Hour 1: Ole Miss/CFP Rankings Intrigue, plus NFL Network’s Kurt Warner

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+. You survived the Miami weekend. nailed the speech, and maxed out your credit card in the name of friendship. Now you've got one hangover, four pastel dresses, and zero reasons to wear them again.

0:39Rich Eisen:Sell them on Depop. Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest. And you at least get some of your dignity, money back. Someone on Depop wants what you've got. Start selling now. Depop. Where taste recognizes taste. 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 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash richeisenshow and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show.

1:26Rich Eisen:This is the Rich Eisen Show. The Patriots. This team destroying everyone in front of them. How far can they go? Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Today's guests. Prime Video TNF analyst Andrew Whitworth. Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner. Savannah Bananas left fielder Robert Anthony Cruz. And now it's Rich Eisen. Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show on Disney +, the ESPN app, ESPN radio, presented by Progressive Insurance, Sirius XM, Channel 80. Those are the four. There's our podcast listeners. Hello, whenever you're listening and wherever you're listening.

2:11Rich Eisen:Stop doing that. No, I can't see you. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial to have a conversation with us today. We've got not one, but two Walter Payton men of the year. I have no idea if Coach Rack from the Savannah Bananas is a great human through and through, we assume. Very possible. Because the Savannah Bananas are an absolute national, international delight. They bring joy. But basically, he better do well in the community because when you got Kurt Warner and you got Andrew Whitworth on the program, we're all banana peels basically around them. So 844-204-Ritchigan is the number to dial here on the program.

2:49Rich Eisen:Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman. What's up, man? Good to see you. The least sufferable member of the Rich Eisen show, Jay Feli, is here. Hey. What's up, Rich? He's not sitting in judgment of any of us. But wait until the Raiders get good again. Oh, that's good. Then you'll start acting like Brockman right now, with the Patriots being the only 11-win team in the national football. And then Mike can jump to my ship. There you go. Hey. I don't understand him. But good to see you, Jay Feli. How are you, TJ Jefferson? What's going on, sir? Chilling, man. How are you guys doing? We're doing great.

3:18Rich Eisen:I'll be honest with you. I'm a little confused. Maybe you can help me. How? Well, you know, I sat here on this program the other day, and I thought had a very, if I may, salient point in pointing out that Ole Miss did the right thing in telling Lane Kiffin you cannot have it both ways. You cannot be the head coach of Ole Miss football getting ready to take the reins of LSU football. You certainly can't do that in this day and age when there's transfer portals to talk about and signing periods and, you know, and rivalries. You can't tell us here in Oxford we're done right on the outset of the college football playoffs and expect to stay around here.

4:13Rich Eisen:the analogy I was going to make but there were just too many other things going on like fans showing up at private aviation gates and barbed wire fences and screaming obscenities that coaches getting on planes trying to run them off the road well I mean that's what Lane Kiffin said by the way one of the greatest responses Eli Manning reposting that portion of Lane Kiffin's press conference talking about how fans of Ole Miss football were running him off the road on the way to the airport he reposted that with the word oops um eli being eli eli very funny um yeah so unless he's saying that was chad powers i don't know um listen i i i totally understood it well why would you give the head coach of lsu football unfettered access to your players as a transfer portal window eventually opens up the second day of January for a couple of weeks.

5:13Rich Eisen:Why would you do such a thing? And doors closed. Makes sense. Unless you need an offensive coordinator. I mean, you could knock me over with a feather. I got one. Roll tape. Is this Charlie Weiss Jr. getting on a private jet the other day? Sure looks like it. And I thought the report was like either you're on the plane that LSU sent or you're off the plane. In the same way that Ole Miss was saying either you're with us here in Oxford or you're over there in Baton Rouge.

5:58Rich Eisen:and so we heard yesterday and it was confirmed by lane himself in a statement saying yeah charlie weiss jr is i'm i'm fine with him staying in oxford for the duration of the college football playoffs and of course lane put in the in the um in the announcement that this was in advance of the college football playoff committee making its final announcement of the playing season the regular playing season and it's a very crucial penultimate arranging of seeds because this is the way this is the rest of these college football playoff committee releases of what this the brackets look like is all window dressing just to get us to talk about it but the one before conference championship weekend is crucial because it does kind of pen the committee into making certain decisions based on ultimate results of the weekend even though the committee will do whatever it wants which is you know say put alabama above notre dame when they had the same record, even though Alabama just had an almost loss, a pull-it-out-of-your-orifice win at Auburn, which hadn't been doing anything of note, and Notre Dame's above Miami, even though Miami's beaten Notre Dame.

7:31Rich Eisen:I mean, they could do whatever the heck they want. But Lane's like, in advance of this, hey, college football playoff committee, don't penalize the kids that I just left. Because I just left. And I read that and I thought two things. One, why in the hell would a college football playoff committee filled with athletic directors and others, there but for the grace of the football buyout gods go you, penalize players for losing a head coach? Why would we do that? because the analogy I wanted to make back on the other day that I neglected to, I was sitting on the campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1989.

8:23Rich Eisen:I've been waiting for you to bring this up. Bill Frieder says, I'm going to Arizona State to coach basketball, but I'm sticking around here to find out what the seeds are going to be for the 1989 Michigan eventual national championship winners. They're good enough. So the 1989 Michigan Wolverines, I'm trying to find out what seed we're going to be. And Bo Schembechler, the athletic director, says, no, you're not. And he said, I want a Michigan man to coach a Michigan team. And he found Steve Fisher, who had really no ties to Michigan except being just freshly hired by Bill Frieder. The only reason that he was a Michigan man is because Bill Frieder wasn't anymore.

9:12and i don't know if the committee that seated michigan sixth in that tournament

9:19Rich Eisen:knocked them down a peg or two because who the hell was steve fisher i don't know but michigan won six in a row and won it all and cut down the nets so why would they penalize ole miss for losing their coach and they didn't by the way to their credit and i have no idea it's if they kept him at six because charlie weiss jr was going back to oxford and i thought to myself also while i read this from lane if you tell lane kiffin get out why is it fine for charlie weiss jr to come back i mean he might have handled the departure behind the scenes completely different than Lane did. There may have been a bridge that wasn't blown up like it was over the River Kwai.

10:14Rich Eisen:He may have a better relationship with the new head coach there, a better relationship with the athletic director. He may have handled it differently. I don't know, but at the end of the day, if you don't want these coachings around your players in advance of a transfer portal, because they're now going to be coaching for LSU. Does it matter? Like now there is technically a fox in the hen house. There's a Baton Rouge fox there. So what are we doing? I say sabotage. I don't know. I say sabotage. What are they doing? Except maybe trying to win a college football playoff game. and if i'm lane kiffin it makes me look beneficent that there's no hard feelings here you may be trying to run me off the road but i haven't quit you yet

11:14Rich Eisen:yes and you know i'm also showing everybody i can be an adult you think i'm not an adult here take them take them i don't need them yet i'm cool here i'll build my program here you know and i still have some old miss you know love in my heart take the guy and it also you know might improve the mailbox money having an extra comma in it by the end of the day because my contract the terms of which apparently i'm not familiar with completely in terms of the money on it does still have my college football playoff bonuses from old miss in my contract that's called a win-win i come across looking cool and i'm i'm helping old miss you're still pissed at me you want to run me off the road i'll still keep you down the path take my guy i don't understand it i don't get it anymore and maybe ole miss did they run a couple practices and go yeah we could use the offensive coordinator yeah right right who called who who who called who and said can we have charlie did somebody you up text are you yeah like are you up text yeah exactly chris and also did Charlie have to fly commercial back or did Ole Miss send a plane for him and nobody noticed because nobody was there with a torch and a pitchfork at the FBO in Baton Rouge you know like how does this work and interestingly enough Pete Golding the head coach there did not he canceled his press conference today there saying we wanted to be about the players and we'll talk about it on Sunday after the playoffs come out.

13:11Rich Eisen:So it'll be all about not Lane being gone and I've got the job and why did I have the offensive coordinator back? How is he here? Even though those questions I think are still Jermaine on Sunday when he speaks.

13:25Rich Eisen:I just don't get it. Is it me? No. Okay, thank you. I feel better. I know I should ask questions I already know the answer to. So weird. Like, how the hell does that happen? Roll the tape one more time. We can't play the sound on this because of the nonstop curse words coming from the fans yelling at Charlie Weiss Jr. getting on the plane. I thought I was messing up. No. It is not safe from work. It would sound like a truck backing up rather than a plane ready to take off. but hey, welcome back. If you can, you know, coordinate us a dub against the 11th seed, if that's what we're going to wind up being the 6th seed.

14:17Rich Eisen:At home, by the way. Home game. So the LSU, the future LSU coach, not allowed back. He's got to go. The LSU, future LSU offensive coordinator, here's your old Ole Miss shirt back. Okay. I've made my point. And one last thing, too, on the whole. And another thing, Vonnegut. Hoo-ha. Yeah. And another thing, Vonnegut. And another thing, Vonnegut. Talk about going back to school. The whole hoo-ha going on about, whoa, these seatings and standings and the athletic director from Arkansas doing bad 6 '7 jokes with Rich Davis one week. And then the next week, talking about results that matter here for this team being seated above that team.

15:08Rich Eisen:And then that reasoning makes no sense when you're saying it doesn't matter between this team and that team about this result and that one. And you're seeing all these columns and all this print going back and forth about what's right and what's wrong and whether BYU deserves it or Miami deserves it or Notre Dame deserves it or Alabama doesn't deserve it. All of this.

15:35Rich Eisen:where are the adults in the room to fix all of this because you know what's next as i was saying with this whole business with lane leaving and you're allowed to just get some tech bro or we'll ask andrew whitworth later did he you know put some whitworth dollars in to get lane free to go back to coach lsu his alma mater or whoever's slicing these checks you know in a situation where the governor of Louisiana says Brian Kelly's contract is an abomination. So the athletic director's got to go. And I'm now in charge only to hire somebody whose contract makes the other one look like it's a beer holder.

16:16Rich Eisen:You know, and all of this stuff, the NIL, the portal opening up and the signing period opening up. The college football playoffs are going down. on the conference championships between undefeated teams that are playing for a conference championship just for seeding purposes only to maybe beat each other up, put stuff on film to have a Big Ten team, have less of a chance to win it all. Is it for instance? You know what's next is somebody's got to step in a room and say contracts for everybody, and you're not allowed to talk to anybody until the last down is played in college football, and the season is over.

16:54Rich Eisen:There's a new league year just like the National Football League. Somebody's also got to come in and fix the scheduling, too. Because this next thing is if Texas doesn't make it when it's not going to, they'll be like, why didn't we play slappy university instead of Ohio State? Yep. Why do we play Ohio State? What purpose does it serve? Bingo. To play Ohio State when we should just take somebody that is dying to come play here. And we'll pay you to come play us. We'll pay you seven figures to lose to us because that is what's not going to reek to high heaven to a college football playoff committee.

17:34Rich Eisen:When they're sitting in a room with their coffee breath and BO, that's a midnight run reference. And all of that, add that to the list of you can't pay to have a coach break his contract or hers in college sports because you can't do that in the nfl

18:04Rich Eisen:it's crazy it's crazy giants have an opening you know what they're gonna do they're gonna find out because he was an offensive coordinator there once you know um does sean payton want to come back and coach the Giants? What's his buyout there in Denver? Let's find out. Oh, is it 50 million bucks? Probably not. Whatever. Let's pay it. Let's pay it. You know what we'll do? We'll get somebody who's a massive sponsor of the New York Giants to scratch that check for us. And then Sean Payton, oh, right in the middle of the season, right on the cusp of the playoffs? Yeah. He'll just leave to go to the New York Giants and it'll be Denver fans showing up at the FBO flipping the bird at Sean Payton oh but you know what'll happen is the offensive coordinator will be allowed to stay there to finish the season after all does any of this sound absurd to you because it should and then the seating of the Broncos is going to be dependent on whether the offensive coordinator stays or not and in terms of a team that is right there on the cusp in the hunt sniffing it um what they're going to do next year is they're going to wind up playing um a ufl team with all due respect first week of the season they're going to basically tell you know hey uh where are the denver broncos we are slated right now to have on our schedule next year the atlanta falcons we don't want to put our potential problem on the line against them or the bills you know let's cancel the bills game and let's schedule somebody from the ufl and then in front of the committee deciding where that team makes the playoffs or not it'll be better it'll be one win more and we'll pay that money to them and as a matter of fact we'll get a sponsor another sponsor of the Giants to do that or the Broncos to do that.

20:14Rich Eisen:Does that make any sense to you? Of course it doesn't. But in college football, it's like, let's write columns about it. NFL playoff committee, not a terrible idea. Okay, thanks. You're ruining my point, Chris. Either you're on the plane or you're not. I'm on the plane. Until two days from now and I'll let you go back to that take. Appreciate that. let's take a break Kurt Warner is going to join us next to bring some sanity to the situation and then Andrew Whitworth 844-204-RICH-NUMBER I got my power rankings as well that's when things will go haywire again around here it sounds kind of cool the Rich Eisen Show podcast

21:03Rich Eisen:Rich Eisen here and Summer's here too and that means it's travel season. My favorite summer trip last year was to Sao Paulo, Brazil. With so many fans traveling for the Los Angeles against Kansas City game, they got to see how lively the city is. I love the culture and the amazing food that I'm still craving. Those memories remind everyone that it's that time of year to plan a little getaway. And that's why summer has a way of turning weekends into big events. One minute, it's a normal week, and then all of a sudden, a huge concert, sporting event, or festival brings people in from all over. And when that happens, Visitors start looking for places to stay all across your city.

21:40Rich Eisen:So if you're already planning a summer trip of your own, you could list your space on Airbnb and earn a little extra cash while you're away. Doesn't have to be some big year round commitment. It's about making the most of a busy weekend when your place would just be empty. Otherwise, I can tell you people love finding a place that helps them feel connected to the city that they're visiting. If your city is about to have a big summer moment, this is a great time to maximize your space. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. While the world watches the stars of the FIFA World Cup, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent.

22:19Rich Eisen: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. And we're still doing it every day. Because the future isn't some far-off concept. It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Save money on your next oil change with O 'Reilly Auto Parts. Get a$15 O 'Reilly gift card after rebate when you buy five quarts of Mobile One full synthetic motor oil for just$35.95.

22:56Rich Eisen:Stop by your local O 'Reilly Auto Parts.

23:02Rich Eisen:The radio audience just returned. and ESPN, presented by Progressive Insurance, Kurt Warner is here explaining what answers to the test Josh McDaniels is giving Drake May. I give you the floor back, sir. So again, it's full field concepts where they're giving you a concept to the right, a concept to the left. Quarterback's job is to read pre-snap, read post-snap, and then get to the side that fits the coverage that you're seeing. And then once you get there, it simplifies it knowing, oh, I got an inside out over here. I got a high low over here. And so you can find the guy, the defender that you need to read with your eyes, and you can play the game very quickly.

23:38The pure progression type offense is say, OK, we're going to start over here and it's going to be one, two and three over here and four or five over here. And so the whole process to me takes longer. And it's not as definitive because we're not basing it off of if the defense does this, you throw here. We're just saying, oh, if this guy's covered, then move to the next guy and see if he's open and then see if he's open. And so it speeds the game up. If the quarterback can see it and understand what he's seeing, it speeds the game up. It makes the game easier, quicker, because I know definitively where my read is.

24:16And if I don't like that read off of that defender, then just find your check down or take off and run. And so it becomes a very simplified game and you can play the game faster. Whereas I think the other forces a quarterback to play slower. And, you know, the argument is, OK, it's easier for a quarterback to go pure progression because they don't really have to see anything. They just have to read it one, two, three, four, five and see if their guy's open and throw it to him. whereas the full field is, okay, my quarterback's got to know what he's seeing on the snap and what the coverage is or what his keys are to make him go to the right or to the left and change his progression.

24:53But I've been a proponent that I still believe at this level, no matter how good of an athlete that you are, you have to play the game mentally first if you want to be a championship type quarterback or a championship type team. And I see that show up over and over and over again, the quarterbacks that play the best mentally inside the pocket being able to see their progressions and go through them are the quarterbacks that are the best quarterbacks in the league and the other ones is touch and go their first or second guy might be open on the progression great it looks really good one week but then doesn't look as good the next week it's all about consistency seeing the field making quick decisions and the faster you can do that the more successful you can be and drake may is doing that with the help of josh mcganiel who is simplifying those things.

25:39And again, I don't want to say it's simpler because seeing the field and reading it and deciphering these coverages isn't easy to do. But if you can do that, then the concepts make the game simpler, in my opinion.

25:52Rich Eisen:And of course, Drake May is just making it look easy, I think, in terms of what you're saying. And clearly, it makes sense that you want a quarterback who can play quicker when you keep seeing and we see it every year at the combine defensive players getting bigger stronger faster and they're getting home you know we saw multiple times on on Sunday night football you know Chris Collinsworth pointing out that if you're going to be playing games at the mesh point in the backfield against the Denver Broncos they're so damn fast you can't you can't play slow you know if you play slow you're you're finished so I'm kind of you know leading our conversation down a certain path, and then we're going to get to the ultimate question about what to do with the quarterback play in this league in 2025.

26:39Rich Eisen:Caleb Williams, is he playing faster? What has Ben Johnson done to change things around there? Obviously, the win-loss record is different, but we're also seeing, I think, Caleb more confident. He's not making mistakes. He still has trouble with accuracy, but it does feel like he's more in control here. Yeah, I mean, he definitely seems more comfortable with what they're asking him to do. Now, Ben Johnson does run a number of what I would call pure progressions. But I think he ties it in really well because within his pure progressions, a lot of times he has good, solid, what I call defender read type plays.

27:20So he's still trying to tell his quarterback to kind of read through that progression. but he's trying to still put somebody in conflict with, say, you know, read one and two or read two and three. So if we get there and this guy's covered, this next guy based on the design of the play should be open. So I think that the scheme helps Caleb Williams to play a little bit more fast or I guess more comfortable, I would say. He's still got, you know, room to grow. You know, there's times his eyes start on the wrong spot for me. There's times that he hesitates too much. You mentioned it. He's missing too many layups still.

27:59But, you know, we were talking about it on game day morning, me and Daniel Jeremiah. And Daniel was saying that, you know, at the NFL level, you need one of two things with your starting quarterback. You either need great efficiency or you need explosive plays. Now, if you can have both, obviously, that's the pick of the litter right there. But you need one of the two. And right now, Caleb's not playing extremely efficiently. He's missing a lot of throws that you just have to make. But he has the explosive part of it, whether that's a scramble, big play, whether that's, you know, four or five big throws inside the pocket.

28:36You know, I'm seeing him when he's really definitive on certain things. He's making some really special throws to his number one reads that maybe a lot of guys in the league don't make. And so he's he's got that explosiveness. they've got turnovers on defense and they're running the football well that's why they're winning now they just need to find a way to get him more efficient uh you know in making more of those layups to go along with a few of those explosive plays and then i think you see the trajectory go like this and why ben johnson was saying you know we're kind of winning in spite of our pass game right now it's not as efficient as we want it to be um but caleb is doing enough to go along with the other things to uh to obviously keep them on the winning path what's

29:15Rich Eisen:happened to the Colts offense you know by the way I think I'm done with the Eagles question with you right I mean because I mean I'm yeah unless you're not I mean no I mean but it's the same stuff there so um yeah let's go to the Colts the Colts are I mean the AFC South is wide open now sir you know it is what I you and I both know it and this offense that was cooking over the first two months that helped lead them to that eight and one record they're they're they're they're in or seven and one record they're they're now eight and four sir has something changed i think i think the natural thing for most people is to point right at daniel jones and say well daniel jones isn't that top tier quarterback and maybe true i mean we haven't seen anything to say that he's you know, top tier, like best in the league.