Hour 2: ESPN College Football analyst Josh Pate, Steelers Defensive Tackle Cam Heyward

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1:28Rich Eisen:Now, on with the show. 3, 2, 1. This is the Rich Eisen Show. There's one second remaining in the game. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show, pro football Hall of Famer Troy Aikman. Coming up. ESPN college football analyst Josh Pate. Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cam Hayward. Falcons running back Bajon Robinson. And now it's Rich Eisen.

2:04Rich Eisen:Hour number two here on this first Tuesday of football season, both college and professional. And in this hour, we'll talk both with Tuesday guests that are going to be recurring every single week. Cam Hayward of the Pittsburgh Steelers, kind enough to say, I'll come on every single Tuesday during the season as an active player, which is a rare thing to have. We do not take that for granted. He's joining us in less than 20 minutes' time. But Josh Pate's been on this program many times before, including last week, and now he joins us, as he will, every single Tuesday in support of everything that this man is doing, which is quite a lot, based on what I see all the time on socials, the Josh Pate football show, as well as Bussin and Pate on campus.

2:52Rich Eisen:And also, I see Josh Pate lifting. So I think he and Lance Taylor are going to be doing some legwork together. Good to see you, Josh. How are you, buddy? I'm good. I could not help but notice as I was doing the whole scroll fest on Saturday night in the wake of whatever you call that happened at the end of the Michigan game. Yes, sir. And I know how serious you are by the angle beneath your face that the cell phone video is. And that cell phone video was well beneath the chin line. And you were trying to gather the words. Yes. And your extensive understanding of this great language of ours. And you were still dumbfounded.

3:34Even you stumbled over your own words trying to express what you just saw. And I related to that because it is my job to talk about this sport. And I basically just shrugged when I got home and my wife said, what happened in that Michigan game? I don't know.

3:50Rich Eisen:Me neither. And again, I've been at this now for 30 years, Josh. And with the NFL for almost a quarter century, I'm about to head over to NFL Network to start my 24th season with them. Even I didn't know that the game clock and the broadcast clock and the replay clock are all separate. it. I had no idea, you know, that that this sort of thing could fall through the cracks as it appeared to. And I know you you have a massive problem with it. So I'll give you the floor. Have you as you're taking on any different avenues or you still have the same opinion? Josh? No, I'm very upset about it. As upset as an outsider could be.

4:36Of course, I've heard from a lot of Michigan fans who are ready to screenshot this and send me a feed of that. I understand the machinations of the Big Ten explanation that came two hours later. And of course, I understand if the benefit of the decision falls in your lap, then it's your instinct to defend the decision. I get all that. I think my anger, rage, whatever you want to call it, was far more basic in this whole thing. And it's this, if you have a secret way of doing anything that is integral to deciding the outcome of a game, and we don't know about it, that's a problem. Because transparency, as the Big Ten so quickly pointed out during the Brendan Soresby case, is paramount in this.

5:20You've got to have transparency to have integrity on the outcomes of games. And they were right. The Big Ten was right when they were looking at Texas Tech saying, look, if you guys don't do something about this, then we're going to issue a league-wide boycott of scheduling Texas Tech. But then when it comes time for the Big Ten to be fully transparent, like to their credit, the ACC has in their review process, the Big Ten was not that proactively enough. And so I'm not one who's claiming a fix was in. I'm not claiming anything like that. What I am claiming is a lot of people will think that. And there's a very easy way to circumvent that.

5:58There's an easy way to nip that in the bud. And that is fully peel the curtain back. Because if you don't, then people are left to wonder, well, if there's a secret clock there, but we aren't privy to it, then how do we know that you would have gone to these lengths had it been Western Michigan that needed one tenths or two tenths of a second left? And the answer is we can't know because you're not transparent enough. So I think the big lesson moving forward, if there is one to be learned, is that you shouldn't be waiting until next year to do this. From this week moving forward, if the Big Ten is worth its salt, they will fully peel that curtain back, just like the Atlantic Coast Conference has done.

6:35They may have member institutions on both coasts, so that's all screwed up, but at least they've gotten it right in the review process where there is no stone left unturned. There is no hundreds and thousands of scrolls long Reddit thread about conspiracies about the ACC's review process because you get to see the whole thing. And so that's how it should be in the Big Ten moving forward.

6:58Rich Eisen:Didn't they send out a video of the actual review? I mean, what's more transparent than sending out that this was the conversation between everybody as they looked at how much time was left on the clock? Yeah, I'll tell you what's more transparent than that. Not waiting two hours to do it, doing it in the live broadcast, just like the ACC does. Look, let's, I don't have tinfoil around here, but let's pretend this bottle's a tinfoil hat. Okay. So I've got the tinfoil hat on. Yes, sir. If I already doubt the leak, you releasing a video two hours later is not going to appease me. It's not going to quell my concerns.

7:33All I'm going to do is get on the internet and say, well, anybody could edit anything in two hours. Now, do I believe the big 10 did that? No, I believe they provided the exact feed that they used in the review process the point is it doesn't have to be that way there doesn't have to be any smoke if it's already happening during the process televise it another entire conference already does it and by the way rich the big 10's doing it on their friday games so just do it league wide i hope

8:01Rich Eisen:they do i think they will my fingers are crossed my my issue josh is the uh michigan cheating which I know I'm going to have to deal with the rest of my days. You know, I get it. As if the extra play Michigan got was a tush push from the half yard line. You know what I mean? Like the kid had to throw it 60 yards flat footed. And so obviously that, when that happened, I knew it was going to be on. I knew I'd be talking about it today. I knew I'd be, you know, as you pointed out, searching for words while drinking my red wine on my Instagram feed. You know what I mean? Like, I knew it was on. It was officially on.

8:43Rich Eisen:You know what I mean? And that's where I kind of want to turn the page to here is Michigan's got a problem, right, at quarterback, Josh? Would you agree? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. And I think it's a bigger problem now than it would have been five years ago because five years ago you wouldn't have had an eight-figure price tag attached to a quarterback. So it, in theory, would have been easier to pull the lever if that lever needs to be pulled. I am going to go up there this weekend. I'm going to that Oklahoma game. And there's this instinctive voice way, way in the back of my mind that says, you've watched this sport long enough.

9:20You know that week one lies to you all the time. And you know with these ultra talented rosters, when they get their back against the wall, they're in wounded animal mode, especially in Michigan's case. They get a sudden unexpected stay of execution. You know they can get off the deck. Week two, you know, that can happen. And I'm talking to myself. I know that can happen. Yes, I do. I also know that the caliber of athlete Western Michigan had on the field that you couldn't do anything against after that first drive pales in comparison to the athlete that Oklahoma is going to put on the field. This may be the best defense in the country coming into town this week.

9:54And so, I mean, if you can't dent the scoreboard against Western Michigan and it's it's so fundamental in nature, like Rich, I thought that ground game was going to carry him. And I'm looking at Heider and Marshall, and I'm looking at that total rushing output, and that shocked me. It really stunned me. Me too. I'll stop short of saying shocked. It is week one of a new staff, after all. But I don't know what the move is if he struggles mightily again this week. And this is a defense that will make a lot of good quarterbacks look bad this year. So where's your head at on this, by the way? You're in the weed there.

10:29Rich Eisen:Yeah, I appreciate you, you know, throwing that back in my lap. That's part of the reason why I love having you on this show is it's a conversation. It's not just a Q &A here. I'm nervous. I mean, I've met the kid twice, and he's so supremely confident, and he's also lived in a spotlight at an age that it's unnatural, right, for a 16-, 17-year-old, even in high school athletics, right? And once upon a time, I saw Drew Henson be Mr. Michigan, and then he comes in, and he struggled. He struggled. And then there was Tom Brady, which was very helpful for Michigan. And I just don't know if we're watching this again or he is just talented and he's just needs the reps.

11:14Rich Eisen:Although he just got a ton of reps, you know, over the last several months. And and so I'm nervous. I'm concerned. I'm rooting for him because I would love for him to come out against Oklahoma and wing it and just basically say, I I'm still the same Bryce Underwood. everyone hoped I could be and and shows everybody I I don't know and Kyle Whittingham's got you know obviously um a high price tagged kid that he may be forced to look everybody in the face you know hey Mr. Ellison thanks for the tab but we're gonna go with this other kid right I kind of laid it all out for you Josh I don't know what the playbook is I mean if you're if you're Kyle Whittingham or any coach walking into that situation, we're still in a new enough era.

12:05We're still in the new enough portion, rather, of this new era that a lot of firsts are being seen. This is one of the firsts of a coaching staff inheriting a very, very highly paid asset at quarterback that the entire future hope in the next three or so years was built around. And I'm not going to say it's a dead product. I'm not going to say that yet. But if it is that then at what point do you look around and say guy okay can I pull the trigger here or or is it still your sole discretion on when you pull the trigger I have no clue what to expect

12:38Rich Eisen:there Josh paid here on the Rich Eisen show just you're back fresh uh from the debut of you with the bussing uh guys in Baton Rouge what a weekend man for for Lane Kiffin right where he went on college game day said his piece then his team said their piece and he said his piece going in the locker room at halftime saying could you imagine if there were you know pro players here and then the leaked the leaked halftime speech where he peeled the paint off the walls Josh and I imagine LSU fans are out of their gourds excited correct in a way that I haven't seen since the 2019 season and maybe even more so because there is the added sense down there of an us against the world or at the very least an us against our own league mentality and I mean by the way for those who are watching now who haven't been checking updates in the past two hours the SEC has just casually scheduled a meeting for Thursday to vote to kick out LSU out of the league so that is something that's happening by the way I left out that lawsuit part where he didn't dress the NFL players pardon me you're right that's one large piece of the puzzle I left hanging out there it's a crazy crazy time down here in the south but I want to tell you you mentioned that leaked audio um Lane you know we were we were in the building all day Friday.

14:08And so I was around him. I was around his staff. We were in meetings. I heard language every bit as forceful in the pregame, if not more so, more in a predictive manner than maybe that leaked audio. And I don't know how leaked it was. I don't know how authentic it was. But I will say everything that happened Saturday night, they fully expected to happen to the point where I'm listening to him Friday saying, OK, I mean, yeah, it's nice to be confident. But, buddy, they never expected a competitive game, and they didn't get a competitive game. Defensively, that's an incredible outfit. I know Lane and the offense and Sam Levitt, they're going to get all the credit, and they should, but Blake Baker, very, very nearly left there to be a head coach in his own right, and they've still got him, and he's one of the best in America, and they've got a lot of really good athletes there.

14:58There's going to be a lot of theater that's about to play out because the SEC's stance, by the way, this is going to be a huge story over the next couple of days is we don't care if you didn't roster those players. You've already gone past the line in the sand that we set. And there's some language. If you read some of the language of the TRO, of the legal filing, whatever the wording is supposed to be, of what the SEC has filed, there's a quote in there that they expressed great concern. I'm reading it right now. Expressed great concern that LSU President Roos and athletic director Owsbury have no meaningful control over Kiffin or the football program at LSU.

15:37Now, for those unfamiliar with how Louisiana State University operates, that's the SEC alleging that the governor is running the program using the recently inserted president and AD as a proxy. That's what they're saying. And what they're saying is Kiffin's kind of doing whatever he wants and we're not going to deal with it because every one of you has claimed that you want enforceable rules and you want a workable structure, but yet when we're trying to do it, we've got a member institution trying to take us to court. At that point, we don't care if you rostered the players or not. Now, I will tell you, Rich, we got, what, 48 hours until Thursday.

16:14I cannot imagine an SEC without LSU in it. So it would still shock me if this happened, but that's not to say they're not very serious about this. I just think what it is is threatened to be grounded for a year so that when I ground you for six months, whatever that means here, figuratively, you kind of wipe the sweat off your brow a little bit, but there's a reassertion of authority, and there's a resetting of the hierarchy of who's really in charge. It's the SEC trying to do the look at me. I'm the Somali pirate. I'm in charge, and you're lucky to be here. I am the captain.

16:49Rich Eisen:Before I let you go, this is the way I would love to finish up our Tuesday chats after looking back is looking forward. It's an obvious game on the schedule here. the Ohio State at Texas. You want to preview that one for me, Josh, before I send you on one to Tuesday? Two really good defenses, man. The marquee, the promotional posters, whatever artwork ESPN and ABC choose to roll with, you're going to see a lot of Arch Manning. You're going to see a lot of Julian saying, and you got two potentially of the best defenses in the country here. Either one of them could win a defensive game if they need to.

17:20By the way, if you remember back to last year. That's how this game played out in Columbus. I think Ohio State would really love to win this game. I think Texas needs to win this game. Remember, Texas has run into Georgia a couple of times and they've been out physicaled and they've been bested, even though recruiting rankings and portal rankings would lead you to believe those rosters are one-to-one. Well, Ohio State has the propensity to do that to you too. They could put you in a locker physically as well. Texas believes they have upped their game. They believe they have upped their level of physicality.

17:54And they believe they can go toe-to-toe physically with anybody in the country for four quarters. It's in their home building. If they're wrong about that, it's going to be a pretty scathing indictment. You know, Clemson believed a lot of things about themselves, Rich. And they found out they were wrong about what they believed. So Texas, same way. Texas believes a lot about itself. And the beautiful thing about this sport is we don't always have to live in the world of the hypothetical. We actually get to see it play out this Saturday. I know you'd love me to predict this game. I got no clue who I'm predicting yet.

18:23I slightly lean Texas, very slightly lean Texas. But the coaching matchup here is fun, too, because he brought in Muschamp. Steve Sarkeesian brought in Muschamp at defensive coordinator. But I don't know that there is a much better head coach coordinator trio than what Ryan Day is bringing to town. So it's going to be a really fun chess match on the sidelines, too.

18:42Rich Eisen:Well, if it wasn't for the clock in Ann Arbor, we would have roosted a bit more in a conversation on Clemson and Davos Swinney and everything else going on there. So for the moment, we place that aside, and we send you on with the rest of your Tuesday, the Josh Pate College Football Show, over half a million subscribers to that YouTube channel. Bussin and Pate on campus in Ann Arbor, 2 Eastern? In Ann Arbor, my friend. Oh, LaJuan in Ann Arbor, man. That'll be tough on nobody. That'll be great. That'll be great. Enjoy it. I'll look forward to seeing it. Two Eastern on the OSPN on Friday. That's Josh Pate every Tuesday right here on the Rich Eisen Show.

19:19Rich Eisen:Great chat as always. Did you know every 36 minutes a child in the United States is diagnosed with cancer, which means some of the bravest warriors you'll ever meet aren't professional athletes or superheroes. They're the kids in this fight. That's why I'm proud to support Hyundai Hope on Wheels. For the past 28 years with support from Hyundai, their dealers, and every new Hyundai sold, Hope on Wheels has contributed over$300 million to childhood cancer research, helping save more than wait for it, 40 ,000 kids. Join our fight at HyundaiWarriors.com. That was Josh Pade, who's on every Tuesday, coming up next in his first of every Tuesday spot during the season.

19:56Rich Eisen:The one and only Cam Hayward, next on The Rich Eisen Show.

20:05Rich Eisen: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. Rich Eisen here for Gusto. After all these years talking to athletes, coaches, entertainers, and people at the top of what they do, one thing is pretty clear.

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21:54Rich Eisen:Somebody wants fresh pizza. Somebody wants crispy wings. Somebody's asking if there's sliders. That's when you need more than one call on the playbook. Frigidaire offers ranges and wall ovens with over 15 cooking modes, so you can tackle hosting with confidence. There's Stone Baked Pizza for restaurant-quality pizza in as little as two minutes, Air Fry Mode for crispy favorites, and Air Sous Vide for juicy, tender sliders. Plus, there's slow cook, no preheat, and more. Stone Baked Pizza and Air Fry, both built right in your oven. That's the game-time MVP combo. So when you're hosting before kickoff, Frigidaire helps you cover every craving.

22:27Rich Eisen:Available at the Home Depot. Outdoers get more done. Only when using Stone Baked Pizza mode, cook time requires preheat and reheat and may vary based on ingredients. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Cam Hayward is here. Our radio audience has returned. Not Just Football with Cam Hayward is a weekly podcast that gives fans a peek behind the curtain of NFL life. Hayden Walsh is with Cam. And Not Just Football, where you can get it where all your podcasts are acquired as well as on YouTube as well. And Cam is kind enough to join us on this program every Tuesday, this upcoming season as well, which I truly, truly appreciate.

23:06Rich Eisen:It is good to see you, Cam. It's great to see you. We got the season right upon us. Right. This is the best time to be a part of the show. I appreciate you saying that. So let's just jump into it here. What goes through your mind after all these years for you to get ready for this NFL season, Cam? I hate week one. I honestly do. There's so many, like, what ifs and buts and, you know, what if they do this? But what if they do that? And week one is the worst because coaches overthink, players overthink, because teams are just completely different. Give me the week two, but that's the butterflies I get.

23:48And once we get past, you know, the first kick, I'm usually settled by that.