right.
08:50 I mean, from the NFL draft perspective, he's behind Drake May and whoever else, Caleb and
08:56 Penix and everybody.
08:57 So if he gets paid seventy five grand and plays well and maybe, you know, ups his draft
09:02 stock a little bit, then.
09:03 Yeah, great.
09:04 He gets a bonus.
09:05 I think that's wonderful.
09:06 I don't know about execution, though.
09:07 That would be very hard because in theory, these teams are not playing paying these players.
09:13 Obviously, that's not reality.
09:15 But it is that's that's the way this system is set up right now.
09:18 So I'd love to know from an execution standpoint how that would really work.
09:24 But I think you also if you shorten the bowl season, you would take opportunities away
09:29 from a lot of players.
09:30 We saw multiple players in these lower tier bowl games absolutely blow up.
09:35 And a lot of them hadn't taken many snaps at all this year.
09:38 We saw it in the Myrtle Beach Bowl.
09:40 We saw it in the Toastery Bowl.
09:41 We saw it in the Minnesota game.
09:42 So you are taking away chances of some of these guys upping their status in the transfer
09:47 portal, too.
09:48 But as far as incentivizing good players with money, you would get fewer opt outs.
09:54 But I still think you would get some significant players still make the decision to find.
10:00 That's just the way things are these days.
10:02 So finding a way to do that is great.
10:04 I think in this sort of climate, when we don't really know how things are going to work moving
10:10 forward anyway, it would be very hard to actually make that reality next year.
10:18 I think you would have to wait for some more dominoes to fall before implementing something
10:21 like that.
10:22 Yeah, dude, we could talk for hours on this.
10:25 I think there's parameters that need to be brought in when it comes to the transfer portal.
10:29 I think the option schedule needs to be changed differently.
10:32 I don't know how I don't know how college coaches survive the month of December, especially
10:36 if you're in a bowl game with a transfer portal early National Signing Day, which is really
10:39 National Signing Day.
10:40 How do they even survive?
10:41 Plus, you got the holidays and Christmas and somebody's got to buy those presents.
10:45 Probably the wife.
10:46 Mine.
10:47 Mine definitely buys my wife.
10:48 Yeah.
10:49 My wife goes, Hey, do you like this?
10:51 Yes.
10:52 Looks great.
10:53 And then we move on about our day.
10:54 But there's so many things we could talk about because there's just the Wild West in college
10:58 football and there needs to be parameters.
11:00 And it's not anybody.
11:02 It's not fair to anybody.
11:03 Yeah, we're really paying players.
11:05 It's under the guise of NIL and all this other stuff.
11:08 But let's talk about the national title game.
11:10 OK, Michigan, Washington.
11:11 All right.
11:12 In your opinion, what does Michigan have to do to win this game?
11:17 And if they win the national title, is it tainted due to science, stealing, gait and
11:22 all that?
11:23 Well, I think the one thing they need to do is something that Alabama clearly did not
11:27 do, especially in the first half, and that is protect Michael Penix.
11:30 You know, I think Michael Penix, he can win if he doesn't have a running game.
11:34 Really all that much.
11:35 He did it last week.
11:36 Right.
11:37 And then the Tigers kind of took away Dylan Johnson, except in the red zone.
11:40 Then obviously Dylan Johnson got hurt at the end.
11:42 But you know, they've got to get to Michael Penix, not necessarily make him put him off
11:47 his mark, because we saw we've seen him consistently all season, work his way through the pocket,
11:53 dip his shoulder a little bit and still find one of those NFL receivers deep downfield.
11:57 He's really, really good at that.
11:58 So the pressure that Michigan brings actually has to get home, because I think in what they
12:06 excel with, that's been their M.O. all year long defensively.
12:10 And it's worked.
12:11 You know, a guy like Michael Barrett was an absolute monster last weekend or last week,
12:15 I should say, last Monday in the semifinal.
12:18 Those guys have been awesome, but they have to get home.
12:21 They can't just get pressure.
12:22 So I think that is his job.
12:25 Number one, you know, for that entire defensive staff, I think, is it tainted?
12:31 Yeah, I guess.
12:33 You know, I think the casual sports fan will be upset about it.
12:39 And even though J.J. McCarthy tried to rationalize it this week and say that 80 percent of teams
12:43 steal signs, yeah, they do.
12:45 I know multiple people who their whole job is to steal signs.
12:50 I remember the Florida State Auburn National Championship game.
12:54 I asked Jimbo Fisher about him worrying about Damian Craig stealing signs.
12:58 And sure enough, first quarter, Jimbo didn't care.
13:01 First quarter, first half, Damian Craig's flat bill hat right there looking directly
13:05 at the offensive signals and getting every single play.
13:08 Not coincidentally, Auburn went into halftime up 23 or whatever it was.
13:12 But that's OK.
13:14 Stealing signs in the normal way.
13:16 That's why pitchers don't just yell out the pitch to the opposing player.
13:20 What Michigan did was like operation, operate like a spy, you know, spy system.
13:27 That's a little bit much.
13:28 And so, yeah, because of that, because it has become so, so, so of note and so sort
13:36 of known around the country, even to college to non-college football zealots, even the
13:41 casual sports fan.
13:42 Yeah, I think it will be tainted a little bit.
13:44 I agree with you.
13:45 I do think it'll be tainted.
13:48 I think either way, Michigan, I'm.
13:52 I've I've said all year Washington's underrated.
13:54 People are underrating Washington because they don't have quite the name brand recognition
13:59 in the Pac-12 during the season as an Oregon, even though they've won national titles in
14:04 the past, they shared it 91 with Miami.
14:06 Don James, great head coach, but they don't have quite the recognition of an Oregon or
14:10 a USC.
14:11 And then when they were playing Texas, I'm like people are falling in love with the great
14:14 Texas team, the brand of Texas.
14:16 Right.
14:17 Exactly.
14:18 Washington.
14:19 Washington played in the toughest conference in the country this year and they went undefeated.
14:23 And I know they've won 10 games by one score or less.
14:25 There was also about a two, three game stretch in there where Michael Penix was so sick,
14:29 he couldn't even be around his teammates and they still found a way to win those games.
14:33 When you go undefeated in the toughest conference in America and I picked them to beat Texas,
14:38 but I readily admitted I was not uber confident.
14:41 They were a better team.
14:42 They were the better team.
14:44 Clearly, they just a weird injury clock time stoppage rule, a little bit of mismanagement,
14:50 maybe just take a knee.
14:51 I don't know.
14:52 Do we learn from Miami at all earlier this year and just do little things like that?
14:55 There's not even a doubt.
14:56 So I do think it'll be tainted a little bit when it comes to Michigan if they win.
15:01 But when Tom Brady got on Instagram, what did he have, like 5 million followers within
15:05 three weeks or something like that?
15:08 You think about Spygate and all that other stuff to flake gate at the end of the day,
15:12 they're going to be the national champs and it's probably the best team Michigan has ever
15:15 had in my opinion.
15:17 I think they were going to win it.
15:18 I mean, Washington might win on Monday.
15:20 I'm predicting Michigan again, not by a wide margin, but I think they were in my mind favored
15:25 to win it the whole year either way, either them or Georgia in my mind.
15:29 But some people are just going to view it differently.
15:32 But I think this is the best team Michigan's ever had at that university.
15:35 And that's saying something for a program with what, a thousand and three wins in their
15:39 history, the most in all of college football history.
15:41 So I have a lot of respect for what Jim Harbaugh has done for that program.
15:45 Yeah.
15:46 And even if it is tainted by casual fans, I mean, do people look at Florida state in
15:51 2013 differently now, or do they just forget that the whole Jamis Winston thing happened
15:55 that fall?
15:56 I mean, people forget about that.
15:58 Same thing with Auburn and Ken Newton in 2010.
16:01 Does USC's title in 2004 resonate?
16:05 Yeah, it still does.
16:07 Now people remember the Reggie Bush thing, which is just absolutely silly looking back
16:11 at the way some of these players are getting paid right now.
16:13 But that kind of goes away after a while.
16:15 There'll be people that are in uproar for the entire off season and maybe in the next
16:19 season.
16:20 But at the end of the day, people kind of lose sight of that and they just recognize
16:25 the national champion as the national champion, even if it came with a little controversy.
16:29 I still think of Reggie Bush as the Heisman winner.
16:31 I know he's the Heisman trophy.
16:33 He should get it back.
16:34 He should.
16:35 I still see him as the Heisman winner.
16:36 So a little bit of a statistical breakdown here.
16:39 All right.
16:40 For me, it's when Washington's offense is on the field and Michigan's defense is on
16:44 the field.
16:45 I'm going to be excited to watch the most.
16:46 All right.
16:47 You got the number one pass offense in the country in Washington, averaging 350 past
16:50 yards a game, the top ranked passing quarterback in the country, Michael Penix, Jr. 4648 past
16:56 yards this year.
16:57 Bonics is number two from Oregon, if anyone was curious.
16:59 The 10th ranked scoring offense, which is actually lower than I thought they would be.
17:03 OK, but thirty seven point six points per game for the Huskies and the number 11 team
17:07 passing fishing efficiency offense in the country.
17:10 Michigan's defense number one is scoring defense.
17:12 Number one, a total defense.
17:13 Number two and past yards allowed.
17:15 Ohio State was number one.
17:16 Number three and pass efficiency defense.
17:18 Notre Dame.
17:19 I did not expect that was number one.
17:20 Ohio State number two.
17:22 So what's interesting to me, my three keys for Michigan and Washington are this and I
17:27 disagree with you just a smidge when it comes to Washington.
17:29 I think you've got to run the ball and stay a little bit balanced.
17:33 Otherwise, this will turn into the 96 Fiesta Bowl with the fun and gun.
17:37 Danny Werfel.
17:38 But Nebraska knew they were going to throw it.
17:40 And yeah, 62 to 24.
17:42 You got to keep them balanced.
17:43 And actually, the Huskies passed the ball 39 times and ran at 31.
17:47 They were more balanced than I thought they would be against Texas in that CFP game.
17:52 Just keep the balance.
17:53 That's all I'm saying.
17:54 Obviously, the game's on Phoenix shoulders and that's where you want it.
17:56 You got to win the turnover battle.
17:59 They're going to have to take advantage of every opportunity that they can get when it
18:02 comes to the Huskies.
18:03 And most importantly, and I wrote X Factor, Michael Phoenix Junior, do your thing.
18:08 He is the X Factor in this game when it comes to Michigan.
18:12 My God, can you just do a little bit better on special teams?
18:15 I mean, oh my goodness, they were clearly I don't want to say clearly the first half.
18:20 They were clearly the better team.
18:22 Alabama made some adjustments.
18:23 They had some success on the ground, but outside of special teams, they were really the better
18:27 team noticeably on Monday.
18:29 I thought yet Alabama almost found a way to win.
18:32 Number two, be who you are.
18:35 Control that line of scrimmage.
18:36 The team that wins the trenches and Washington did much better in the trenches.
18:40 Zero sacks, zero tackles for loss.
18:42 They allowed against that great Texas front four defense.
18:45 They're much better than I thought they would be, even than I thought they would be.
18:48 But Michigan, if they went in the trenches, that's going to be huge.
18:51 And number three, and this takes me back to the Giants and Tom Brady, not once but twice
18:57 in the Super Bowl.
18:58 And I played with a couple of guys.
19:00 Barry Coffield came to DC and played with me who are on those Giants teams.
19:05 If you blitz Tom Brady, he will slice and dissect you.
19:08 He gets rid of it too quick.
19:09 When I watched Michael Penix Jr. against Texas, he gets rid of it so fast.
19:14 His pocket awareness is so good and he can run when he chooses to.
19:18 When you've had the injuries that he's had, I get it, but he can run.
19:22 I think they've got to be able to get pressure with their front four because that's how the
19:26 Giants affected Brady in those Super Bowls.
19:29 And the way I saw Penix play all year and especially against a great Texas defense front
19:33 four on defense in the CFP, they got to get pressure on them with the front four.
19:39 And that's what the Giants did.
19:40 I think if they have to blitz to get to them, I think they're done.
19:45 You mentioned Penix on the ground and that's so interesting because they did design some
19:48 more runs in the semifinal.
19:50 We didn't see that all year and immediately it reminded me of the Georgia Ohio State plus
19:56 semifinal last year when CJ Stroud suddenly became a little bit more of a factor on the
20:01 ground.
20:02 I think he had like 40 yards on that last drive before Ohio State missed the field goal.
20:07 And it's like, okay, how do you develop a changeup?
20:09 And I think Washington developed that changeup going into the Texas game and that certainly
20:16 helped.
20:17 And then I wondered, you mentioned balance with Washington.
20:21 I don't necessarily think it has to be run to pass.
20:25 I think it has to be tailback to wide receiver because we did not see them throw to running
20:30 backs basically all season.
20:32 I think Dylan Johnson had like 13 receptions during the regular season in the Pac-12 championship
20:37 game included.
20:39 And I think if you know, maybe it's not him, right?
20:42 Maybe it's Tybo Rogers because if Dylan's hurt, you don't want to get him as many snaps.
20:46 But if you can't run against Michigan and look, it's Michigan that might not happen.
20:51 How do you develop that changeup?
20:52 Well, you go Mike Leach a little bit.
20:54 Use your running backs as receivers out of the backfield.
20:56 I think there are multiple ways to sort of provide that balance.
20:59 And so, yeah, and I think Michigan in terms of special teams, even one mistake and you're
21:06 done because Alabama was so inept offensively and you're right, that halftime, that Michigan
21:13 Alabama game felt like Michigan was up three touchdowns.
21:15 And you look at the score, you're like, holy hell, how did that happen?
21:20 And Washington's not going to be that way.
21:22 If you have one special teams blunder, you're pretty much done if you're Michigan.
21:27 I completely agree with you.
21:28 All right.
21:29 Who do you got winning the game?
21:30 What's your score prediction?
21:31 Who's your victor?
21:32 I got Washington.
21:33 I think they're going to win straight up.
21:36 Just absolute styles make fights.
21:38 And I think this style is much different than what Alabama did.
21:41 It's basically the complete opposite.
21:43 So I'm going to go Washington.
21:45 I'm going to say they win 30 to 27 in what will be, I think, one of the classic, not
21:50 just college football playoff national championship games, but maybe one of the most impactful
21:55 and one of the most exciting bowl games in our generation.
22:00 This in my opinion, depending on how the national title game plays out, this could be the most
22:03 exciting CFP we've ever had.
22:05 All right.
22:06 Yes.
22:07 In the 10 year history since 2014.
22:09 Man, I've been pounding the Washington drum band drum all year, as much as anybody I know,
22:17 because I don't know hardly anybody who's been beating that drum.
22:20 So it's easy for me to say that being said, it's going to come down to Michael Pinnock's
22:25 it's going to come down.
22:26 He is.
22:27 He's the X factor.
22:29 If you can't get to him with four, you're in trouble.
22:31 If you try to blitz, I just don't think that's going to work with him, especially if they
22:35 design some runs, if they're trying to protect the running back, because he's going to be
22:38 banged up in a one game vacuum.
22:40 Hey, Michael, you got to run a little bit more.
22:42 We're playing for the national title.
22:43 Cool, coach.
22:44 I can do that for one game.
22:46 So that makes me nervous.
22:48 I think what I come down to is Michigan has the advantage in the trenches and football
22:54 is a game to me.
22:55 I realize how important the quarterbacks are.
22:58 I think games are won and lost in the trenches.
23:01 OK, also, I'm always going to favor when it comes to winning championships, not necessarily
23:06 putting butts in the seats.
23:07 I'm always going to favor the team with the better defense.
23:10 I think it's going to be a great game.
23:12 I think it's going to be right up there with the Fiesta Bowl, Miami, Ohio State.
23:16 Oh, two season, oh, three Fiesta Bowl, probably that Rose Bowl, Vince Young, USC 05.
23:22 I think it's going to be right up there.
23:23 I'm going to give the slight nod to Michigan.
23:25 I got what I wrote it down and I lost the paper somewhere.
23:28 I think I was like thirty one twenty eight.
23:30 OK, I got basically the exact basically very similar.
23:34 Just the the team very similar.
23:37 Very similar.
23:38 And I just think the trenches and the team with a little better defense, I'm going to
23:41 give them the edge.
23:42 But I'll be honest with you, Washington could easily win and I wouldn't be shocked whatsoever.
23:46 Yeah, like, look, this is our jobs like we're supposed to make picks.
23:49 We're supposed to create score predictions in an honest moment.
23:52 If you were to ask me, you know, who do you think is going to win?
23:54 My answer would be like, I don't know.
23:56 Like, I have no idea.
23:57 I'm going to win this game.
23:59 Exactly.
24:00 I much prefer talking about a game after it's happened.
24:03 And I have facts and stats and film rather than trying to figure out what's going to
24:06 happen.
24:07 Right.
24:08 I'm not great at that.
24:09 I'm a big fan of Josh Pate.
24:10 And I know he works for another network, but I'm going to throw his name out there.
24:13 He does a great job.
24:14 And here's why.
24:15 And he owned it.
24:16 And this is what I loved about it.
24:17 He won oh and seven picking against Michigan and Washington this year.
24:20 Oh, and seven.
24:22 But he owned it, which is another reason I love him so much.
24:24 So I want to thank you for joining me, my man.
24:27 This was fun.
24:28 And I look forward to a phenomenal national championship game on Monday night.
24:32 Yeah, man, my pleasure.
24:33 Thanks for having me.
24:34 And man, just all we want is storylines, right?
24:37 Content is king in our business.
24:38 Absolutely.
24:39 There's going to be so much to talk about after Monday night.
24:42 I'm sure I'm excited.
24:43 All right, ladies and gentlemen, this has been another Big Ten show.
24:47 We'll see you next time.
24:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]