Transcript of Miami Drops to No. 7 in the CFP Rankings | Local Hour

Tony's training is EP today. Don't screw up the show, man. Don't screw up the show, Tony. Alright, no pressure, but don't screw up the show.

Dude, you know that I did Alex Dano's show from 6 to 10 as the board-op in EP for a solid year without not one flub?

Who is that supposed to impress?

You.

You're supposed to feel in safe hands. Alex Dano felt these safe hands.

Can I just—

So did Hock and Crowder for a moment.

Can I— can I just ask really quick, why are you training when I'm in this seat and not Dan?

And lower stakes, clearly.

Yeah.

Yeah. Alright, at least we're being forthcoming. Alright, Greg, how you doing? Good morning. Good to see you.

I'm— I'm doing great, Zaz. How are you?

Got a good crew here today. Juju, of course, hanging out with us all week. We got a mean here hanging out with us all week.

You got your power shirt on.

Oh, is that what this is known as? This is—

Yeah.

I look good in red.

You do.

I know, right?

I've heard that.

I look good in red.

Okay.

You look alright in blue. Don't say— don't say condescending like that.

Ah, you know, it's a red t-shirt.

I was just about to say you look good in blue, but I take it back.

Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it.

You guys look like a public access show. Democrats versus Republicans.

We do. We do, actually. That's right. We're getting along.

I like the color combination.

That's right. So the big story of the day, obviously, for us to begin the show last night, uh, while I came out with my, uh, uh, ZFPs, Zazlo Football Rankings, okay, for the NFL. I debuted it yesterday. Also on Tuesday's, you guys may know, the college football playoff selection committee, they debut their rankings. Now, Greg, before the rankings came out last night, what would you have guessed the K— well, I guess these— this could be two questions. What would you have guessed the Canes were going to be, and what would you have had the Canes?

Well, the AP, the granddaddy of all college football polls, had dropped them to number five, which I thought was reasonable. Uh, I thought the CFP would be a little harsher and probably drop them to six would have been my guess. I think seven is really harsh. To be behind two, two lost teams after a narrow road win in South Bend in a game that they might have tied or won had they not been screwed on the—

Oh, you said they would have.

Very debatable call.

You said they would have. They would have won for two and they would have won.

Yes. I think they would have.

Right.

And so—

Even though there was like three and a half minutes left. It's a lot of time.

That's right.

Yeah.

Factoring all of that in, I thought a drop to seven was harsh.

Yeah. Mike, were you angry last night when the rankings came out? I— I thought going into it, I think I said it here, I thought they were going to be seven or eight. So they were with Notre Dame jumping ahead of them. They ended up jumping two spots ahead of them. They were exactly where I thought they would be. Were you angry last night?

No, I wasn't angry. I have very little energy for the CFP at this moment. Yeah, it's not the same as last year because last year it felt, you know, pretty egregious. And at the time the first rankings came out, you knew that more than anything, Miami had to keep winning. And I think—

How did the Canes have two losses by the time the first rankings came out last year?

Yes.

Okay. So they were constantly fighting an uphill battle.

Yeah. Like, yeah, you could talk about the hypocrisy of Notre Dame being ahead of them, but you were playing pretty bad football at the time. So yeah, like seven doesn't seem right. The committee played itself, I think, a little bit with their initial rankings and that Indiana was so high and then Indiana's on a buy.

Yeah.

Wondering what the hell they did.

Yeah.

And then, you know, the usual complaints that they just prop up SEC teams by, you know, LSU still being ranked, for example. Meanwhile, I think Duke is like nine points away from being undefeated. And Duke, year in and year out, can never seem to get ranked.

It seems I think, you know, the biggest points of contention can be Miami dropping all the way to seven after a close loss on the road against a team who they clearly think is really good. Like they're— like the Canes lost by a touchdown without their best player at the fifth-ranked team. You would think that that's a, you know, if you want to do the quality loss thing. And I don't want to do the quality loss thing, but the point that I'm trying to make is, wow, they drop six spots.

Yeah.

Losing to what the committee is telling you is a great team.

Meanwhile, BYU slips two spots despite the same logic. You know, BYU has a loss to UCF as well. They only fall two spots. Um, yeah, the whole thing's confusing. And if you try to use any of the logic that they say, it just opens up a can of hypocrisy for the following week. And I think when it's not a life or death like, wait a second, this is not head to head. Like, this is wrong. Working up the energy for it at this point with so much to go is pretty useless.

I agree with that. But when I first heard that Miami had dropped all the way to number seven, my first thought, cynically, was the CFP committee must have stopped watching when it was 24 to 3. Like, like they dropped Miami as if it had lost a lopsided game instead of come back and almost won. That was my complaint about that.

Well, let's hear some of the logic. Alright, or at least try and understand the logic. Hunter Yurichek, the college football playoff selection committee chair, here he is last night with Reece Davis.

Uh, Miami didn't look great early in the game. Give some credit to Notre Dame's defense. I think Notre Dame, uh, Miami found their way without Malachi. Tony came back and made that a very competitive game. So credit to them. But then you look at what happened just below them where Georgia got a big win, Alabama got a big win, UCLA even got a big win on the road at Minnesota. And so it allowed there to be some movement from Miami dropping down some and Notre Dame coming up some.

Okay. Look, our time's limited here tonight, Hunter, but I've got to follow up on this one thing. Where these teams are ranked, it would appear despite the fact that that wound up being a one-touchdown game on the road that Notre Dame and Miami did not wind up again in the same group in the listing and ranking steps. Is that correct?

Uh, that is correct, Reece.

And why is it? Did anybody not— I feel like someone would say that was a one-touchdown game in Notre Dame Stadium that maybe Miami's being too punitive in their ranking. What's your reaction to that?

Well, Reece, let me correct myself. I believe those two teams were in the same ranking step together when we take the top six teams and then we rank them one, two, four, and then we have two teams that will advance to the next pool.

Okay.

So Notre Dame and Miami were indeed in that first pool together, but Miami wasn't ranked one, two, four in that pool.

Okay. Got it.

And it was Notre Dame for that matter.

Okay. So the first thing I want to say is Reece Davis is like excellent at this. Alright? Like really, really good job by Reece Davis there. Not only with difficult questions. Yeah, give it up for Reece Davis.

Yeah, Reece, give it up for Reece.

Difficult questions, but like peppering them, you know, to get the answer that he wants to get.

And Yurichek seems like he's just the same from last year.

Well, what the hell is a ranking step?

I know. That's—

I mean, serious, what is a ranking step? What does that mean?

I don't know. When I heard Reece ask that, I'm like, huh?

You could see it on Hunter's face that he's just— he's just making it up as they go along. Like, ranking step sounds good. And by the way, they are doing the head-to-head like thing to Tennessee and Alabama where they separate them. You have these pods, right?

Right.

And Alabama and Tennessee aren't in the same pod despite having the same record in Tennessee having the head-to-head matchup. We have to have these buffer teams, which we know that they became fans of last year.

I bet the rest of his homeboys in the CFP after that interview was like, what the hell is a ranking step, man?

I like that. Right?

I thought of that right off the top of my head.

So pod and ranking step, those are two different things?

Yeah. One place for the Warriors.

And he got great waves now. Three 60 waves.

Oh my God. Did you see that?

Yes. He cut the Afro and now he is a baller.

Wow. Can I just point out Notre Dame and Miami over these last two years with the college football playoff, Notre Dame, Miami is like the best rivalry in college football. This is two straight years now where the biggest story in these rankings is Notre Dame and Miami. And so the point that I really want to make is for Canes fans who are skeptical of the committee putting them number seven is like, oh my God, they're telling us we got to win out.

Yeah. I mean, there was no doubt that Notre Dame needed that win much more desperately than Miami did. Miami could afford to lose in South Bend. And I don't think there's any overreaction to that to the opposite degree. But as Mike pointed out, Duke is pretty good. And what they need to do now is not only beat Duke, but make a little bit of a statement like handle Duke and then the following two home games to close it out 11 and 1. If they don't do that, then it's a concern. You don't want to lose again and then risk getting that third loss even if you make the ACC Championship game.

The third loss, even though the committee does not want to punish a team for losing in its conference championship game, a third loss in the ACC, they would have a problem.

Yeah. That would be an issue.

But if the second loss, if a second loss were to be in the ACC Championship game, then guess what? The ACC is going to get two teams into the college football playoff. Like that's probably what the ACC is hoping for right now is for there to be a Miami Wake Forest ACC title game and Wake wins. And then you get both teams in.

The Wake ranking, I think, is a little too low. You look at their P4 numbers and they're just destroying teams, but they reside in the ACC and the teams that can serve the conference best by winning games end up losing games. They got a pretty monster game against SMU. You mentioned Notre Dame and Miami being money for them. Notre Dame, Miami got 9.1 million viewers. That's actually fewer viewers than Notre Dame BYU got. They got 9.2. Now, there are reasons for this.

What are the reasons?

BYU-Notre Dame was really like the only game in town prime time, whereas Miami was going up against UGA and Ole Miss. However, that game was out of hand, as was Miami-Notre Dame. So that first half probably had people checking out. And also NBC, the same game last year, granted different circumstances, it was a standalone game, got 10.8 million viewers on ABC. Notre Dame games on NBC generally rate lower.

Why?

It's just not appointment television week in and week out, whereas ABC is habitual.

Did you see last night Notre Dame's play-by-play announcer, Noah Eagle, was doing the Eagles was doing the Sixers and the Celtics last night? How about that? Moonlights.

Dan Le Batard. The Packers win, or the Bears lose?

Jonathan Sassolo.

Shit, do you want to know what were the kids doing?

This is the Dan Le Batard Show.

So the Canes number seven, to me, it's okay if you think it's a little bit too low. It probably is, but go out, take care of your business these next three weeks, win the ACC. They'll probably get a buy if they win the ACC.

If they win out? If they win out in the ACC, yes, I think they'll get a buy.

Yeah, they'll end up being the four.

On the road at South Bend by one score in controversial fashion without their best player, they will definitely be there. Now, the trick is getting there the rest of the way without slipping up, which is going to be a struggle for Miami. I think that you can point to.

Win three home games.

I'm with you, but you look at this as a Duke opponent, for example. You have all the narrative stuff, revenge and Manny Diaz and Mensah and Barkate sleepy noon start. Our noon crowds aren't great. However, this is homecoming, so challenge to the students to come out there. But also the leading target men for Duke are the tight end and the running back. That attacks Miami right where they're weakest with the pass coverage linebackers. So I expect a tighter game.

Indiana doesn't play this weekend and they drop four spots. Not drop one spot. It's like, oh, you know, team behind them was super impressive. All right, so we're going to move them up, you know? Dropped four spots.

That's crazy. And it's another signal that the CFP committee, to me, is very haphazard. I don't know what their methodology is. I don't know how. I would love to be a fly on the wall in that meeting because I just don't think there's much logic to it at all. And I also think a final thing on Miami dropping all the way to seven, they obviously weren't buying what Mario Crisbal was preaching because in his postgame, he was angry and he referred to that non-call as bullshit.

Because it was.

I think it was too, but part of that was like, are you hearing me, CFP? We got screwed there. Don't penalize us too much. And CFP's going, nah, we're going to penalize you anyway.

I wonder how that works. I mean, I'm sorry.

Haphazard? Did you not hear the man talk about the ranking step?

That's true. You got me on that one.

I do wonder how that works where Crisbal after the game he goes and he was making a case. He's trying to plead, you know, don't forget, this is what happened, this is what happened. Like he's talking to the committee there. I wonder how that works going into the postgame press conference because he's emotional and he's thinking about what just happened. Does someone remind him like, hey, you need to go out there right now and make sure, you know, we're on message. Make sure the committee, you know, is thinking this way. Remind everybody.

That sounded like all emotion to me. That sounded like he was still hot when he took that mic after the game. And I seldom have seen, I don't know about you, Mike, I seldom have seen Mario that emotional, that angry, that willing to call something bullshit. No.

I've seen him often like that. I think that that's his baseline. But fresh.

No, but I think Greg's referring to the part about calling something bullshit.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, again, that's Mario's baseline. You just rarely ever see it so focused after a game, especially lately because hell, let's be real, we're winning most of them. But yeah, it is a coordinated effort. He is getting talking points after the game.

That's my question. Yeah.

Yeah. They have a great communications team over there and the fact is last year a big part of them getting into the CFP was pushing a narrative and working the media, working your allies, pulling the right strings, taking shots, negative propaganda against other teams. And honestly, I'm sure the SEC loved it that and it was unfair to Notre Dame that the discourse was just the head-to-head between Miami and Notre Dame. Meanwhile, they snuck in two mid-SEC teams in Oklahoma and Alabama when that should have been the discussion.

Mario actually walked, I don't know if walked it back a little yesterday is the right way to put it, but he wanted to make sure that he gave Notre Dame credit. Here it is.

I would say it doesn't matter. I think, you know, I said what I said after the game, very frustrated and obviously very, you know, that moment brings a lot. But I think it's, I don't want to take away from the fact and the most important thing is respect for the game of football, okay? At the end of the day, that's gone. Notre Dame won the game. And you know what? They deserved to win the game. And they're a great football team. They have a great coach and they earned that win. So I'd like to lean more on, you know, that's whatever my opinion is or anything else. That's it. It doesn't matter. You know, credit to them and we move forward.

All right.

I do like that. And because I do think the more physical team on the balance of the entire game, the more impressive team on the balance of the entire game, they were better in offense, they were better in defense, they were certainly better in special teams. Notre Dame deserved to win that. Now, you don't always win games. You deserve to win. Credit to Miami for fighting back, getting timely stops and having an opportunity to steal that game. But yeah, with intention after the game, especially with the emotion there, you put a seed in and say, this isn't about the dominance of Notre Dame.

So you may notice, Greg, your son and Jeremy are not here in studio today. Do you know what's going on?

I know it's got something to do with baseball.

So they do Pitch Clock. That's a good show. Pitch Clock is a good show.

It's a good show.

And they do competition, you know, throughout the entire season on this show. Well, they ended up in a tie, the two of them, in their competition. And so the tiebreak is today, right now. We're going to hear from them a little bit later on in the program. They are out in Tamiami Park right now. So those of you who are watching us live and you're in the area, they are at the baseball field in Tamiami Park. If you want to pull up, all right?

Well done.

And the tiebreak for this season in Pitch Clock is Jeremy, the pitcher, versus Chris, who is going to get three at-bats.

Okay.

Against Jeremy. And you know, best two out of three. That's why you do three, because it's an odd number. That way somebody's definitely a winner, okay? You do have to wonder though, like if Jeremy strikes him out the first two times, do you even go a third time? I don't know. I can't predict the future.

Wait, if Jeremy strikes him out, does everyone get a huge discount over the already great prices at Ashley Schaefer BMW or how does that work?

What if Chris draws a walk?

Then that's a win for Chris.

Can't draw a walk though. You got to swing.

Well, that's okay. So when we eventually check in with them, you could tell them, hey, you're a sissy if you decide to get a win out of walking.

The trash talk, by the way, has been escalating throughout this. Last night, I'm minding my business. I'm watching these basketball games. I get a text message. It's a voice note from Chris. And Chris never sends voice notes. It's like, what's this about?

I never send voice notes.

That's what felt so confusing.

Now voice note, do you do, like, are you talking about the voice note where you do the recording and then, you know, you press play and you hear it or like voice to text?

No, no, no. Voice note is a, I am recording my voice.

Audio.

Recording audio, yes.

Yeah. I don't do either, by the way.

You don't do that?

Yeah.

I take my fingers, I text.

I use it to workshop impressions.

I call people. If you send me a voice note, just know I kind of dislike you for about 30 minutes.

You call someone.

I call everybody. I don't like texting because you can't see how I say stuff. I say stuff with sauce.

Oh, you feel like your tone gets lost.

You feel me? My tone is important.

It's a good point.

You dig it?

Good point. We're here, here, here. Kick field goal. You miss. You miss. So. Listen to it on repeat.

So he sends a voice note and it's muffled and I hear just noises and I think, did he sit on his phone or something? And then he sends the note. That's the sound of bat speed. And so I play it back and it's literally a voice note of him hitting a ball.

This is Chris.

This is Chris. So then Jeremy one-ups him by coming back with video. Video of him throwing a strike and he's got like a little bucket or something that says the strike zone and he hits it square in the middle and it falls over and he looks at the camera and he points and he finger shoots.

Now Jeremy was a pitcher in high school.

And Chris was a hitter, right?

Yeah.

Jeremy apparently was like really good.

I think he was like all county or something.

I think he was all county. But I can testify on Christopher's behalf because I was the announcer for his games throughout high school. He was a good solid high school player. Like he was not an all-star.

Corner infield?

He was the first baseman. He batted cleanup. He led his team in RBIs as a senior. He was a good solid player. So this is actually.

But when's the last time he swung a bat with conviction?

Well, he played men's softball, I would say, within a few years ago. It's been a few years. Whether or not he's been in his backyard taking swings, I don't know, but I think it's a good matchup. I'm actually interested in seeing what happens.

Counties must be big as hell down here because I played for my county in my high school. And if I was all county, that'd mean I was just starting on our team. How big are y'all counties?

Georgia's notorious. Y'all got some little ass counties, man.

Yeah.

Actually, on the high school level, we have so many tradition-rich high schools and they're winning championships all the time. Like you have Columbus and you have Central, but they're all in different districts. This year, I read that Florida is announcing a catch-all.

I saw that.

Yeah, like a catch weight championship.

Yep.

For like all.

Where you can have like two A teams playing six A teams.

And now that does happen. They schedule some like exhibitions against one another, but it doesn't count against a district.

No, this could be like for the real state championship.

Like for the first time in high school football history, Florida will have one true state champion, which is going to be insane considering the program.

So it's like FA Cup basically? Everyone gets in?

Yes.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. You could see here on the video, you got Jeremy. Look at this, Greg. You got Jeremy warming up there. All right, he's throwing from the real rubber. All right, that's a legit pitcher.

Tossed a couple high, by the way. He's catching the standup. Ethan.

Ethan's catching.

Oh, that's a pretty good ball.

A little outside there.

All right.

Okay. Is this the first official at bat?

No, no, no, no. They're warming up. We're going to go to them in a little bit. In a few minutes, we're going to go to them for real.

That's exciting. Someone's getting hurt today, right? That's a guarantee.

No.

Probably Ethan.

It's going to happen, Tony. I mean, well, you got a guy who hasn't swung a bat in four years. Got a guy who comes to work every day with a baseball, says, I haven't thrown it though in like four or five years.

In 15 years, he says he hasn't thrown a live pitching ball.

But he comes to work every day with a baseball.

Don't throw a curveball here. Let's see.

All right, well, let's go around the room here.

Not a bad pitch, actually.

Let's go around the room here. Who's going to win this competition? All right, so, you know, Chris has to, you know, not make an out in two of the three at-bats and Jeremy vice versa. I mean, you got Chris or you got Jeremy winning this competition.

Every time we have one of these competitions and Chris is involved, he ultimately always comes out on top. I'm going to go with the best all-round athlete in Le Batard Show history, Chris Cody.

Mike?

I second the means.

Juju?

I third the means.

Whoa. Tony?

I'm looking at it from the perspective of Jeremy hasn't thrown live pitching in 15 years. Let's call it 12 years. And live pitching is way harder than live hitting. Live hitting, you just sit there and swing at a meatball that's coming across the plate. So for that fact, not because he's the best athlete, but because he's been the shorter timespan of swinging the bat, I'm going to go with Chris.

Roy?

Clean sweep. In fact, he might get hit with a pitch today.

Greg, we have to assume you're going with your son.

I almost feel like I shouldn't know because everybody else did, but had you asked me first, I would have said Christopher. And I'm going to say something that he would say if he were here. He would casually remind you that in high school, he got a hit off Matt Laitos, the future major leaguer who had like a nine-year career.

I know Matt Laitos. And Jeremy Serra's no Matt Laitos.

He knows how to hit, my son. I'm going to give him that.

Well, Jeremy is going to be so disappointed.

You pick him then.

But probably would see it coming that this is going to be a clean sweep. I'm going with Chris as well because I don't expect.

Game day graphic jinx.

I don't expect Jeremy to be throwing gas. Like in order for him to be accurate, I don't think he's going to be throwing gas.

So your scouting is like throwing the junk.

I think he's going to throw just meatballs.

Mix in some off-speed stuff. Jeremy would be my.

Get some breaking balls in there.

I think he's going to be throwing meatballs. And if he's throwing meatballs, like Chris is going to be able to sit on it and make some decent contact.

Right. I agree. If he's throwing 60-mile-an-hour fastballs, Christopher's going to crush it. If he's throwing sharp breaking balls that go down and out, Christopher's going to swing and miss.

All right, so that's coming up in a little bit. Again, Tamiami Park, if you're watching us live, yo, pull up. All right, Tamiami Park. And you can go watch these guys. We're going to go back to them in a few minutes and we're going to do this competition.

Down Le Batard.

If Daniel Day-Lewis did it, you'd be jerking off all over yourself.

Oh, come on. Yeah, I would be.

Aggressive description.

Come on. I mean, what is that?

I'm just saying.

You know what?

You're just saying what?

That's me. Daniel Day-Lewis is something.

That's me.

I see that photo of Daniel Day-Lewis looking like Lincoln before he's about to start filming Lincoln. And you know what I do? I mean.

Mike Ryan.

I jerk off all over myself. That's what I do.

Lincoln, who you outed the other day.

Don't make this a rejoin. This is the Down Le Batard Show.

Malik Willis, Greg. Malik Willis out for at least the next four games. He's been playing through a groin injury. We also got the news there yesterday. Zack Seeler is going to be out for six months.

That's huge.

Apparently, he tore his bicep on the first play of the game this weekend. Played through it. What a warrior. But he's now going to miss the next six months. So no more Seeler this season. And Malik Willis now will miss at least the next four games. So we're going to get a look at Common Core.

Yeah. I think the Seeler injury actually hurts the team more simply because their defense was pretty good. And he was a big part of what I think was a surprisingly good defense. Common Core, he has the name of a 1980s cop show star. I don't know anything about him as a quarterback. On Sunday, he's going to throw his first NFL pass in a game that matters. His first pass. So we don't know anything about him, but we do know this. Malik Willis was having a lousy season.

Well, Malik.

Okay, but.

Will you wind up feeling a little bit better about Malik Willis and the whole, hey, he doesn't have a lot of help out there if McCord goes out there and just can't accomplish anything?

Yeah. I mean, it depends. I don't expect much from him in his first start ever in the NFL. I mean, he's just as raw and inexperienced as you can possibly be. But Malik Willis just was not good. Now, the groin issue was really evident in the last game, I thought. Like I know he's had it for two games. Not so noticeable two games ago, but this past Sunday, he just couldn't scramble. He couldn't run. And it was noticeable. So I wonder if they even should have played him in retrospect, but he's just not good.

Is it too late to call Ryan Tannehill? Remember a couple of years ago, I was like, I'm not taking a backup job. And I said, buddy, if you come back up here, you're probably going to be the starter in a couple of weeks. And he said, no. And then we never saw or heard from him again. Is he not working out? Like is he not keeping loose in Limburg stretching?

Stay ready on the get ready.

I'm going to check him out, see what he's doing.

I feel like Ryan Tannehill could be an option.

The discussion I wanted to have was Brady, not Tannehill.

You want?

Brady should have done it. I heard Hawk was like, yeah, if you're the Vikings, you call up Tom Brady, but you're calling him for Kirk Cousins, which is a bummer. But I do think if there was one place that made sense was a Super Bowl contender with his former teammate running the defense, his former backup running the offense. I think they could have used each other. It would have been wild to see. I was kind of disappointed that that hasn't been a narrative. Like kind of, you know, that Oprah book.

Yeah.

The secret, you manifest things.

Update on Ryan Tannehill. Chapter closed. Tannehill confirmed his playing career is over, saying that that ship has sailed. When? When was that?

Recently, last couple of months.

Really?

Wow.

Okay.

Yeah. And what about Tom Brady? Is his chapter sailed? Is his ship booked?

I like the idea that Minnesota calls Vegas. Like, hey, listen, Tom, we need a quarterback. And Tom's getting all excited. He's like, I knew it. And then they just are like.

He's like, we need a veteran presence. We need a guy that understands the offense. We need a guy who's been there before.

And it's someone who's fit right in.

You walk in, just be QB1. He's like, uh-huh.

We need someone we'll be comfortable with.

I mean, did you get new teeth?

I had a bad one yesterday. I tried to say gentleman's quarterly and it came out quarterly.

Sure. What's quarterly?

It's like Aaron Neville.

I don't know too much.

And then Minnesota's just like.

We want Cousins.

Yeah.

He's like, oh.

The reunion.

Come on.

Yeah. Is he the instant answer though? I don't know.

I love the Cousins. I always love, I love when players go back to like their former team that they had success with. I always like that. I think the Cousins-Vikings thing is such a cool story.

Like a little saving of the day, huh?

Sure.

Like when Eddie House came back, remember that?

I know. I was so into Eddie House returning and he stunk. We needed him so bad. It was like, oh, we won the championship without you, Eddie. Come back and we can defend the championship with you. And the Chicago Bulls took that ass.

I've got source texting me over from Tamiami Park. Jeremy already complaining about his groin.

Oh, God.

Just a source just text me.

All right, Malik Willis over here.

All right, how's his rotator cuff on top of that? Did he get Tommy John yet?

Probably the next excuse.

The excuses are coming from Jeremy, huh?

I liked when Eddie Jones returned to the heat.

Oh, yeah.

I liked when Steve Smith returned to the heat. Not everybody remembers that, Steve.

I remember that one.

Yeah. Steve Smith returned to the heat.

How about when D Wade returned?

I liked when, that was a good one.

Okay.

But he never went to Chicago or Cleveland.

That's not going to happen. He just kind of retired and came back.

Yeah. The best, of course, was when Zoe returned. I liked when Zoe returned.

Heroically.

What'd you make of when Ricky Davis returned?

I didn't make much of it.

No?

No.

You don't like that so much?

No.

Okay. All right.

No. But on Cousins, I'm going to give him credit. Having a pretty good year for Las Vegas, the one criticism about Cousins is the interceptions. I think he's thrown eight or nine, fourth in the league in most picks. Other than that, I think you get a veteran quarterback who's what they need.

By the way, Carson Beck versus Fernando Mendoza in a couple of weeks.

Mendoza.

If Carson Beck survives on Sunday because he's going up against Aaron.

Is it definitely Beck?

Yeah. He's going up against Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald. And I don't know if you've seen his receiver situation. Just spam Trey McBride like they usually do, but it's going to be rough. If Carson Beck gets out of the building alive, we will see Carson Beck, Fernando Mendoza later this season.

Did you like when Mario Chalmers returned?

I felt.

Spoke to him.

I got a kick out of Mario Chalmers. Yeah, I thought he was fun.

They brought him back and he didn't get a single minute.

Yeah.

We spoke to him. Remember last year, Tony, at the Big Three thing? He was raw about it. They didn't give him a minute.

Did you like when Michael Beasley returned?

Yes.

For the third time.

Yes.

Yeah, you were into that?

Yeah, of course.

What other heat players returned? I love when they return.

I'm trying to think about it.

Rarely works out.

Remember when Tim Hardaway returned as his son?

So he doesn't play anymore.

That ship is booked as well.

I mean, I'm being serious now when I ask this, okay? The heat won last night, three and two road trip. You got to be happy about that. The heat have actually won five out of, Greg, they were 0 and 4. They've now won five out of seven.

And not to remind anybody, but at 0 and 4, when everybody else was panicking, I'm like, it's four games. And they're five and two cents. So you're welcome.

I remember that.

You're welcome.

Also, not to remind everyone, but four of the five wins have literally come against the worst team in the NBA.

Yeah. It's a good West Coast trip.

The worst team.

Like literally.

Don't say that.

Do you have more than one win? No? All right, come on, my friend.

These are the worst teams. And it's not exactly like they're throwing it down in these games. Their sweats.

It's a terrible team.

Yo, last night, so last night was supposed to be smooth sailing. Utah Jazz are trash.

They were up 21.

One one and nine to up 20 or whatever in the fourth quarter. And then Isaiah Collier turns into Steph freaking Curry. He's hitting threes everywhere. And I'm like, could somebody stop somebody? And then my favorite part was Pela Larsen, point guard. What's happening here? Why is he bringing the ball up and turning it over? Come on. I'm being serious when I ask this now. Has there ever been a player who took a number down from the rafters who borrowed a jersey that's been retired and would get DNP coach's decision?

Let me tell you right now.

I'm going to say it's never.

You know who knew? You knew who knew?

His father.

His father knew. He said, hey, where are your number pops? He's like, uh-uh. No, no, no, no, no. Because you know what? Because here's the thing. There is a massive burden you do when you pull it from the rafters, from the rafters. You are basically putting it out there that like, yep, I'm going to live up to the legacy of one of the greatest players ever.

I'm worthy of wearing it.

And by the way, it's double when the name on the back is exactly the same.

I think I have an example. Jerry Rice, when they pulled down Steve Largin's retired number with the Seahawks.

Is that right? Did they?

Yeah. He wore number 80 for the Seahawks.

How many games did he play with the Seahawks?

I'm finding out right now.

He was also 41.

He was 76 years old when that happened.

Yeah, he was. He's also Jerry Rice. Like he could do what he wants. Come on.

Fontechio and Gardner got in there and Timmy sat on the bench. And I thought when they were up big, maybe he'll get in here. But then, as we mentioned, Isaiah Collier turned into Michael freaking Jordan and.

DNP CD.

If you were Tim Junior, would you want Daddy's number? Because I don't think I would.

Well, he does want Daddy's number.

I know, but I don't think I would. I think I purposely would not. Why do I want? I've got enough pressure just based on the name on the back of my jersey. Why do I want to take a number that's been retired and just add that much more pressure on myself?

Greg, can I say that I've noticed, because this is a weird situation where he's not only playing for the team his dad played for, but many of the people who work there are still working there. And so even when I'm watching the broadcast, I notice Eric Rie calls him Timmy. No one else calls him Timmy. Only people here call him Timmy because they still see him as a little kid saying, Timmy, of course, get your dad's number. I kind of feel like everyone else was hyping it up. You know who wasn't? Tim Senior. He knew.

You're right. You're right. You need to be patient with, bro. I think this CD is going to definitely be improvements down the road.

It'll be an MP3.

You dig it? Come on now. By playoff time, that's all that matter. You dig it? Now he hit big shots in the playoffs. Come on. Well worth it. I thought Giannis had a different attitude last night too.

He was angry.

Yeah, I liked what I saw.

Angry Giannis, snarling.

Yeah.

Hit a three.

Yeah. You got to play like that to beat the one-win jazz. I mean, come on. How else do you expect to get out of Delta Center alive?