Hour 1: Panthers-49ers Reactions, plus Michigan Head Coach Sherrone Moore

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1:00Rich Eisen: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. This is the Rich Eisen Show. When you turn the ball over really three drives in a row, it's like, all right. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Picked off in the end zone by Carolina. Intercepted by Hornigan.

1:44Rich Eisen:Today's guests, Michigan head coach, Sharon Moore. Comedian, Jim Gaffigan. Fox Sports NFL analyst, Mark Schlereth. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Time for another program right here on the Rich Arzen Show. All three hours seen on Disney Plus, the ESPN app, heard on ESPN radio, radio presented by Progressive Insurance, Sirius XM Channel 80 listeners. Hello to all of you. It's going to be a fun Tuesday in our neighborhood with a dozen National Football League weeks now in the books. And we turn our attention to the Thanksgiving triple header. And then we have a big time contest on Friday between the Eagles and the Bears.

2:35Rich Eisen:And then it's unlike the proverbial Kong O'Donkey in the big house when it's a Michigan, Ohio State contest. Once again, high noon on Fox. And Sherwin Moore will be joining us on this program in about 18 minutes time. And my goal is to do no harm. No harm at all. But to give you a sense of what's going on, and one of the teams involved in this program just happens to be my alma mater whose win-loss record affects me emotionally. And so Sharon Moore will join us on this program. Always fun to have Mark Schlereth on a Tuesday. It's an overreaction Monday on a Tuesday. Jim Gaffigan in studio in hour number three, and talk about just hitting directly on something that he's doing business-wise.

3:27Rich Eisen:As you know, he's got his own bourbon line, right? So he's doing an entire stand-up set about bourbon and drinking bourbon. That's what you do. That's what you do. Father time bourbon's own Jim Gaffigan in studio in hour number three. It's always a fun time. Hour two. Oh, pardon me. Hour two. That's right. We've got hour two for him. And then Schlereth in hour three. You threw out 844-204-Rich. Number two. I'll go to see you over there, Christopher Brodwin. Do you like that your game is right off the bat? Oh, God, do I ever know. 9 a.m. Pacific here. You do like that. I might have to take something on Friday night to make sure I don't wake up too early.

4:01Rich Eisen:And then I don't like watching the pregame hype. I just can't do it. I don't want it. Don't need it. And the only thing that's longer than waiting for the game are the freaking commercial breaks that Fox constantly jams in there. Dude. Every network does. Excuse me. Three and a half minutes? Yes. Three and a half minutes long? Three and a half minutes, Mike. I was at a big noon Fox game in Ann Arbor, Michigan versus Wisconsin, and the number of times that guy with his twirling sign came out and put three and a half minutes on the clock or 3.05. The red hat on the sideline. I wanted to throw the red hat out of the stadium.

4:40Rich Eisen:I hate the red hat. The games take four hours. It's absurd. Anyway, Mike Del Tufo is here. The Fox apologist, Mike Del Tufo, is here. Good to see you. From sports to news. Mike Deltufo is here apologizing for Fox. That's okay. They're the ones who give you, you know, your pension plan and all that stuff. Emmys. Good to see you over there, TJ Jefferson. How are you? Just two quick things. Yes, sir. As someone who— You like it when I speak with my chest. I do. It's that week for you. As someone who hosts a pregame show, the fact that you don't want to watch a pregame is wild to me. Well, it's because mine is watchable.

5:17Rich Eisen:It's wild. I'm just kidding. And number two— No, stop it. You are. But I understand if I'm leading to a one o 'clock game, you know, and it means that much to you and I'm here, I'm talking about it, I'm talking about it. And I understand if you don't want to watch me hype it. I get it. Also, as a lead pipe building professional, I will that lead pipe. The interview with Coach Moore is going to be completely unbiased. It's going to be journalistically. Yes. Integrity. Yes, yes, yes. OK. Yeah. And there'll be nothing balanced after it. What do I care? it's that time of week but i'm a lot i'm happy to say the ohio state university and spell the letter o h i o i get the whole business but you're above that frame and i i but every other frame i'm not above i'm beneath i'm quite beneath and i'm gonna do my best to not you know drag the coach into it at any rate that's uh now in 15 minutes time you know what it's it's uh they're you know how you haven't seen an old friend in a while?

6:18Rich Eisen:And you're like, oh, that's right. I haven't seen you in a while. And I missed you. I've always enjoyed my time together, especially since I'm always there for you. Where are you going with this? No, no, no. I missed this. I missed it. I missed it. I missed it. And for a flash last night at return. I think I know what it is. For a flash last night at return. My old friend, the conversation is, is Brock Purdy a franchise quarterback? It popped up. It flashed again. Somebody, somebody, somebody who's talking in front of a microphone today may have texted everybody in the group last night in all caps, uh, Mac Jones.

6:55Rich Eisen:Mac Jones watch. Watch. Okay. I was not alone in that. And by the way, I've been very pro purdy this year. I just kind of missed it. He was terrible. I missed it. It's been a while. You know, it's been a while. It's been a while. I guess it reared back up when he signed his$55 million a year contract. Wow, is that looking today? And then he did throw a game-winning pass with damn near a torn-up toe in Seattle against a Seattle team that's hardly lost since then, finding Jake Tonjes in the end zone. Jake Tonjes season occurred in week one. And then he went away. Then he came back too soon. And everyone's like, okay, we'll just blame it on the toe.

7:41Rich Eisen:And then he came back last week and looked really good in Arizona. And you can say, hey, everybody looks good in Arizona. Fine. Okay. Fine. Sounds like you can read my mind. No, I can read all your minds because I know you represent the sports id of our 2025 world sometimes, Chris. I have been very pro-perty this season. Which is why you're so fabulous at Overreaction Monday and found Overreaction Monday on a Tuesday coming up with all the subject matters. Well, I would stay tuned for... I got you, but it's been a while. It's been a while. So Purdy throws an interception, and then he throws another interception.

8:18Rich Eisen:And then I... And he threw another one. Okay, three. In a row. In a row. In a row. And by the way, J.C. Horn, during that stretch, J.C. Horn became the first Carolina Panther in team history to come up with multiple, multiple interception games in a single season. He's really good. He's really good. That's just him. He's really good. And the Carolina Panthers were in this football game. They were in it. The fact that Purdy threw three straight interceptions is a major reason why. But so is Christian McCaffrey. So is Kittle. And so is Juwan Jennings. and so is the way it goes in San Francisco. They're 8-4.

9:07Rich Eisen:You are what you are. And what they are is a team that has now won two in a row with Brock Purdy at the quarterback spot. Purdy making the throws necessary, the runs necessary. At one point, it looked like he was dead to rights in the pocket and he pulled the ball down and he made a play fake, got out of the pocket, made another fake. That's why Steve Young says use your legs a lot. Steve Young knows all about that constantly counseling Purdy to do both run and pass don't force it and all three of his interceptions came on deep throws down the field 20 or more air yards all three of them when he's under 20 air yards 23 or 29 with a passer rating just south of 106 and a touchdown and no picks so not pretty not pretty but at the end of the day McCaffrey getting it done I called my shot again earlier this year in the same way I said this would be the year Matthew Stafford would make the Hall of Fame in the mind's eye of anybody else who had had doubts coming in.

10:07Rich Eisen:I think I've been proven correct on that front. I told you Christian McCaffrey is a Hall of Famer. We're watching a Hall of Famer at work, and I understand the pushback about what his sometimes availability is, and I understand I told you once upon a time my son is in a fantasy league where somebody named their team Christian McCaffstrain, which I think kind of sets it up. But Christian McCaffrey coming off of last season's disaster of being healthy now leads the National Football League in receptions. 81 of them. It's not Jackson Smith and Jigba. It's not, name them. Name him 81 receptions and 1 ,581 scrimmage yards.

10:57Rich Eisen:That's his 10th game of the season in which he's had at least 100 scrimmage yards. He's the only player with nine or more. And how about this one? This is a good one. He's got five games of 30 or more touches. Five of them. Imagine that. Only player with multiple such games this year. The last player to have as many games in a season with 30 or more touches. I'll give you the year. You want to take a shot? Okay. 2017. 2017. 2017. Is that the famous year of Billy Joel's Miami? Mike? Right? Todd Gurley? No. Right position. Zeke? No. You mentioned him the other day in reference to somebody kind of surfing around on the field like Jerry Judy.

11:53Rich Eisen:Correct. Okay. Correct. And it's obviously helpful when your quarterback's throwing interceptions. And your defense has suddenly become sackless. which makes sense as the broadcast, Monday Night Broadcast, did show a split screen of both Nick Bosa and Fred Warner in their street clothes in a Levi's Stadium suite. And their 13 sacks are the fewest of any team in 2025. Nine games with one sack are fewer than most in 2025. So these are the challenges for the 49ers moving forward, those things. They're 8-4, which isn't as good as two other teams in their division.

12:42Rich Eisen:And the good news is the team that's right above them in Seattle, they have won one game there already. And their last game of the year is against Seattle at home. Should that come down to it? They split against the Rams. So there's no tiebreak one way or the other there. they're they're right there in the nfc west and they're currently in the nfc right there in the wild card spot that's going to be tough for say dallas to go catch them they now have that tie break against carolina which is crucial they're a half game in front of the lions whose next game is against the six seed green bay to kick off thanksgiving what a huge contest that is they're Half game behind Seattle.

13:29Rich Eisen:Next game is at home against Minnesota. For Sam Donald to make life even more miserable for the Vikings these days. So half game behind the Bears and the Eagles. One behind the Rams. That's how tight the NFC is. Is that team that I just mentioned to you. That is a half game behind a second place team that's fifth in the standings. and a half game behind the teams that are currently two and three in the standings in the NFC that were playing each other on Friday, and one game in the win column, two in the loss behind the top seed. It's tight. It's tight. So the Niners have question marks, but they are what they are, and what they're going to do is go into Cleveland next to take on Shador Sanders and the Browns.

14:18Rich Eisen:that's some must-see football viewing just to see how that one works out so the Niners have got to be feeling good about themselves they lost Purdy middle of the season they've lost Bosa and they've lost Warner amongst many that they have had injuries Purdy has come back he throws a three interception game all in basically not basically in three drives by the way he's only he's the only quarterback to have a three interception first half of a home game in the national football league in the last two years and he's done it twice remember he did it on christmas night against the ravens in 2023 if you remember all of that they're eight and four you are what you are the question is now for the 49ers in their next game is will they have juan jennings in it because the post-game moment broke into what sounds like a Nick Saban joke.

15:24Rich Eisen:Because it's a deez-nuts situation. Nothing funny about it, obviously. No. As men on the planet, we can basically say. Oh, my goodness. It's not a good feeling. to use the phrase that nick bakai one of our favorite guests and one of my favorite humans on the planet when he was doing stuff for a sports center back in the day when i was there in my 1.0 with disney and espn and he mentioned how uh andrew galata once hit riddick bow in what he called the forbidden speed bag and i will never forget that phraseology because it sure looked like last night javon marig hit juan jennings in the forbidden speed bag with a left a little left jab it was it was hidden and the officials who were right there didn't see it and didn't call anything after uh juan jennings gave the international symbol of i've been hit in the forbidden speed bag of taking both hands and covering said speed bag with it while bending over.

16:33Rich Eisen:Yeah, you can't take another shot. You know what I mean? No, no, no, no. So nothing happened there. But after the game, Jennings found Merrig, and he had Juszczyk and Barnes of Carolina, there's a photograph right here, separate them in the way that, I guess, Merrig tried to separate Juwan's Jennings. And... Wow. When'd you come up with that? I just did. Elite Broadcasting. I like to think you woke up in the middle of the night. No, didn't think about that in the middle of the night, thank goodness. Elite Broadcasting. No, no. Kids out there, take notes. But Jennings did hit him, Merrig, with an open hand, And we know Brian Branch did that to Juju Smith-Schuster earlier this season.

17:34Rich Eisen:He got suspended. And I'd love to get the head coach first because it's very rare that you see a head coach step to the podium. And normally it's just like, well, something happened. We'll deal with it. you know basically not give you the details of what happened because again Jennings took the took the shot yeah and didn't take his shot until after the game he he didn't do it during the moment where it could have really cost his team yardage in the situation which is all in all what the head coach was was talking about afterwards uh yeah the guy took a cheap shot and hit him in the balls, and I was real proud of Juwan for not losing his mind out there and getting him to the sideline.

18:26Rich Eisen:Sound bite of the year. Good answer. Jennings had this to say afterwards. Man, TV going to tell you what happened, man. I was just, yeah, I was just responding to me some childish behavior. That's all that was. Probably just like I was saying, just the history of me playing ball. I play hard. You know, I'm physically stronger than a lot of DBs out there. So, you know, yeah, a lot of things happen in between the whistle. Is that a that's not a metaphor for anything, right? A lot of things happen between the whistle. A lot of things happen. I want to make sure that's not a metaphor. Meaning the referee's whistles.

19:03Rich Eisen:Whistles? Listen, I think we should just just just do suspend him for this sort of behavior. Do you do that? i would not i would not either but um you know i would not either you know let's just say who's hearing the um the case if there is a suspension and an appeal right derrick brooks maybe james thrash i don't know i think jordy nelson is doing that sort of thing too i guess what i would do if i'm jennings is i would show up in person hit whoever is listening to the appeal in that forbidden speed bag and say now you're gonna suspend me how do you like me now what do you think what are you going to do with that information and they're going to be like why and he's going to be like you know what what are you going to do now how do you respond right isn't that what tomlin said after yeah um after jalen ramsey you respond how you seem necessary yeah yeah you know like who am i to tell somebody how to respond after they've been spat in their face yep but it's just it's just part and parcel of like what are we doing what are we doing can we just not how about this i think this is a metaphor and this is a message to planet earth if i may from my seat can we just not hit each other in balls can can you tell my son that that's true well he's five and a half yes so that's the behavior one understands from a five and a half oh i mean honestly the fact that saturday night live skit uh that i and that involved um why am i blanking on who it was um it was uh casey affleck the vanilla nut tap sketch got my son's nut tapping everybody forever but these are nfl players right they should know better yeah and just because we're on disney plus we're gonna stop talking about it okay and plus my coach is waiting ladies and gentlemen sharon moore next what a big time contest this is it's michigan ohio state week and we've got the head coach of the Wolverines coming up next.

21:21Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.

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22:47Rich Eisen:back here on the rich eyes and show on espn radio presented by progressive insurance along with disney plus and the espn app i don't have the information here in front of me but i believe he's the only guy in the history of this incredible rivalry between michigan and ohio state to win the game as an assistant head coach an acting head coach and a full-time head coach he is sharon moore of the university of michigan here on the rich eyes and show good to see you coach how are you great i'm great man i'm excited i'm uh preparation is is hard at work the guys are uh attacking it every single day we've had a great very great monday yesterday great sunday and uh tuesday's been awesome so far the the intensity the attention to detail is at an all-time high and just ready to go how do you lock them in how do you do it or is it just is it just the opponent does it on its own what do you do what do you think i mean we you know our team meeting we had on monday you know we talked about the maryland game where we at we moved on pretty quickly and you know if you're a player a coach um an alumni someone at michigan there's not much you have to say to get ready for this game you know you're preparing for this thing 365 days a year you don't you don't win the game this week right it's based on what you do in january through now So there's been a lot of preparation up to this point in preparing for this game.

24:07So there wasn't much to say. The focus of these players is at an all-time high. The guys, the urgency is at an all-time high. And we're just going to continue to prepare like we've been preparing for these past five games.

24:19Rich Eisen:When did you, because again, you're from the state of Kansas. You played your college ball at Oklahoma with my guy, our guy, pardon me, Gerald McCoy. you know um when did you first get a taste of this rivalry where you're like okay i get it when was that moment for you when i first got it is when i first got here in 2018 that's you know you felt the difference and then when we went down there in 2019 it was not a good result for us um that feeling that i had in my mouth that taste that we had was something you never wanted to feel again um kind of an embarrassment and something that you know as a program as a university that we felt like we could never have again and the obviously the 21 year was was magical right and and how we you know played and prepared and what happened but I think every year when you go into this game it's just different you know you talk about preparing for game one game at a time but you're always thinking about this game right and there's no disrespect to any opponent we play but whether it's January whether it's September and you're playing in Central Michigan or Oklahoma or whoever it is, New Mexico, or if it's November, once you get to this month, there's an itch, there's something that starts to happen, a feeling in your body that, you know, you're getting closer to that game.

25:37And you still got to prepare and have the one-step mindset. But, you know, the theme right now for our team is starve your distractions and feed your focus. There's a lot of things, there's a lot of deterrent factors out there that can get you off of your path. And, you know, people telling you you're doing a good job or, you know, how good you are, what this is. and we can't even feed into any of that. We've got to really reset our focus to what we're doing and go attack.

26:00Rich Eisen:I mean, if you don't mind taking a couple minutes here to just linger on this for me to share my story, my first taste, because I'm from New York City, and I didn't know anything about Michigan growing up at all. The states didn't know the culture, didn't know the people, didn't know the school, didn't know the rivalry, had no earthly idea until I showed up on campus and was told by everybody, hey these games you're going to Notre Dame was the first one and like hey enjoy it soak it in Michigan State we got to win that one too but it all does come down to the week that we play Ohio State I'm like really they're like really and then the first the first game was uh in 1986 season and uh the quarterback of the team guaranteed a win and it pissed off the head coach at the time, Bo Schembechler, and the quarterback's name was Jim Harbaugh.

26:51And he did do it.

26:54Rich Eisen:They went in the horseshoe and they won it and went to the Rose Bowl. I'm just wondering, did Jim share anything with you when you first got there or when you were, again, taking over for him that one time a couple of years ago about this? Did he share anything with you throughout the process? At that point, we'd been in it a couple times and been in the game and rivalry. You know, the thing he just told me when I had to take over for him 23, because we had a special team. We had a team that had been together for years. You know, I just had Trevor Keegan text me just now, Blake Quorum, you know, the other day.

27:31And, you know, just text with those guys. And, you know, Trevor's like, how are you feeling? Are you feeling dangerous? Are you feeling confident? Nice. And it's just different. Right. And the thing that Jim told me, he said, just do you. He said, do you and you'll be just fine. you know you'll you'll have success but just trust the trust your training trust the players yesterday we talked to the the team about you know trusting your technique and trust your coaches but you know at the end of the day you gotta trust your brothers and and that's what this game is all about it's trusting everything and all the work you've put into this point and winning your one-on-ones.

28:05Rich Eisen:Sharon Moore head coach of the University of Michigan football program joining me here on the Rich Eisen show the week of Ohio State at the big house you got a young team too We all know that. And, you know, spearheaded by an 18 year old at quarterback who is just got a bazooka in that right arm of his in Bryce Underwood. We met him here. The whole crew could not believe how big he was and how mature he was. But, you know, he also is from the area. He's probably grown up dreaming of the moment he's going to have on Saturday. How do you get him ready for this one? I mean, I think that he's been getting ready for this moment all his life.

28:42he's been you know I'll tell you this we got done with the game on Saturday came back and I came to the office started watching film that next morning he was already in the building watching the game with coach Lindsey that night he stayed here till about 11 45 at night Monday he was in there in the morning before class after practice he was in there last night and I just walked around this morning and he was in there watching film again it's like the kid does not get rattled, but he prepares so hard and he wants to be so good. And, you know, I can't be more proud of how he's progressed, you know, with all the criticism and all the things and all the attention that he has as a young man.

29:21Like he just handles it with such grace and he's such a humble kid. He's such a great teammate and the players, you know, they've, they've definitely surrounded him and taken care of him and brought him into the family. And he's been, he's just, he's earned the trust of everybody around him because of how hard he works, how hard he prepares and uh it's it's exciting to watch and you know the preparation will just have to continue you know you can't prepare somebody for the moment that they walk on the field before the game there's a feeling that you have at that moment in the game that i can tell you i can explain to you but i can't describe to you you know last year we walked into the horseshoe and jay sean barham who'd played at maryland and played in the game played in the game before you know comes to me said oh yeah coach this is what you're talking about i feel it it's different so like there's a feeling in this game that you cannot describe that you just have to feel it and you have to let the players feel that it's like putting on the the your favorite song in your earpiece in your headset on your airpods before the game or your beats and listening to it and getting hyped up before a game that's the feeling that you're going to get it's something you can't describe and you just have to let everybody handle it and feel it

30:27Rich Eisen:themselves well moments ago coach you mentioned the first few games of the year the opponents that you had. How is Bryce different now than he was then? What's he improved in? I mean, I think just he's a completely different player. Obviously, he always had the talent and the ability and he can make the throws. Trust in the system, trust in himself, not doing too much. He's done a really good job of converting a lot of things with his legs because he is athletic. He's done a really good job of going through his reads, but I think he's also found some connections within the plays, you know, with people as well, because I think that's part of Him and Andrew Marsh have built a really good connection.