Hour 2: Notre Dame vs USC rivalry comes to end

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1:54This 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. Oh my God, you guys are my favorites. This is The Rich Eisen Show. The one and only. Rich Eisen. I know what I'm talking about. That's the headline. The Rich Eisen Show. With guest host, Brian Weber. I mean, honestly, he's brilliant.

2:37Brian Weber. I've got a long resume. Google me, it saves time. From The Rich Eisen Show's studio in Los Angeles. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Brian Weber.

2:53Pulling into another hour of the program. Great to have you with us on a very busy Tuesday, specifically because we do not have a three-hour show today. Management decided, Weber, you're better for an hour and 23 minutes. So we're going to supersize this monologue. As the countdown to kickoff is underway, let me reach over, hit the button. we're taking you up until Toledo versus Louisville coming up at the bottom of the hour it is the Bush's Boca Raton Bowl of Beans that's followed by the New Orleans Bowl Western Kentucky and Southern Miss I will talk college football coming up in less than 15 minutes I'm based here in Southern California want to thank our great affiliate ESPN LA 710 for the hospitality If you care at all about my background, I am a USC alumnus, although, and I'll say this out on a national platform, if there's any way I could get the money back that I wasted on that graduate degree, feel free to hit me up on the X platform.

4:02B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs. Who do I call? Is there a post office box? I could send a strongly written letter. But as an alum and somebody who was extraordinarily passionate about college football, I was the luckiest broadcaster in the world. I've been lucky throughout my entire career. I'm lucky to be here because Rich has been a great friend and an advocate. I got into the business extraordinarily young. I was on the air in San Francisco at 22 years of age. And I was lucky to call college games in the late, great Pac-12, then the Pac-10 and host coaches shows. So I have strong opinions about what's going on in college football.

4:45I'll give you my view of the death of the rivalry between USC and Notre Dame. And here's a preview. It's 99 % USC's fault. We'll talk about, because I am in for a Michigan man, is anybody going to take the Michigan football job? We'll get there coming up. But the top of the hour is sacred. So let's roll back to where we started the program. And if you're enjoying what we're doing today, the good news, depending on your perspective, is I'm back tomorrow with a full three hours. And then we'll do it again on Friday. All the fallout from the five NBA games you can see across the ESPN family of networks and here on ESPN Radio, plus the now lackluster NFL tripleheader.

5:33That's all coming up because it's all about forward promotion. But we opened the program thinking about the meaningful components of what happened last night on Monday Night Football. The summation is, it was a good game to watch. And that's, I think, what we're looking for, especially this time of the year, because we know what's coming up. An 18-game regular season is a foregone conclusion. And yes, more football is a good thing. we'll all watch but that also raises the possibility of more meaningless games and more teams getting hammered by injuries which led to philip rivers playing his second game last night and you never want anyone to go through the misfortune of a severe injury and i was rooting for daniel jones now i thought it was a terrible pick when he was selected way too early in the first round by Dave Gettleman coming out of Duke, but that's not his fault.

6:35When you get the call, you don't say, no, no, no, I'm probably better suited to be a second round pick. I like reinvention. I like redemption and not too long ago. And again, this reflects the beauty of the NFL. I'm Brian Weber in for rich and the fellows eight, eight, eight, say ESPN. If you want to give me a call, we'll do that tomorrow. We can have the conversation on the X platform, BW Weber Weber would two B's ESPN radio is presented by progressive insurance. not that long ago. You don't have to be a historian to remember when the Colts were the best story in all of football. Started the year eight and two.

7:12Now, if you were paying attention, the majority of that success was based on Jonathan Taylor running wild. And now he's in a battle to hang on to what looked like it was going to be a slam dunk to have the rushing title come his way. And the reason I believe Buffalo is the most dangerous team in a wide-open AFC, is that James Cook has come alive. And finally, Josh Allen has some support. But I'm going to hold off on giving you my deep, deep, deep dive on the AFC until we have more time tomorrow. But you go from 8-2, and now, based on their latest loss, as Indy is in free fall, they have the distinct probability of becoming the first team in league history to win eight of the first 10 and miss the playoffs entirely after Daniel Jones went down with a torn Achilles.

8:06Remember, he was out there with a broken bone in his leg. So however you view Danny Dimes, Danny Turnovers, if you want to get pejorative, you cannot question his resolve. That got us the sensational development of Philip Rivers coming out of retirement. And those of us who could use a few more hours on the elliptical, maybe identified with his dad bod and all the jokes that came with it. Last week, nothing more than dink and dunk by design, in part because he was trying to get back that arm strength after not playing for five years. And also a byproduct of the intensity of the Seattle defense, which I think has put them in position to be the top seed in the NFC.

8:52Very different outlook last night. In fact, the tone was set on the very first play. Rivers goes deep by design, under through that ball, foreshadowing some of the issues that he dealt with. But I'm not here to poke holes in what was a tremendous watch. It was a good feel-good story, a good good double good. How about a stellar, heartwarming development in Indy? Unless you're a Colts fan and you're not looking for moral victories or something to talk about you thought you were not only going to win that division you might be the number one seed in the AFC everything has changed rivers though showed much more arm strength he was able to get those deep balls almost there he underthrew a couple but he threw in the tight windows he made those changes on the line of scrimmage because that brain is still firing at a high rate 277 in the air touchdown and then the late Dagger of a pick six as Dee Winters took it back 75 yards for the touchdown to seal the victory.

9:59I saw on Get Up, because I'm watching Get Up every morning like you should. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich. If you want to, keep the conversation going after we step aside for our college football coverage. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, it's Toledo against Louisville in the bushes. Boca Raton Bowl of Beans. We can have the back and forth on the X platform. That is B.W. Weber. Weber with two Bs. A reminder, ESPN Radio is presented by Progressive Insurance. Keep your career moving forward. Visit careers.progressive.com. I saw the topic was thrown out on Get Up this morning on ESPN. Any chance Philip Rivers returns for next year?

10:42The answer should be no, because we had this unique development of a team being in playoff contention, needing a starter. The Anthony Richardson experiment has been a failure on every level. Then he got hurt somehow in the locker room, and it really came down to the relationship between Phillip and head coach Shane Steichen going back to their time together with the Chargers that led to this truly unique development. And I know as a talk show host, I'm supposed to give you a strong take on everything. My take on Phillip was I was glad to see it happen. It was cool. It was different, especially at this stage of the season.

11:26And for the first half, at least, it was a shootout. As you were watching last night, it felt like arena football to a degree. And that's got to be a concern if you back the 49ers, because if Phillip Rivers could do that in his second game, after taking half a decade off from professional football. What's going to happen to the Niners, who've already clinched a playoff berth when they get to the postseason in the NFC and face potentially Matthew Stafford again? And we saw what Matthew did a couple weeks ago on the road in Northern California. Go through the rest of the NFC. Caleb Williams is looking a lot like the guy who was thoroughly dominant on the college level, winning the Heisman.

12:12I'm more of a believer in Jalen Hurts than others are. And I understand the Eagles have beat up Lousy, and Lousy's being generous, abysmal competition over the last couple weeks in the Raiders and Washington. Washington was down to Josh Johnson on Saturday. I'm not going to give you the full recitation of quarterbacks who played this weekend, But it is very intriguing with the confluence of Phillip Rivers getting back into the NFL and the absolute drop off between a handful of premier starters and everybody else. It is an indictment on the development of quarterbacks in the NFL that there wasn't a guy on a practice squad.

13:02There wasn't a backup that the Colts had confidence in trading for. Instead, they got a guy who's 44 years old who was coaching high school football. But in some ways, I think their decision has been justified, not only based on what we saw Philip do last night, looking like not certainly a prime Philip Rivers, but looking like we saw him at the end of his career when he wrapped up things in Indy after his run with the Chargers then. But look around the league. I ride the red zone all day long. when J.J. McCarthy got hurt. Max Brosmer came back into the game. Malik Willis arguably should have beaten the Bears when Jordan Love got knocked out, in my estimation, on a dirty hit.

13:47In fact, that game was all but over, but Green Bay cannot, for whatever reason, cleanly haul in an onside kick. Should I keep going? Did you enjoy the Brady Cook experience for the Jets? All of the two abashers, and I understand it's time for a divorce. consider this a divorce how did Quinn Ewers look to you so there's a real interesting disconnect between a league that is thoroughly contingent on one position look at Josh Allen if you have a premier quarterback you have a chance and I do believe in the bills now more because James Cook is finding his rhythm but it's the most important position in all of sports yet there's nothing being done to develop the next wave of talent.

14:34A lot of that has to do with college football as we make the turn to what's happening across the country. With a reminder, we're getting closer to our coverage, a bowl season continuing at the bottom of the hour here on ESPN Radio. It's Toledo taking on Louisville in the bushes. Boca Raton Bowl of Beans. Keep it where it is. That is coming up in just over 15 minutes. If you watch as much college football as I do, you probably have noticed that outside of what? Army? They still run that vaunted triple option, Navy to a degree. Everybody just airs it out all the time. Four wides, shotgun, and in fact, if you want to get simplistic, they just ask the quarterback to identify the safety and then throw to the other side of the field.

15:18That's why, if you look at stats on a college football Saturday, even the losing quarterback has 420 yards on the wrong side of the ledger. So that's one of the reasons why we don't have, in my estimation, as many pro-ready quarterbacks, because college football feels like softball compared to baseball. It's just a different sport between the lines to a degree. It's a vastly different sport when we talk about the business of college football. So let's get into USC and Notre Dame. I mentioned in passing, and this is probably not a good career development because I'm sitting at a station that has had a long relationship with USC football.

15:59And I moved to L.A. in 2003 to go to grad school at the University of Southern California at the height of that wonderful run. And remember, with Pete Carroll and Matt Landon, Reggie Bush and everything else, there was no pro football here in L.A. They were L.A.'s NFL team and close to professional football based on reportedly the amount of money that Reggie Bush was getting from an agent's associate. But now that's all legal and that's all fine. I have no issue with money driving decisions. I live in the real world. Why do you think I made myself available for rich during the holidays? Because I want to further my career.

16:42However, I want college football to retain some of the elements that make it different than the pros. And one of those key components is heritage and traditional rivalries. Now, I understand the Big Eight ain't ever coming back. I'm old enough to remember split national champions, Washington and Georgia Tech a million years ago. The UPI is defunct. I'm not living in the past, but when we gave up, for example, Nebraska, Oklahoma years ago when Nebraska went to the Big Ten, I thought that was a negative and sad development. As we've seen, rivalries get chopped up because teams bolt to a different conference.

17:30Okay, that's part of growth, adapt or die. But USC and Notre Dame had been playing football past tense since 1926. survived the Great Depression, World War II, and everything else. I understand why USC, and it's my opinion as an alum, I'm just not making stuff up here. I have people that I talk to who know people. I'll put it that way. So that's really good sourcing. I'm now two layers removed. But just put it this way. As an alum, I'm not a booster, but I have more successful friends who write checks. I'll just put it this way. everything you heard about how we got to the tipping point of Notre Dame and USC.

18:16Now remember, technically they're just pausing. I'm air quoting, but we're not on the simulcast today. They're only taking a break because Notre Dame has scheduled BYU, which is a great new matchup head to head the next couple of years, but they're claiming it's a two-year pause. Well, everybody connected to USC and this has been written by local journalists here in Southern California, they point out due to scheduling in advance, now with Notre Dame coming off, the earliest Notre Dame could come back on the schedule from USC's point of view would be 2030. You know who's not going to be at USC in 2030?

18:57Lincoln Riley. You know who else is not going to be there? The athletic director, the current athletic director, because they've run through more athletic directors than the Yankees used to do, managers a million years ago. In my opinion, this decision was motivated primarily due to the fact that Lincoln Riley couldn't beat Notre Dame, and Lincoln Riley is finally feeling some pressure here in LA after leaving Oklahoma, because I think he did not want to compete in the SEC, getting an unbelievable amount of money to take his talents to USC, and he's done virtually nothing. I don't have to go through all of the beatdowns that Lincoln Riley has suffered, not only at USC, a team he's not gotten to the playoff yet.

19:48Go back to Oklahoma. Sooner fans know this to be true. How did Oklahoma play in the college football playoff, especially defensively, when Lincoln Riley was the head coach? Less than good. So Lincoln looks around and he says, I got to get to the college football playoff. Notre Dame, because I'm not beating them, is not enhancing my resume. Bye-bye, Irish. We're going to plug in some team we can beat up and hope that the committee rewards us. Now, it's all couched in the terms of the USC joining the Big Ten news, which I thought was also a sports crime. But clearly, I need to get over this stuff because you can't unring these bells financially.

20:31But if you're wondering why the series is on hiatus, and I know the schools put out a joint statement, it's a USC-driven decision. They want an easier non-conference schedule because they're getting beat up in the Big Ten to give them a better shot at making the playoff, which would happen either way because you know the playoff perhaps as soon as next year is going to be expanded to 16 teams. And then it's going to 24. But why does anyone do anything, even if logic really doesn't add up? Because they have the hammer. And USC has the hammer here saying, if you don't play us on our terms early in the season, we're not going to do it.

21:12Because early in the season, at least you can make up for the loss. But I think the entire agenda here was just to get Notre Dame off the schedule, to give Lincoln Riley a better chance of making it to the playoff. as we get set for the quarterfinals next week. And, of course, you can catch all the action exclusively on ESPN radio and on TV across the ESPN family of networks and ABC getting involved as well. I think all the games are compelling. I'm not going to jump ahead that much. I'll save that for my last time with you on Friday. It is interesting, though, concurrently to all of the hype surrounding the quarterfinals coming up.

21:51A fairly intriguing development. Ryan Day has taken over the play calling duties at Ohio State after Buckeye fans were losing their minds based on what Brian Hartline failed to dial up in the lost Indiana in the Big Ten championship game. And it's clear Hartline is trying to have it both ways. He wants to tell South Florida he's all in on his new job, but he wants the bonuses that come as part of every playoff win for the assistant coaches. He probably wants another ring. I get it. Well, tough to do two jobs at the same time. So I think it is fascinating. Ryan Day went public saying, no, no, no, I'm going to take over the play calling in advance of the Miami game.

22:33I'm going to tread lightly because I'm in for a Michigan man. Is Michigan ever going to hire a head coach? And the answer might be, you've already heard from him. And look, I'm in the content game. I like compelling stories, as I belabor that point talking about Phillip Rivers. Who's a better soundbite these days compared to Biff Bogey? Because the guy literally has blank you money. If you don't know his background, he's got a lot of money in the bank based on his career as a hedge fund manager. Then he decided he wanted to be a coach, was part of Harbaugh's staff, went to Charlotte, flamed out there after two years.

23:14and he's back as the interim head coach. I think Michigan might be content, not only to see how things play out with this interim arrangement, have him in place through the opening of the portal January 2nd, and he might be the coach next year because if he's not the coach, let me know who you think is going to take over one of the most prestigious jobs in college football. Now, you can think Jesse Minter perhaps because of his Michigan background with Jim Harbaugh, but he's currently the defensive coordinator of the Chargers who are getting ready for a playoff run. They've clinched a spot. They locked it up last night with Indy's loss.

23:56Jed Fish makes a lot of sense to me. Jed Fish, as an assistant coach, was a version of Lane Kiffin. That guy had 400 jobs, including the NFL. One of them was a stop in Ann Arbor, but everything I'm hearing and reading suggests that Michigan does not have the level of interest in Jed that they still might have in Kalen DeBoer. And I think that is worth tracking. Irrespective of what happens to Alabama against top-seeded Indiana next week, Kalen at least checked the box by winning the playoff game against Oklahoma on Friday night, and they did it in comeback fashion. So I don't think Alabama is going to move on from him, he might decide after two years of that pressure cooker, I'm more of a Big Ten person.

24:46You might remember he was the offensive coordinator at Indiana. Less pressure. Yes, Indiana has changed the expectations for everybody. But Michigan is not Alabama in terms of the scrutiny of the fan base. So that, I think, bears tracking. We're not totally clear on what Kalen's going to do. First, though, he's going to match up with the Hoosiers on the field. But I'll just throw out that Jesse Minter name, the former defensive coordinator as well, as another possibility to be mindful of. Well, since I'm on a pitch count, we have to wind down. If you've enjoyed what I've presented today, good news is I'm back tomorrow.

25:29If not, the good news for you is that Rich is back on Monday. Want to thank our great team at ESPN Radio, led by James and Brendan, here in Southern California, George, my technical producer, handling everything adroitly. Stay with us. Bowl coverage is coming up. The Bushes, Boca Raton Bowl of Beans. I'm Brian Weber, and I'll talk to you tomorrow here on The Rich Eisen Show. Thanks for listening to The Rich Eisen Show podcast. You can watch and listen to The Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from noon to 3 Eastern on ESPN Radio, Disney Plus, and on the ESPN app. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.

26:15This is what everyone's talking about. Everything's on the table. This is what champions come to take. This is what everyone came to see. No do-overs. No second chances. No more Mr. Nice Guy. This is Winner Take All. And it's all happening now on the home of the NBA Finals. Don't miss it. June 3rd on ABC and the ESPN app.