Hour 2: Jets’ QB Future, Mendoza’s Signature Moment, plus Chris Fowler Talks CFP Final

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1:23This is The Rich Eisen Show. On with the show. Here's the snap. Beck looks, throws it down the field. This is the Rich Eisen Show. And it is intercepted by Indiana. The Rich Eisen Show. Touchdown, Fernando Mendoza. I love you guys. Oh, let's f***ing go. Earlier on the show. Greenlight Podcast host, Chris Long. Coming up. ESPN Play-By-Play broadcaster, Chris Fowler. Quarterback consultant, Jordan Palmer. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:58Rich Eisen:Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Chris Fowler recalled the national championship game. It's 20 minutes away. And wait to hear what he's doing tonight. It's going to be a lot of fun. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on the program. Whether you're watching on Disney +, the ESPN app, and also listening to us on ESPN Radio or Sirius XM Channel 80 or our podcast, We greatly appreciate everybody who takes us in, however you take us in. There's also always our YouTube channel for you. It's a nice backstop, youtube.com slash RichEisenShow. You can watch us back whenever you want, all three hours, thanks to our relationship with Disney Plus and the ESPN app.

2:36Rich Eisen:Let's go to the phone lines here to kick off our number two. Jake in Omaha, Nebraska, right smack dab in the middle of our football-loving nation. What's up, Jake? Hey, Rich. How are you doing? What's on your mind, sir? oh i was just calling um i've got a jets question for you because i'm a lifelong jets fan but really quick before i get into that i wanted to uh and i know this is a lot i'm gonna try not to be emotional but i just want to thank you guys for everything you do um my dad passed away after a long battle with dementia this last year and i grew up sports was our life and he grew up you We listen to sports talk radio all the time, and Jim Rome, and Mike and Mike, and Dan Patrick.

3:24I found your guys' show a few years ago, and listening to you guys during that period was so comforting. When I would drive around to and from work, it made me feel like my dad was in the car with me. Wow, Jake. I just want to say thank you guys. Wow.

3:41Rich Eisen:That means so much to us, but obviously we love being there for you. And that's, you know, connectivity is what what this business is all about. And the fact that you let us connect with you in that way means a lot to us. So thank you for that. Yeah, we appreciate that. Yeah, thank you. You bet. And it seems like you deserve to be happy, Jake. So why are you a fan in the middle of the country? I, you know, it's I constantly I'm a New York sports fan. and I've always had an affinity for New York, and I constantly play back the interstellar Matthew McConaughey when I wish I would have been a Giants fan instead of a Jets fan.

4:21It is what it is at this point. So my question, I guess, is with the kind of predicament they're in, with the picks they have, with the number two pick they have, I know that obviously Dante Moore choosing to stay at Oregon. I know there's a couple franchises. the Texans had their performance with C.J. Stroud. The Ravens obviously are going through a little bit of change. My question is, do you think there's any possibility there would be any value in throwing some of those first-round picks at C.J. Stroud, at L.M.R. Jackson? No. No way.

4:58Rich Eisen:That would be... No way. The Jets mortgaged their present in 2025 for the 2027 draft plain and simple plain and simple they got they have three first rounders in that draft their own the colts second one from the sauce gardener trade they're going to use um that one 16th overall in the upcoming draft and the cowboys won in 2027 wherever that may land that's three first rounders in a draft where arch manning lives um and whoever else that you think that the Jets have clearly looked at and purposefully are putting their eggs in the 2027 basket. And so this year, even if somehow, someway Mendoza drops to them, I would even counsel them to let him slide.

5:52Rich Eisen:They're not ready for him yet. They need to amass big-time playmakers. And I'm not talking about on offense either. They need to look at somebody who is going to be a difference maker anywhere and choose him and know that the quarterback's coming. I don't know who they would choose to be their quarterback next year, but that's what I think they're planning on doing. And with that, I say, call back, Jake, please. Yes, absolutely. Thank you guys so much. That's Jake in Omaha. We appreciate it. Honestly, the Jets aren't ready. As I said the other day, Moore did them a favor to say, I want to stick around in Oregon.

6:34Rich Eisen:And, you know, and then you just have to trust that their new brain trust is going to get it right. And that somehow, someway, it doesn't go sideways again. Who's starting next year? For the Jets? Yeah. I don't know if he's on the team right now. I don't know. get a veteran who's going to slap you through it and maybe give you a good shot because there's a reason why they told the Cowboys first rounder in 2027 not next year please there's a reason for it and with three first rounders you can move around that board that's for sure I don't know if you're going to get arch but you've got the firepower to do it you know um so i don't have an answer on that front but the the bottom line is that you just got to hope the new gm is going to do right and that aaron glenn is the right guy because you know who's also the right guy who was the right guy i'll say it i don't care there's a reason why the tennessee titans looked at robert sala and said you're our guy with our first overall selected quarterback and we're going with you as the defensive play caller and CEO rather than getting some offensive mind to hook up with Cam Ward.

7:56Rich Eisen:We'd rather do that. We'd rather go with you, Robert Sala. You sold us in the same way that he sold everyone in San Francisco not once but twice. And he was with the Jets and suddenly that just couldn't work out. obviously Zach Wilson was an issue and then they put their eggs in the basket of Aaron Rodgers and we all know what happened there but in year two just four games in they're like let's bench let's bench Rodgers and then after five games let's fire Robert Sala in the middle of the season so you just have to hope they're going to get it right but they do have the draft choices you know as they introduced John Harbaugh um elsewhere in the building so and as for Fernando Mendoza I see a first overall draft choice I really do now that may be part and parcel of who else is in the draft or who else is not in the draft but at the end of the day who I see is somebody who processes really well.

9:07Rich Eisen:And I see somebody who is tough as nails. Tough as nails. I see somebody who knows Tom Brady's in the building, who knows Tom Brady and Mark Davis and John Spitek are in the building, and those are the three who are going to decide who's the first overall draft choice in the NFL draft. And I know I have to perform not only for my future, but for my present and for my current teammates and for my current head coach. And I see his stat line. It doesn't jump out at you. But what I see are a bunch of dogs on that Miami defense, including Reuben Bain, who I was texting with. I'll say it. I don't care.

9:59Rich Eisen:Daniel Jeremiah last night and I'm like where's he going to land in the draft and he just wrote back top 15 okay so he's going to see Reuben Bain or a lot of guys like him in the NFL and he got targeted last night there's no doubt he got cheap shotted I don't know how the hell there was no targeting call on the one that split his lip you know I love Signetti going off of the field at halftime and his in his quick, usual, nothing's really said chit-chat with sideline reporter and coach heading off into the locker room. He's just like, there were three personal foul penalties on our quarterback that were not called in the same drive.

10:43Rich Eisen:And that kid last night, 100 % was circled by Miami, and he was circled by Ohio State, who blew him up first play on the Big Ten championship night. And 100 % is viewed by a lot of people in this world as soft because he cries when he talks. Which may be part and parcel of our world these days as to what people consider is strong-willed masculine people. But I think that's strong that he's able to show his emotions and still be an absolute beast on the field and a competitor of the first variety. He has checked every box. This play right here. Fourth and four. Your coach is saying to you on the sideline, we're going for it and you're the one who's going to run it.

11:42Rich Eisen:We're not going to use your arm. Which they did later on with Charlie Becker. You want to talk about back shoulder throws to a wide receiver. Baby. Right. Becker, who's got future Los Angeles Ram written all over him. Patriot. True. All that good stuff. But we're going to run it. And you're going to not only go for the first down, but in the middle of the play, screw it. I am going to leap for the end zone, knowing the team that has been targeting me all night. I'm giving them a free shot. and I'll be honest, do you think there might be some in this world who'd be like, yeah, I want to win tonight, but Tom Brady and everybody else in the building, I'm the first overall pick in the next year's draft.

12:35Rich Eisen:Do I really want to put my body on the line right here? What if this happens, that happens, and suddenly I'm not available for the draft? What happens? I'm going to jump for the end zone. Now, I might be off, but I thought to myself, he's like, there's a torpedo and I am damning it because I'm winning tonight and I'm showing what I'm made of tonight because tonight helps me with tomorrow. And he's got his priorities straight. Love it. I couldn't love this kid more. So, yeah, that's a first overall pick in the draft. Also, if you're living in Las Vegas, Nevada, and you know this guy isn't going raving or clubbing, he's going home.

13:23Rich Eisen:Maybe. He's going home. Until he gets a taste. Excuse me. You ever been to Vegas? Guys, I've been to Las Vegas, Nevada. Remember the first time you went to Vegas? It'll turn you out quick. He'll go down. I don't appreciate your interruptions. We're just saying. You got to keep it real. You know. Beach club's weak. He kept it real after the game. A little bit of change, too, Chris? Which soundbite do we have here all queued up, Mike? Oh, it's touchdown. Hit it. Yeah, a big concept that we've really had on ourselves this year is always betting on ourselves. Whether it's preseason, knowing things we can make it, whether it's figuring it out in situations like Oregon, Penn State, and Iowa, we always figure it out.

14:00And whenever Coach Cignetti, Coach Shanahan, they called that play, we knew, hey, we're going to better ourselves one more time in the biggest stage of the game. And at that point, I took the drop, and it wasn't the perfect coverage for it, but I trust my lineman and everybody in that entire offense, an entire team had a gritty performance today, and we're all putting our bodies on the line. So it's the least I could do for my brothers.

14:21Rich Eisen:Come on. Come on. Come on. That's all I got to say. And then apparently he worked blue in the post game. Oh, he dropped an LFG man. Oh my goodness. Well, that might be for Tom. He's talking to an audience of one. Your audience. Right there. And that was brought up after the game too. Fernando, you dropped a curse word there at the end, something you don't do very often. Where did that come from? Yeah, I would say overwhelmed by emotion and it's the pinnacle peak. It's like all season we've, you know, sometimes I've had these cookie-cutter responses, immediate training responses where it's been like, oh, on to the next game, on to the next play, and now we did it.

14:59We did it. So at that point I think it was only fitting to kind of, you know, open the floodgates per se. Probably break my stereotype.

15:07Rich Eisen:He's been around Coach Sig too long. That's an X-rated mouth. So he knows what it's like to get hard coaching and succeed with it. He knows what it's like to succeed in the toughest moments with his arm and his legs. He knows what it's like to take advantage of an opportunity. And he knows how to maybe decide for a defense better than somebody else who's coming out of a draft. I'm the Raiders. I'm all over him. All over him. And I know they're not ready for him, just like the Jets aren't roster-wise. but they got to they know what to do I hope with their roster and their cap space and what they can do with this kid because I do think it's going to be a little bit of nurture plus the nature that's the conversation you have all the time what if this guy got drafted to a different spot would he still be successful that you need to have the right system the right coach or is he just so damn talented doesn't matter where he winds up there's no drama to this.

16:08Rich Eisen:He's going to go number one. He's minus 7 ,000 right now. Is he really? Yeah. By the way, that sounds like an exaggeration. It's not. Like everybody thinks he's so first overall. He's minus 7 ,000. Like, wait a minute. Is that really, that's really the number. Really the number. Reuben Bain is second at plus 5 ,000. Hey, the way that guy's playing, the Jet fan that we just got called in, you need to go after the passer. You're not only going for Josh Allen anymore, you're going for Drake May, or whoever the quarterback's going to be in Miami. with Jeff Halfley hired with a tough defense and that mindset coming to South Florida now.

16:44Rich Eisen:So that wouldn't be bad. And also just shows you if he's second overall material and he sure looked at last night, he was treating some of those offensive linemen of Indiana that are best in the nation like turnstiles. Hey, man, we might look back on this national championship game like that was the number one overall pick and the number two overall pick meeting in the backfield every now and then of a great game, by the way. Superb game. Great game. That was just awesome. But Mendoza, I mean, and I know Penn State fans feel like you had him dead to rights. That was an incredible moment for him too.

17:23Rich Eisen:Yeah. Right? That was an unbelievable. Beat Oregon twice. And you know, you want to talk about NIL world where you think somebody's going to have a leg up. You'd think Phil Knight was throwing all this money at the football program, and Indiana comes in in two years and beats Oregon twice in the same season to go undefeated 16-0 with this kid winning the Heisman Trophy. Deservedly so. Deservedly so. Awesome stuff. For Vegas, man. He might end up on the roof of the Venetian once he gets there. You never know. Is that right? You don't even know. On a mattress? We're wondering where he is? come on man Vegas is something crazy horse isn't equestrian you know what I mean I got it lessons and I understand that uh uh spearmint isn't the taste of the gum with the rhino I get it you get it I'm with you feel me I messed up picking up what you're putting down okay this kid's going to sleep okay never know and then when he shows up well rested he will be awake okay how dare you Let's take a break.

18:29Rich Eisen:Glass is half full, pal. Chris Fowler is coming up next right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Fresh off calling the natty.

18:40Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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21:19Rich Eisen:Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show on ESPN Radio. We talked in the previous segment about the Fernando Mendoza leaping for the end zone touchdown. before we bring in our next guest. Here's his remarkable call of that awesome moment last night. Got to get to the eight. He's going to take off and run. Mendoza weaves his way first and go diving toward the end zone. Touchdown. That's where he won the Heisman Trophy. Perfectly called and summed up. And my good buddy, Chris Fowler, kind enough to join us here the day after. Great to see you, Chris. How are you, sir?

22:05Feeling good. Feeling good. Bags under the eyes, but I hate to point out the flaws, but I'm making it, Rich. I'm good. That was a blast to call. Thanks for playing that call. That's a play, especially when you watch it unfold in slow motion. It was so cinematic. It's going to be remembered forever, not just by Indiana fans, but by a lot of football fans who enjoyed the ride and enjoyed getting to know Mendoza the last couple of months. And that was a cinematic, as Cignetti said, it's a hell of a movie. and that was maybe like the closing scene right there. The interception was, but it was a hell of a movie.

22:37Rich Eisen:Well, I mean, and I was just saying in the last segment, and I might be already getting too deep in the weeds here, Chris, but in this day and age of NIL and what kids play for, right, he's got Tom Brady, Mark Davis, John Spitek watching him. He's the first overall pick in the draft coming in and I think 100 % now going out. I'm just wondering, might there be somebody who's thinking, all right, first down's enough, I'm sliding, because I'm not putting myself on the line here, and to heck with it, damn the torpedoes, I'm jumping headfirst against a team that's been targeting me all night. That was incredible, Chris.

23:17That's not Mendoza, though, man. He has consistently taken bigs. Remember the Ohio State game, Big Ten Championship, takes that massive shot. You thought he might be done forever, and he gets up, misses one play, comes back in. So we knew his toughness. But yeah, that was a cheap shot, not called, right to the mouth, bleeding, unfazed by it. In fact, he plays better, I think, after he gets rocked and gets challenged. So there was no way he was not going to go airborne and pay the price. Took two shots in that play. Once on the ground, then once in the air in the back. And like I said, it's one of those moments in my time of covering and calling games in this sport that I'll never forget.

23:54That's a beautiful freeze frame, right? Look at that shot.

23:56Rich Eisen:Right, and you look at his arms. His arms were banged up, bruised, black and blue. Yeah, that's it right there. That's the moment in the air. And he had the presence of mind to stretch the ball across the plane with two hands on it. I mean, there's so many components to that play. The call by Signetti when he didn't really want to have to kick a field goal, but he set the field goal team out. Then the clock was running down. He knew they weren't going to be able to get off the operation cleanly. So he calls timeout. They come back over. Radicic is also 15, the kicker. So we didn't know which 15 in red is going to go out there because it was unclear.

24:31And he kind of said afterward that he said, bleep it, put the offense back out there because he knew that a touchdown there was really going to put pressure on Miami. And if you don't make it, you're still backing them up near the goal line. It was, in the end, a great call. It still surprised me because he had sent the field goal team out there to go up six. But give him a lot of credit, man, for not only the guts to make the call, but having the knowledge that they had a play that could block well that Miami had kind of tipped earlier, they weren't going to be great at defending. And the safety got lost and it unfolded exactly how the computer's brain envisioned it beforehand.

25:05Rich Eisen:So what is Kurt Signetti like in a pre-broadcast meeting, Chris? Fascinating, man. I got to know him in the run-up to the Heisman. I'd never met him before. And we did a Zoom talking about Mendoza and talking about ball and talking about their season and and then obviously covering them in the Rose Bowl where you have a little more time than most games to hang around and get to know him he sits in the in the room and it's a very interesting presence which wouldn't be a surprise you know seeing his press conferences and his interviews but he'll look you right in the eye he told us not in regard to judging us but in judging other people recruits coaches that he can usually tell within you know 45 seconds or a minute exactly what someone is about through the look in their eye their posture your demeanor.

25:48So you feel challenged when you're with him to make sure that he understands that you're all in, you're attentive, you're paying attention, you're feeling the vibe. But I like that. I like disruptors. I like guys who have swag and bravado, but he's also a no-nonsense guy. Your talk a few minutes ago about the comparisons to Saban are very real, not an achievement, because nobody's going to do what Nick did. Let's get carried away. Signetti's already, he's older than me. He's not going to win six more championships. But I think the way he goes about his business, the way he pushes his team's buttons is masterful, and the way that he judges talent and assembles a roster.

26:25Now, having said that, when Kirk and I said at the end of the game, Rich, and I don't know if you're going to ask this or not, but we said Indiana's not going anywhere. You talked about Mark Cuban. He was singing along to Hurt So Good last night, the commercial rant, which I thought was funny. Having a good time. It doesn't mean you can do this again and again, okay? You have to get a lot of things aligned. Mendoza is not going to be there. They're bringing in Josh Hooper from TCU, good quarterback. I'm sure they'll coach and develop him extremely well, but so many of the pieces, so many of those 24, 25-year-olds that came from JMU and other places, they're at their third or fourth school, they're not going to be there.