Hour 1: England-Argentina World Cup Reaction, plus Notre Dame QB CJ Carr Talks CFP & Heisman

0:01Rich Eisen:This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. Pros trust the Home Depot for heavy-duty storage solutions for any job site or garage. Right now, get up to 15 % off select storage and organization.

0:34Rich Eisen:Impact and water-resistant totes and shelving built to hold up to 2 ,500 pounds. Storage systems have space for all your tools and protect them in the garage, on the job site, and everywhere in between. Save time and maximize efficiency with adjustable shelving customized to your business's needs. Shop and save on pro-grade storage at the Home Depot. how pros get more done. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of the Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to three Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime.

1:13Rich Eisen:But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. If LeBron decides to drag it on into August. This is the Rich Eisen Show. What is the timeline on getting an answer? I wish I knew, man. I want to go on vacation. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Today's guests. Notre Dame quarterback, CJ Carr. Apple TV lead MLS analyst, Taylor Twellman. Academy Award winner, Matt Damon. And now, it's Rich Isaac. ESPN app, ESPN radio, Sirius Channel 80, along with Sirius XM. Call us, 844-204-RICH, number to dial.

2:05Rich Eisen:Always love seeing people get on the phones before we even go on the air, which has already happened. So some phone lines are lit, and we appreciate you already doing that. We'll get to your calls throughout this program. First up in less than 20 minutes time, a young man who's on top a lot of other people's Heisman Trophy lists coming into this season. The quarterback of Notre Dame football, CJ Carr, will be on this show. And CJ is the grandson of Michigan legendary coach Lloyd Carr and Michigan legendary defensive back Tom Curtis. and his dad was a quarterback at Michigan and his brother's a quarterback at Michigan.

2:51Rich Eisen:So stay tuned for me to wait. I've been waiting two years to ask him the question, how dare you? 57-year-old man asking a 21-year-old kid, how dare you? It's petty. It doesn't make sense, you're right. But you know what? At any rate. He's joining us to talk a little college football. Taylor Twelman will join us, rejoin us to talk about uh the world cup final that's set between spain and argentina and then in hour number three in studio um a young buck who's done very well uh in his career his name is matt damon oh that guy uh and he's in a new movie called i wrote it down oh yeah it's a big one right i'm gonna play this bit out okay good hold on a minute yeah i i've missed it so i don't know it's somewhere what is it what's it called theater near you and imax and dolby and like five different form oh yeah it's called the odyssey oh it's only the hottest movie on the planet i think it came out of the box with 98 on rotten tomatoes people were buying tickets for it last summer i know i know i got some for next friday yeah good uh anyway matt damon will be joining us on this program ladies and gentlemen now our number three um so we look forward to having him back in studio love it's been a while yeah it has been a while um 844-204-rich no doll hello Hello, Chris Brockman.

4:13Rich Eisen:Good to see you. Oh, as soon as the World Cup's pretty much over, look who returns. No, no, no, no. I got to get another match. One more. Are you doing the third place match? DJ Mikey D's and D's Nuts is back. Good to see you, TJ Jefferson. How are you? What's up, Richard Seth? How are you doing? Very good. Very good. TJ. We start this program with a legend. A goat. We start this show with somebody who is performing at the top of his game late in his career telling father time get out of here somebody who knows how to leave a mark when he sees an opening where's this going del tufo tom rady and it's lebron james on his instagram stories there he is oh i'm sorry i don't mean oh that is fantastic that i gotta get that framed, right?

5:06Rich Eisen:Oh, sure. I'm actually referring to Lionel Messi. That's fantastic. Messi and I share a birthday outside of that. Yeah, you do. You know what? You're both great at what you do. I can kick with my right foot, too, except that's my dominant foot. And Messi knows how to kick with his left and his right and then break it off somewhere where it does not shine. No. just reminding everyone how great he is at the world's sport of football. Leads the World Cup all-time in goals scored and he will finish this tournament as such because Mbappe has been bounced. He leads the World Cup all-time in assists now as well.

6:04Rich Eisen:including two yesterday, one where he drew three English defenders to him on the right side of the Argentine offense, only to pass it to an open Enzo Fernandez, who just darts it. Dude. Passed the keeper Pickford, who was having a heck of a game for England. England. That is such a cold photo. 85th minute. Just when everybody crossed the pond, which you're mandated to say is an American sportscaster when referring to anything involving London or England or anything across the pond, they're sitting there saying five minutes to go in our strategy of trying to play defense after we score in the 55th minute.

6:57five minutes to go and Messi finds Fernandez and we're all level as I like by the way we never

7:07Rich Eisen:in this country because I know a lot of folks around the world have been kind enough to post on our YouTube channel all of our World Cup videos um that they're enjoying our you know fresh set of eyes if you will we've been loving it man no apologies that uh we here in america never call a tie game level or an equalizer you know what i mean like if there's a a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth in a baseball game to tie the game it's not here's the equalizer that's a leveler we should i just love the the language surrounding football football at any rate the folks rooting for the three lines are going to be like all right just when we thought we had them Argentina pulls themselves back in and then of course they're not done listen I have watched the messy right foot cross into the box probably about 20 times between the moment it happened and this very moment and i still can't believe a handful of things one how much space he was Two, the fact that he just touched the ball once to just get it far enough away from the two defenders that were in his vicinity and get it past them and over four more English defenders.

8:47Rich Eisen:There was a line of six white shirts. and he finds the lid of lataro martinez i can't how did he do it this guy number five it it gives him a haircut and then the dude do it yeah it's because it kept on bending back and by the way you over pick for two yeah he found the one forehead he was picking out from that distance it's kind of doesn't make sense it's it's one of the most insane passes you'll ever see in your whole life in any sport yeah ever you know like this is like you know magic or yeah bird pistol pete pistol pete go down the line right Yeah. Or any, you know, any pass in the NFL that goes through a set of fingertips right onto the hands of somebody in a window that, you know, a next-gen stat would say there's a 0.1 % chance of working.

9:55Rich Eisen:The only thing missing was the NFL films like tight zoom. They must have that. They're recording them. They're filming them. In slow-mo. It'll be on social today for sure. You can't get enough of watching that pass. I don't really understand how that's possible. Like how you can do that. He's the greatest ever. And Argentina did it again. Their knockout round matches. They get past Cape Verde in the 111th minute they scored. Against Egypt. 92nd minute. just like Wednesday against England, sandwiched around a 112th-minute score against Switzerland. That's the four knockout round matches so far Argentina has pulled out of their hemisphere.

10:48Rich Eisen:It's like Brady and the Patriots, Rich. It's like watching Brady and the Patriots. That's exactly what I said. When Messi's, when he was down, the technical director that's doing the match with me, he goes, they may lose this. I'm like, you're looking at Tom Brady on the soccer field. He's going to come back. England didn't do themselves any favors. By the way, right now, Thomas Tuchel should, you know, he's going back to Germany, and the Brits and folks in England don't want to see him again. I mean, there's a half hour left, and he's like subbing in all. That's another thing. Instead of trying to make it to nothing.

11:24Rich Eisen:That's the point. And basically what that did was playing, again, having read and prepared for this segment, the general sense is the best analogy I saw is that by playing that prevent defense, allowing Argentina to advance as far as they did on the pitch, that it essentially parked the messy bus in front of Pickford for a half an hour. saying, good luck. Let's defend. Try and score. Now, I don't know if that's 20-20 hindsight or not. Bellingham, Jude Bellingham, didn't get a touch. The only touch that everybody's talking about from him is two things. One, him verbally touching base with Messi during the match, during the game.

12:16Rich Eisen:I don't know what he said to Messi, but there's a new GIF meme out there. Yeah. of Messi going, mm-hmm. And people are going to basically be sending that to their friends or their frenemies saying, okay, I hear you. It's like that voiceover. It was at this moment. Bellingham knew he messed up. That's what everybody's basically saying, that he poked the Messi. He did. And then he smacks Valentin Barco in the back of the head after the match is over. And I'm like, what's that all about? And I saw a video because I've just been nonstop looking at this stuff. Because it's so great. I saw it five minutes before the show began.

13:01Rich Eisen:I showed it to you. Yeah. Apparently on the, wait for it, equalizer. Oh. On the goal that leveled the match at one apiece. I love it. Took it from 1-0. I'm not going to keep going here. To 1-1. On a marvelous strike. Look at you. From distance. Rich.

13:23Rich Eisen:that Barco ran out onto the field. Now, you normally pig pile over the guy who scores or the guy who passed it. And they pig piled, I think, both of them because they were both close together. But it looks like Barco's running free amongst the entire English defense. Like, they're stunned that this happened. and Barko's like, whee! It looked like he was a streaker. Yeah, he was a streaker. Just running through and Kevin Harlan's like, look at him go! Everyone's charity's trying to tackle him. So I don't blame Bellingham for finding him after the game and going, dude. Yeah. All right. But do you, I mean, don't poke the Messi.

14:10Rich Eisen:I mean, it felt like Argentina was knocking too. How many times did they hit the post? How many times did Pickford have to make an incredible save? one after another and when they equalized it you're like oh argentina's gonna score again they're they're not gonna win this in in you know regular time yeah it certainly felt like it yeah and they obviously did and then just messy walking around too it just shows you well he picks and chooses when to again he's basically he starts the world cup in the middle in kansas city and he hat tricks, right? That was his first appearance in this World Cup. And then this match, this game, they put him out wide on the right.

14:52Rich Eisen:And England, even though they put all their defenders in there, still couldn't figure it out. Like, okay, do you want to keep, if your strategy is to do this and it starts leading to Messi, firing one cross into the box after the other, you'd think there'd be an adjustment, right?

15:14Rich Eisen:so damn is the headline yeah it is indeed not coming home and this game was far more scintillating than the other semifinal game between spain and france where spain basically i guess if france had come back on spain but spain plays keep away that's what they do right and this is how argentina plays that's what you know hang around hang around and then win it at the end taylor twelman's going to join us again in hour two. He was on two days ago. He was talking about Spain will beat you by a thousand passes. So we'll see how that works. Spain versus Argentina on Sunday. Taylor Twelman's going to join us in hour two to preview it.

15:54Rich Eisen:Football, everybody. American football, college football is on our minds next. We've got CJ Carr of Notre Dame football is going to be joining us here on the program. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial. While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent. Future stars who are already turning heads at age 14. Because Next doesn't wait for an invitation, and neither do we. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach. We did it when we made advanced safety standard on every vehicle and engineered EVs with ultra-fast charging capability.

16:33Rich Eisen:Because the future isn't some far-off concept. It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Rich Eisen here. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow. The challenge? Finding that person without sorting through resumes. That's where LinkedIn Hiring Pro comes in. It screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent. With Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and build the team you need. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Eisen.

17:09Rich Eisen:Terms and conditions apply. Rich Eisen here with some advice. If high interest credit card debt is grinding you down, it might be time to call an audible with a SoFi personal loan. It consolidates your debt into one low monthly payment with no fees required. And with as soon as the same day funding, you can make the right play fast. Call an audible on your debt today at SoFi.com slash debt play. Loans originated by SoFi Bank N.A. Member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891. Fast funds terms apply at SoFi.com slash debt play. The Rich Eisen Show podcast. Freeman wasn't at Notre Dame. And so, you know, I visited, but I wasn't really looking to go there until Freeman got hired.

17:54People, you know, said great things about him. And I love Tommy Reese, who was at Notre Dame for a couple of years then. And throughout the recruiting process, Michigan, they didn't really recruit me. I think they kind of thought I – I don't know. From my perspective, at least, it felt like they thought I was just going to go to Michigan because of my family, which is understandable. But Tommy Reese came in with the approach that until I say no to him, he's going to recruit me as hard as he can. He's going to be in the school, and he's going to show Notre Dame's love and want for me. And so that meant a lot to me throughout the process.

18:31And eventually, you know, I had visited four or five times there. And I said, this is a place for me. This is home. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. And I made that decision.

18:44Rich Eisen:And what do you like about, listen, the question is, what do you like about Marcus Freeman? And I'll just say this, CJ. I grew up in New York City. didn't know much about the Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry until I got to school there. And I can't stand your school, CJ. I'm not going to lie. You know, I went to school there, you know, covered Bo's final season there. My first game against Notre Dame, the Rocket ran two touchdowns, ruined the whole damn thing in my first year covering Bo's final season there. I rent Rudy hoping he pops a quad, you know, or I just tell everybody he's offside to the point where the real Rudy wants to hit me.

19:28Rich Eisen:Like he literally wants to physically hit me. But I told Coach Freeman, he's so damn good and so nice. Like I can't dislike him. I can't get there, CJ. What do you like about him so much? There's no doubt. There's no doubt. He's just a real person. You know, he recruited and was a certain way and you get to campus and he's the exact same way. He's the same guy on and off the field. He's consistent. He loves every one of his players. He wants the best for them. You believe in him. You know, the best one of the best messages I heard from him was, you know, when things are going great, I want this.

20:14I want all of you guys to feel the praise. You know what I'm saying? And when things are not going well, I want everyone to blame me. You know, I'm the guy to blame. You know, I want to take as much responsibility as I can. And it's just a guy you want to follow and the best leader that we could ask for. And like you said, he's hard to hate. You know, we have rivals and everyone loves Freeman, though.

20:40Rich Eisen:But how does he bring the best out of you? You got a good example of something where you can bring to the listeners, viewers here, CJ, about what he's brought out in you? Yeah, he's just as competitive, if not more competitive, than anyone in that locker room. And you feel it on game day as a fan, I'm sure. But, you know, we feel it in the building every single day. He comes in and he's in the weight room early. He's lifting. He's getting after it. He's in the office all day. He's grinding tape. We'll go out and play wiffle ball on Friday or Thursdays before the game. He's trying to rip our faces off.

21:17He's just a competitive sucker, and it makes you want to play for him.

21:21Rich Eisen:And what about, though, you? Was there a moment where in a game you were adjusting or prior to a game or something or he noticed something where maybe you were getting out of your head a little bit? Anything on that front, CJ? It's not really the specific moment. I think it's the consistency he brings. He's always the same. You always know what to expect from him. I remember Riley Leonard, we had lost to NIU, and he said the biggest thing Freeman had done was he came in week three. We beat Texas A &M week one. We lose to NIU week two, and he thinks Freeman's going to rip his face off at week three and everything's going down.

22:05and he came in on Monday morning. Freeze just smiling, sitting there like, all right, how are we feeling? You ready? You ready for week three? We got a big game coming up and just always even keeled. No moments too big for him. It's the consistency of him doing that day in and day out for me.

22:23Rich Eisen:Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr here on the Rich Eisen Show. How much is Coach Freeman either having already played up or do you think will play up to you and the rest of this program? The fact that you were left out of last year's college football playoffs on the outside looking in and use that for this season, CJ. Yeah, I'm not sure how much he'll play it up. I think that was last season. That was last year's team. And, you know, this year we have the phrase leave no doubt. And so we're going to try and come into the building every day and be the best version of ourselves, our 2026 Notre Dame football team.

23:07And we're going to use some of the pain that we we had from last season and being left out and losing two rough games at the beginning of the year. Tough ones to lose. But, you know, we're going to use all those lessons that we have learned to propel us forward this next upcoming year. And we're really excited for it. We've been working. and we're in summer ball right now, just trying to get 1 % better every day. So we'll see. We'll see when that time comes.

23:34Rich Eisen:Okay, so you're saying the phrase that Coach has put in front of you and the rest of the Fighting Irish for this upcoming season is leave no doubt? Yes, sir. Well, I mean, that answers my question. I mean, to use that phrase, it's like leave no doubt here. If you leave no doubt, we're going to get a seat. We're going to get a chance. We're going to get a ticket. We're going to win a championship. Like that's what that's from the outside looking in is the way I'm reading that phrase, CJ. Right? Yeah, I think our strength coach, head strength coach, Coach Landau, was big into the fighting game early in his career.

24:17And, you know, sometimes he'll bring us in the huddle and talk about how the best fighters never left it to the judges. You know, and that's in a way that's kind of what we did last year. we left it up for chance and so um yeah I think leave no doubt kind of encapsulates all that

24:32Rich Eisen:CJ Carr here a few minutes left with the Notre Dame quarterback right here on the Rich Eisen show Heisman hype you hearing it you getting it is it entering your world CJ no no not really it's um you know you hear the things from the outside but uh to me what you know what matters is the people inside of that Notre Dame football building and that they believe in me and that they can count on me. And so the individual awards, it's kind of just noise. Well, I mean, Todd McShay of The Ringer was on this program and others saying you had the best Manning passing camp and not just this past year, but of anybody that he's seen recently.

25:17Rich Eisen:CJ, did you go in there feeling something, leave it feeling better? Like walk me through your experience at the passing camp this year? Yeah, it was a great camp. It was a lot of fun. Just being able to be in front of two NFL legends is, you know, by itself enough for, you know, a long time. And it was a lot of fun and being around Peyton and Eli and also a bunch of the other, you know, college quarterbacks across America and ask them questions about their experiences and getting close to them. We're all kind of trying to do the same thing. So being able to relate to those guys, be around some of the greats, pick their minds, it was a really cool weekend.

25:58Rich Eisen:Well, Peyton, what did he tell you? What did he give you? He had, you know, we had met prior before that, and going through the drills with him and the intensity and the attention to detail that him and both Eli had was unbelievable. You know, the big things on the field were let your feet speak to you. If we're taking a certain footwork to throw a certain route and you feel yourself hitching when you shouldn't be, then you should be moving on to two. And just some of those little things that he brought to the table and helped me continue to think about throughout the upcoming weeks leading into the season were really helpful.

26:36Rich Eisen:That's so cool. At any point in time, did you like, okay, this is Peyton Manning giving me two cents. The whole time. That's right. The whole time. Right? I mean, because he's just some big, tall dude who's the first ballot hall of famer, was as great as they come, for him to be looking at you in the eye and going, this is what you should do. I mean, I would have been trying to take mental notes and making sure I'm not going to forget it. No doubt. No doubt. Okay. Well, with all due respect to Peyton as well, just make sure that if you are in the Heisman running, don't lose to a Michigan guy like he did.