Hour 3: Rich’s Top 5 NFL Preseason Thursday Observations, plus Oregon HC Dan Lanning

24:11and understand every call that they're trying to execute. I'm excited to see those guys go into year two with a little bit more experience. And even guys that are going into year three, like Jeremiah McClellan, that came in and came on for us really strong last year. Jamari Johnson, year two in our system for him. So that excites me, the experience that we return and how those players have attacked the offseason, letting those rewards show up on the field.

24:34Rich Eisen:I have been talking to a lot of your colleagues lately on this program, and Coach Whittingham being one and Sark being another. about the future of the sport and what you feel needs to be done. I mean, you are clearly at the forefront of name, image, and likeness, not just with your program, but obviously with a man who is associated with your program in Phil Knight. And you know how much money it takes to field a roster now. I mean, the number I'm hearing for this year and for next, potentially for someone like yourself, 50 million bucks. I mean, we're starting to get towards nine figures to try and field a team.

25:15Rich Eisen:What do you think needs to be done to try and get something done where kids get paid, but there are rules for everyone and scheduling is a rule for everyone? What do you think needs to be done here, Coach? Yeah, I think it's really hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube. And, you know, you're right. The price of poker continues to change, especially for teams that are trying to be as competitive as they can be in college football. What rule changes to fix that? I don't know. I mean, there was a cap set, and that's obviously there's a cap or is there a cap, right? There's some pieces that play into that.

25:51I think the biggest rule we can change in college football, and it's one that I've been a huge advocate for a long time, is the season ending earlier I think solves a lot of problems. A portal open-end season creates a market that's really hard to keep track of. Guys are enticed to hop in the portal because they can go somewhere else and make more money while the season's still being played. So I still think that's the first solution to any of this, is making sure the season ends January 1st. It's a sacred day for college football. What can we do to make that happen? Which there's a lot of teams that do playoffs.

26:20Nobody does playoffs like college football does, where you have bowl sites and months in between games. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I think that can solve some of this. And certainly there's some more pieces to legislation that can come through that can make this a little bit more of an equal playing field.

26:36Rich Eisen:Yeah, you have been pounding the table on that for a while. And I love the idea. No, no, I love it. Listen, I'm a Rose Bowl guy. I grew up in my, you know, my parents house and in Staten Island, New York, in a basement looking at that Rose Bowl on January 1st. And my television set, there's a foot of snow outside. And I saw that blue sky. I'm like, I got to go there one day, man. And it's also an electric day, bowl day. It would be awesome if that is, if you will, like the super Sunday of college football. That would be great. But backdated for me. What would have to happen in the regular season for you to hit that date scheduling-wise?

27:12Yeah, most likely you have to start week zero for games, which a lot of teams are already playing week zero games anyway. The championship games for Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big 12, like these conferences that would probably either have to move up right with, with it moving to the first limited by weeks and then playing a playoff game every single week, similar to the NFL. You play on Saturday. Guess what? You play the next Saturday, you play the next Saturday right now. That doesn't happen. If you did that, you're playing the semifinals at, at worst January 1st, and then you're playing the championship game the next week.

27:44But the current format we've got long periods of time in between playoff games. That doesn't, you know, it certainly doesn't fit. If you expanded the playoff, then that probably does eliminate, you know, those championship games. But on the same note, that revenue is made back up because a lot of this is about TV revenue. That revenue is made back up by the playoff games that are added, you know, in those games.

28:04Rich Eisen:Hey, man, I'm for that because how many times have we heard? Oh, you play in the championship games for your conference. That's not going to hurt your standing. And then it does. Or a player of yours gets hurt. And then the next games where you are one and done. Everybody else is relaxing. You know what I mean? Like, honestly, like, for instance, just last year when Mendoza took one in the chops from Ohio State just to start that game, they clearly were testing him out. Right. And but I thought to myself, holy crap, you know, in this game that technically matters, but supposed to doesn't. Right.

28:36Rich Eisen:You know, Indiana's quarterback just got hit like that. Yeah. And, you know, in the NFL, it's the exact opposite. It's the teams fighting to get into the playoff, the wildcard teams that play when nobody else is playing. So, you know, if you look over the last two years, the only team that's won the first round by is Indiana. Right. I think that speaks. OK, wait, we're supposed to set this up to where those teams have a, you know, an opportunity to have success. Obviously, having a month off between games is not an advantage for teams. Right. That's that's kind of improving playing at both sides rather than playing at a home venue.

29:06I don't think that makes a lot of sense. You know, if you earn the right to be a higher seeded team, then you should have again, you should have a home game, you know, in that environment.

29:14Rich Eisen:Yeah, I'm with you. If I remember correctly, I was rooting very hard for you in that Rose Bowl that you did have a higher seed. And then Ohio State comes in like a house of fire because, you know, they lost to us a couple of weeks before. But that's I shouldn't be grinding an axe on your time. But it would have been better, obviously, if you were in Eugene. Yeah, certainly. Right. And, you know, they played a game the week the week before that where, you know, our our last game was, you know, a long time before we played January 1st. I think we played in the Big Ten championship game, you know, somewhere early December, December, you know, 5th or 6th.

29:49So, you know, going 25 days without a football game, you know, there's a difference, but there is no complaining. There's no moaning on our end. I just think the format could be much better. That's not the way anybody else does playoffs.

30:00Rich Eisen:Well, you had me at hello on this, Coach. When you run this up a flagpole, what are you hearing? You got anybody else that says I'm with Coach Lanning here? TV money is what I'm hearing. TV money. and then I hear the NFL's taking over a lot of dates. We basically, in a lot of ways, we train all these college football players and they get to go to the NFL. We're like the minor league system for the NFL, and it doesn't seem like they bend over backwards to help us out at all with, hey, this is an important date for college football. Let's leave this open. Those Saturdays getting taken over pretty quick when the playoffs hit and with some games in December with the NFL.

30:37So I think there's two pieces. It's hard to get those days back from the NFL. that they've kind of taken over. And then the money that's generated, you know, through the bowl games is something that would have to be attacked.

30:47Rich Eisen:And then I guess last one for you on this one is whose flagpole does one run it up, right? If you can't tell, I try to run it up every flagpole that I get a chance. I try to talk to anybody and everybody because I just think it makes so much sense. So I probably spent too much time on it because it doesn't seem like it's changing much. But I lied to one last one. How many playoff teams do you see? How many would you want? What do you think? I mean, I'm great with four. I'm great with 12. Right. But ideally, if we're talking about it's a TV problem, you have to generate more revenue. Right. Right.

31:19So if you have to generate more revenue, what does that mean? It means add more teams. We've been in the playoff the last two years. It doesn't necessarily make sense for Oregon to add, you know, more more playoff teams. Right. Because we put ourselves in that position last few years. But I do think it makes sense for college football. You're going to have more fans engaged. You have less guys sit out of bowl games. You're going to have less people battling with the portal, you know, in that same sense where guys kind of check out. And I think that'll create some excitement around college football.

31:46You know, in every other major sport, you know, a much higher percentage of teams make it into the playoff. But that's going to generate revenue. You're still going to figure out who's best. It's going to be a little bit more like March Madness, where who has the hot hand winning at the end has the best chance, right? But that's kind of what it's been in college football the last few years. You know, Indiana really had the hot hand. And Ohio State kind of got hung up and then got really hot there after they played Tennessee and us and traveled there, you know, into the later part of the playoffs.

32:15So there's benefits. There's negatives. I think if the revenue is the reason we can't do it, then that's the thing we have to figure out. How do we create? I think you create more revenue by adding, you know, making it a 2014 playoff. I hear you. I'm with you.

32:27Rich Eisen:I like it. Because, again, right now the national championship game is closer to February than it is to – January 24th, I believe, this year. it's certainly we're already we're already in school we're already in the next semester the portal's already opened and closed right you have coaching transition that happens at the end of every season all that stuff's eliminated if you move the season what up yeah i i i love your idea because again you're using the schedule as something to organize and then once things are organized there everything else can come potentially off of that as a conversation that's a larger equation about revenues and who's in what boat and how many schools are in the same situation and I I I kind of dig all that I mean and do you so you know this is a personal question do you like your job I mean and and the reason why I ask that because you got to be politician you got to be fundraiser you got to be uh so much more than in in a room uh you know teaching tape and coaching kids up.

33:31Rich Eisen:I love my job. I love my job. It's a lot different than what it was four years ago, right, even ending year five. And I think when I came in, the adaptability was the biggest trait I think any coach in the nation had to have because rules were changing right and left. Things changed. The format changes. I enjoy that part, right? There's a lot of parts of the job, just like any job, probably yours too, that you don't enjoy. And it comes with the territory. So if I want to get the opportunity to wear the organ home and sit in the seat I sit, and you got to do some of the jobs you don't like as well.

34:03So I'm having my best time when I'm out there on the practice field or on the football field getting to coach. That's by far the favorite and around the players. But there's some other hats you wear too, and I don't mind wearing those hats if it means I get to have the job that I have.

34:15Rich Eisen:All right. Well, I mean, I just, you know, I love my job, except when people I enjoy talking to and respect accuse me of trolling for information at the detriment of him. I mean, I don't particularly like that part of it. No, but I got tough skin. He just asked a question. Before I let you go, when Bo Nix arrived, did you have to call up Justin Herbert and ask him if it was okay to give him number 10? You had to clear it with him? Oh, man, I think I know where you're going here. Kind of off the face of the plan. I think I know where you're going. No, you know what? And obviously Dylan Gabriel wore Marcus's number here.

34:51Each place is different. I can only speak on our situation. And we've been really fortunate that we got a lot of people working together on that stuff.

34:57Rich Eisen:So there is a process. There is like a part of your machine, an apparatus set up to avoid any sort of sensitivity on numbers and who used to warm and who's currently wearing them or anything like that. You know, I think our players have always had a better awareness, maybe even than me as a coach. It's not something you think a ton about as a coach. I'll be honest. You want to respect everybody that's ever been a part of your program. But like Dylan, you know, he had wanted different numbers, you know. But ultimately he said, I really like to wear eight, but let me call Marcus and make sure I have his blessing.

35:30So that was like on it. I can't take any credit for that. That's him thinking ahead. Dylan called Marcus? Dylan Gabriel called Marcus Mariota. Marcus Mariota and said, hey, man, I'd love to wear number eight. Do you feel comfortable with me doing that? And I think that's great respect from Dylan and certainly warranted for everything that Marcus accomplished here. you know but on the same time you know I think that's you know shows a lot about Marcus as well saying absolutely you know I want to see you rocking that number and then how often do you

36:00Rich Eisen:get a request from a recruit saying I want to wear this number that then you then have to go to someone on your team to say are we cool with this yeah I haven't dealt with that much you know I haven't dealt with that much yeah I've been fortunate from that standpoint I guess our goal will be to try to like retire numbers like 53 and you know 47 maybe try to find some numbers that maybe people don't want those are the ones we can try to retire gotcha okay see we got through it no one and if anybody says they want to wear something other than nikes now now we got a problem you can't do that not here rich you might not you might not know but oregon has they've got this jordan collection what's up coach you've got your own oregon duck man you've got the oregon Jordan's are like, they're holy grail.

36:45Rich Eisen:They're hard to get. So, coach, if you have any spare 13 around and you want to send like... 11 over here. I'm just saying, they're hard to get. You're lucky you are that you wear 13. That's the same size as me. I got a feeling you might be able to cash in. Oh! Wow! You never know if you don't ask, right? Coach, don't do that to me. You miss a thousand percent of the shots you don't take, right? My friend Lisa, who's an Oregon Duck alumni. She loves the Ducks. She's just going to love the fact that we even got a chance to talk. But if I got some Ducks, Jordan's. You got to rock them now. Those things aren't meant to...

37:21Obviously, they have value if they're in a box on the shelf. But no, you got to rock those things. I wear mine, Coach. I wear mine. Okay. All right.

37:29Rich Eisen:Look at you. And then we might have to add Oregon to my banner. You know, it might be... Okay, now you'll become a fan. Of Dan Lanning? Of course I would. Yeah, but he also doesn't know that that's just... Now he's now one of 15. Doesn't matter because we got a person with too many teams. Well, let's think about this, like the banner. If we add Oregon, is it fair to say we should take somebody off the banner? Yes. Yes. Can we just keep it? Like, whatever the number is, if you add a team, you remove. All right, we could – I'm okay with that, Coach. I'm okay with that. Yeah, I mean, who's on it?

37:58Rich Eisen:You got Florida State on it. We got Florida State. We got Penn State. Penn State. No, wait. Penn State's got to go. This is a Big Ten team. I grew up 40 minutes from State College. That's the problem. Georgetown. See how badly does one want? Look at how many there are. See, I love down there in the bottom, right? Depends. Yeah, I love sports coach. That's all I could say. I love sports. Do you love shoes more? I do love question. I do love some Oregon shoes that I can't get. Penn State off Oregon on. Don't do that. Yes. For the deal. I mean, if you want the shoes, I mean, I'm just saying. This man is a top-notch elite coach.

38:44Rich Eisen:I know we're taking this amount of time. You have seconds to make this choice. Do it. Do it. Penn State? I can't. Off. Do it. It doesn't have to be Penn State. Go back to the list. Let me see the list again. Let me see the list. I'm going to help you out here. What do you got? It's Florida State or Penn State. It's the choice. Because you're saying it has to replace another college. Or coach. There's room for another one. He'll ditch hockey for the shoes. Don't give him that out. Georgetown. See you. What about, I mean, so one of the college teams has to come off, right? Easy Georgetown team. Well, let me get the shoes and then we'll.

39:17No. Wait a minute. I'm joking.

39:22Rich Eisen:I'm joking. What is the matter with you? The other thought is maybe instead of the pen, it becomes like a little, like whoever you remove, it just becomes like a pen, like a pen you put on your, you know. He's basically, he's handing you the shoes. He's trying to make a deal for you. Make the deal. Like this is the price is right. But I would hope the coach would see me being loyal and enjoy my loyalty. Nope. You know, loyalty. Like, take the deal. We have seconds to go. You want me to take Penn State off the deal? He even just told you to make it smaller. Yeah, I said we can put it on there. Okay.

39:53Rich Eisen:Oregon banner. Oregon banner. Let's go. Penn State dot. Plus my mechanic son, he goes to Oregon, so I have a connection. Are we good? Are we good? Deal? We have a deal? Deal or no deal? I'll get an address. Fantastic. You got it. Coach, you're the man. Take care, man. There he goes, Dan Lanning. Sorry, Coach. Size 13, shoes. Yeah, baby. I just want the mascot. Boy, you nailed it. You asked for the shoes. Closed mouths don't get fed. 13. That was outstanding. But he hung up and we didn't get a dedication. What a delight. No, no, no. Don't worry. We can. Oh, I know. I know. He knows where we live.

40:30Rich Eisen:Closed mouths don't get fed, you know? Wow. That was something else. Let's take a break. We come back. I've got my top five moments from preseason night number one. Let's get that Penn State back.

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41:54Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. Care of you and your home. At Pella, they find the products that meet your needs and their experts install them. That means working with a company that builds and installs a quality product with real pricing, really simple, really beautiful. And when a trusted name like Pella chooses to partner with the Rich Eisen Show, that says a lot. 0 % financing options are available. Certain restrictions apply. Find your local Pella Windows and Doors showroom today at Pella.com slash Eisen for details. Make life brighter with Pella Windows and Doors. I mean, that moment right there.

42:28Rich Eisen:I know you're not a poker player. World Series of Poker final table. Some guy made a terrible read. A terrible read. And it took him forever to continue making the read. And, of course, he gets felted two hands later. And I feel like people listening to you haggle with the coach of the Oregon Ducks over a stupid placement of a stupid thing on a stupid graphic. And what? Like, over... He's handing you a pair of his unit Jordans, and you're fighting them. I thought you were saying for me to take away my Penn State fandom, not the actual... The banner. The banner. They didn't care about the banner.

43:07Rich Eisen:I was being... I thought that's where my confusion was. I'm like, I'm not going to give up Penn State. He wanted me to go car shopping with him. It ain't happening. Off the graphic. Jeez. People are probably riding in their cars yelling at the radio. Like, what's this malfunction? Rich, you have a tendency to make things a little worse sometimes. You could have just let him go. Chris, pack me up on this, please. The fact that he's not looking at me right now means I'm right. You know I'm right. You know I'm right. All right. Georgetown was the easy remove. Rich Eisen is right. Thank you. All right.

43:33Rich Eisen:Keep pencil. I'm a little concerned here about the ramifications because the segment's called the top five. Oh. And that number is in the news. Can we use it? I'm just going to do it without permission. I'm going to run the risk. Who are we calling? My top five moments of significance, if you will, from the first night of preseason. Standout moments and takeaways presented by Hyundai. High five. One, two, three, four, five. Rich's top five. All right, here we go. My top five presented by Hyundai. Takeaways from the first night of preseason action. Let's go. 2026. Number five on my list is Anthony Richardson still plays football.

44:15Yeah.

44:16Rich Eisen:We haven't seen him in a while. The Colts threw him out there. Daniel Jones isn't ready. Threw an interception, but not his fault. His receiver popped it up in the air or couldn't corral it. He did fumble once, but otherwise showed off his ability to throw and run. I'm telling you, if he stays on the Colts, that's one thing. If the Colts are ready to go with Riley Leonard as a backup to Daniel Jones, someone's going to take a shot on Anthony Richardson and say, we'll take him. He wants a trade. He's asked for it. I know. He's waiting. Someone's going to take a shot. Take the shot. And say that, Will, I've got this.

44:53Rich Eisen:You know what I'm saying? I hear you. All right. Number four on the list. Two second round receivers balled out. Jeremy Bernard, I love the way he looked. I know he didn't play a lot. And Deshaun Stribling had seven catches in the first half. 68 yards. And this is the kid that everyone's like, Why did the Niners not stick around in the end of the first round? Why didn't they trade up for Makai Lemon? Why didn't they get aggressive? And they kept trading. They didn't take a first-round pick, and they took this kid in the second round. He looks really good, man. They gave him Juwan Jennings' number.

45:30Rich Eisen:I don't know if he's going to tell them to stop talking about him. Here you go. But Bernard and Shribling, I thought, had really nice nights as a second-round wideout. It's number three on the list. Mendoza has it, but Cousins look nice. And I think, again, he's going to get the start. And unless he starts to have diminishing returns where his arm strength isn't there or his ability to move, because you've got to move in these offenses that are run by the Kubiaks and the McVeighs and the Shanahan's, you know? Yep. Remember Gary Kubiak was like, how are we going to – Everyone's like, how in the world are they going to have him under center, meaning Peyton Manning, and they put him in the pistol.

46:17Rich Eisen:That was the sort of solve. Yada, yada, yada, they won a Super Bowl. Second down here, the Steelers' backup quarterbacks are in good hands with Mike McCarthy. I found it funny when they hired him and said that, you know, he's been known to bring young quarterbacks. He's been known to bring young quarterbacks on, and we're like, oh, okay, he did that with Dak and Aaron Rodgers. I mean, Aaron Rodgers was the guy he brought along, and Dak kind of was there already. But, hey, man, check the box with these two kids. Check the box. Look good, man. I wonder if Rodgers has a short leash this year. I know, right?

46:55Rich Eisen:That's not going to happen. And number one on the list is Jeremiah Love is the real effing deal. Oh, baby. This just goes without saying. Oh, you actually put that in there. Oh, he's the real effing deal. It's not a game. For sure. I have one more. A 10 field goals of 50 yards or more were made last night. Everybody's got big, huge legs. And a handful of them, three field goals last night by the best new kicker name, Trey Smack. Yeah, I heard you mention it. Look out of Florida. Oh, that's a great name. The guy, he smacked the Steelers with three Trey's last night. Trey Smack is outstanding. What a great kicking name.

47:34Rich Eisen:Top five is brought to you by Hyundai. Get into the Hyundai Getaway sales event and get away with a deal so right. It almost feels wrong. Visit HyundaiUSA.com for details. That wraps it up. Have a great weekend, everybody. Back on Disney Plus in a moment.