Transcript of Will Greg Cote Score a Single Goal In Penalty Kicks? | Local Hour

Meditieren, Yoga, Joggen— nichts entspannt mich. Echt? Mich entspannt meine Steuer total.

Steuer?

Wie Finanzamt? Die Steuererklärung?

Ja, ich hab ganz locker über 1.000 € zurückbekommen.

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Nö, nur die WISO Steuer App.

Wow, und das ist einfach?

Klar, die macht fast alles automatisch.

Ich fühl mich plötzlich so entspannt. Hol dir dein Geld zurück. Abgabefrist: 31.

Juli.

Was?

Schaffst du ganz entspannt mit WISO Steuer.

Ach ja. Tony, do you know the name Carl Yastrzemski? Do you know who that is? Uh, yeah, Yaz, right? But what do you know about Yaz? Yes, that's his nickname, but what do you know about Carl Yastrzemski?

Uh, he was a baseball player for the Red Sox in the '60s, right? Yeah, good player, good swing of the bat. Yes, good field player.

Yeah, good swing of the bat.

Uh, had some sort of record of some sort.

I don't know whether he had a memorable moment.

Did he go to war? Or is that another Red Sox guy?

That's Ted Williams.

His head's frozen.

Greg, what are your— what would you explain to Tony about Carl Yastrzemski that he doesn't know? There's a reason I'm asking you this question.

He's the second greatest Red Sox left fielder in history after Ted Williams. He played the Monster like he owned it. He had a great arm. He could throw guys out at home plate from left field. He was a great hitter.

You think Yastrzemski was better than Manny Ramirez?

Yes. Yeah.

You're old.

And so does history.

I don't— I'm not sure he's better than— is he better than Jim Rice?

Yes. Oh, God, that's not even close. Ramirez, you could make an argument. Yes. Also, by the way, happened to win a Triple Crown. And until Miguel Cabrera came along, he was the last Triple Crown winner for decades and decades.

What year was that?

Um, '67. He won the Triple Crown. The thing played into the '70s.

The reason I bring this up is because Jeremy was asking me something and I didn't have the answer. And I consider myself a bit of a Greg Cody connoisseur. He said, what is this Yaz tweet about from Greg, or about Greg Cody? And I didn't know what happened with you and Yaz and how you were resurrecting his spirit in the—

yeah, it's, it's funny you should mention that, uh, because just recently, the last few days ago, a few days ago, I resurrected after about After a 4-year absence, I resurrected my Karli Ostremski Twitter X site. I run a fan account for Karli Ostremski, and Yaz does not have his own fan account or his own Twitter account. He's a recluse. One of the many things that fascinate me about Yaz is that, you know, he never goes to the Hall of Fame induction. They always list all the Hall of Fame members who are there. Yaz is never there. He's very reclusive. Until his grandson made the major leagues a few years ago, you never saw or heard of him at all. And so I have a Twitter site for him.

A fan account.

A fan account that I—

Twitter site.

—that I reactivated recently after like 4 or 5 years away.

Why did you go 4 years without a tweet on the Yastremski account? You know, life happens.

You forget about it. I've had a couple of other fan accounts that have gone by the wayside, but the Yaz account is now active again.

Oh God, a couple of other fan accounts?

Well, he has— I think I can name them. I think one of them was taken away from him. One of them was taken away from him by either the Rockontours or the White Stripes. Somebody took it away from him. He wanted to have it and wasn't allowed to have it.

Well, they strong-armed me to give it up. They didn't take it away from me. It was of my own choice. What? It's not of your own choice.

If you—

what you described was not your own choice.

Wait a minute. You got a cease and desist? No, no. It was just a conversation we had with Brendan Benson's PR lady at the time. And she thought that—

how can you say you were strong-armed and you chose to do it yourself?

Well, I could have fought to keep it. I could have fought to keep it.

But, you know, but she had the stronger arm.

Friendship was involved here. Friendship was involved. You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App, now live in all 50 states.

On the eve of the greatest World Cup semifinal there's ever been, according to Greg Cody and notarized by the morally abhorrent Mike Ryan, on the on the eve of that, we were talking in the other room about a phrase you may have heard during that intro there, the hand of God. And we were stunned, fairly stunned, to learn that Jeremy and Tony didn't know what the hand of God represented. And then we just got to talking about the ridiculousness before replay of the idea of a World Cup being decided by Maradona clearly cheating and then saying afterward it was the hand of God. It was not my hand, even though you guys got tricked by that. That what everybody was. That was so obvious. That's a goal. Yeah, no, that, that right there became a goal. That's Maradona. That he looks like Tua Tagovailoa throwing a pass, and he's holding the soccer ball in midair as the goalkeeper tries to get the soccer ball with the hands that are allowed. That can't be true.

That can't be true. That picture is AI. There's no way that that picture— you guys looked at that in 19-whatever that was, and then the 1900s looked at him, was like, yeah, no, that was a goal for sure.

The ref was like Yeah, cool.

It was the 1900s. It was 1986. And it must be said, back then there was no VAR. There was no video review. And I don't— correct me if I'm wrong— I don't think replays, let alone slow motion replays, were a big thing in 1986. Chances are people saw that only once. And if it was called a goal, must have been a goal.

So this would have been July of '86.

Like specifically check, check for when, when replay started, not professionally officiated replay, but just in general, the ability to show replays. Because I think we had that in '96.

Just a fun fact, that would be the month I was conceived, 10 months before I was born.

Was this before or after he snorted that cocaine on the field? It's a good question. I think that was later in his career.

Yeah, I think this happened before that.

How much of a balls move, though, is it to blatantly cheat? And then when asked about it afterward, It wasn't my hand, it was the hand of God.

Yeah, it's a good line though. Become famous. By the way, Christopher was conceived because of the hand of God. I was so happy with that, uh, that day.

That's what Cody calls his penis.

December 7th, 1963, the first time that instant replay was, uh, on TV, and the first time it was used to overturn calls occurred in the NFL in 1986.

I remember, I remember in the NFL, in the NFL it was called, like when I was a kid, It was called instant replay. I don't remember how it was employed in the game.

Well, but it wasn't— wait a minute, no, uh, so he's saying '86 for the NFL, but what I recall caused the change in the NFL was some sort of Vinnie Testaverde play in the NFL, and he was in college in '86, so they wouldn't have been using it that way.

Uh, Jets-Seahawks, it impacted the playoffs that year.

Yeah, it was a touchdown or wasn't a touchdown and was supposed to be, but I want you guys to imagine in These— this is a monster game, okay? On French Independence Day, France is playing Spain. Spain's allowed one goal in the tournament. Everyone— I don't know if France is the highest-scoring team in the tournament, but they should be. They seem to be. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I would guess that France has more firepower than anyone.

They're second-highest-scoring team in the tournament.

And that's the appetizer, because tomorrow you have historical hatred and you have hand of God and you have, uh, Argentina is the slowest team in this tournament. I don't think they belong among these 4. I understand they're the reigning champions, and I also understand that they have the best player in the world, but I don't think they've looked like the other 3 teams have looked in terms of dominance. But it's Argentina, and they're playing against England, and this is as seismic a thing as you can put together at the end of this, uh, a real fireworks display. None of the stuff we thought was going to be a shit show has been a shit show about the World Cup. It's largely been a celebrated American shiny thing that has not yet had any of the violence, the dangers, the threats, the crowd control, the stadiums overrun, all of the things. I mean, there's ice death in Maine that needs to be talked about, but there hasn't been ice-related death and conflict around this tournament. It has been almost universally a success with very little quibbles about anything but like, is— did the ball hit a wire or the officiating?

Like, it's been remarkably calm given our times and, and a symbol for what sports can be at its best given that there was all sorts of peril around this thing.

Yeah, the beautiful game has, uh, arisen to make everything better again. You know, we forget about all the Balogun red card and the way the U.S. went out and FIFA being corrupt and all that stuff. It comes down to a beautiful Final Four. And, and the reason this— one of the many reasons this Final Four is so stupendous is when you consider that the three winningest World Cup teams ever had nothing to do with this. Brazil and Germany had bad World Cups and went out early. Italy, mighty Italy, didn't even qualify. Is there a hypothetical better than this?

Like, I think if I put Brazil in here somewhere, it makes it better, just as—

in place of who? In resume? Not today's Brazil. In place of Spain? You're swapping a better team for a lesser one. Right.

But in terms of reputation, reputation in terms of reputation.

Yeah, what, what Greg lined, uh, laid out there was Germany, Brazil, Italy. But yeah, Italy didn't qualify, and Germany was a shell of itself, and Brazil hasn't mattered in that way in quite some time.

Yeah, 2002 was when Brazil won the last of its 5 championships. Uh, and, and one of the things that makes England fascinating about this Final Four is that they haven't won since 1966. This— if they won, this would be the longest gap between World Cups in history. And English fans chant or sing Hey Jude for Bellingham. Bellingham. And I heard that one yesterday.

I was tough. Yeah.

And the Beatles hadn't even released Hey Jude when they last won a World Cup. That song came out in 1968. So, you know, England is probably the underdog here historically in terms of just having But not in the game. Not in the game.

Not in the game.

No, I think England's going to win. I initially thought Argentina was going to win, but I've changed my mind after I did the research. I think England's team speed is going to overrun Argentina. Older Argentina.

Mike, I've heard some complaining about this. Why are the games at 3 PM? The rest of the world? No, that's, that's what I figured.

So like, time zone isn't what you think it is?

No, you know what? That's what I figured. And it makes sense to me. Like the countries that are involved, like specifically like England, it's you know, tomorrow it's probably like 9 PM.

You nailed it.

You know, there, but thank you, but that makes sense to me. But so why, why are, why have I heard complaints that it's, eh, it's in the afternoon on a Tuesday? Like, no, this, this makes sense actually.

Because it's in the afternoon on a Tuesday and Americans are centrally focused on, hey, I'm at work at that time, and this isn't the way that it goes for other host nations, but the same concession is made when it's held abroad. They try to capitalize on the biggest possible global audience. We even do that in this country with the Super Bowl. It's slightly earlier than primetime because we want it to be a little bit earlier so it can still be caught in other parts of the world.

If you're a soccer fan, you have to have a sudden onset of a 48-hour flu. You have to call in sick from work and you gotta watch today and you gotta watch tomorrow because if you're not a football fan This will change your mind. It's gonna be such epic semifinals that you will become a soccer fan watching today and tomorrow, I guarantee it.

Are you gonna do penalty kicks tomorrow?

Yes. It's official? It's as official as I've been told. Yes, I've trained for it.

You've trained for it? What did that training look like?

Looked like me sweating at 5 PM for a full half hour Taking penalty kicks. In deck shoes or— I had sneakers that were either mine or maybe my wife's.

We have video here of Greg Cody stretching all of the muscles we think he's going to tear tomorrow. He had to be reminded to stretch. Mike was very concerned about his hips today, was accusing Greg Cody of having a rusty gate that he said was something you might find at a haunted house. Greg Cody was doing some practice out there. Chris, how did that go? How many do you think you're going to make?

How many? It's a college goalkeeper, right?

We are in negotiations with a collegiate goalkeeper. But basically, who did you do it with yesterday?

Who? Just Christopher and my granddaughter were—

who was the goalie, your granddaughter or Christopher?

Mostly Christopher. And also your granddaughter won.

Yeah. How did, how did he do? Because we were thinking of having him do it against Pat Riley's cardboard cutout back there because we don't think he's going to make anything.

I want to know whose idea that was.

It was. What are you going to do about it? When you find out whose idea, what are you going to do?

It was Carl's idea. Okay. That's a funny idea, but if you don't think I'm going to make 9 straight goals against the cardboard cutout and my 10th shot is going to hit directly and smash into the cardboard cutout.

How many do you think you're going to make? And can we put some wagers on this to put some stakes on it for tomorrow when you do this against hopefully the University of Miami's goalkeeper?

Right. My goal is to make 3. 3 of 10.

10 is what— and so if you— can we find some stakes? Can you guys, uh, let's give some thought here. I don't want to do it right now on air, but let's give a little thought to what the stakes can be tomorrow. You're going to do it during the show tomorrow. We're going to go live out to you on a soccer field somewhere, and you're going to be taking and making more than 3 penalty kicks out of 10.

Yes, I will try to make at least 3.

That's my goal. Why aren't you going to try and make 10?

Oh, I'll try to make every one, but I'm being realistic here. I'm the age I am, and this is a qualified goalkeeper if he's a college goalkeeper, so, you know. I don't think you're gonna make any. Okay, I'll take that bet.

I was watching his warm-ups, and it was one of those things where at the start I was like, he doesn't— we don't need a goalie because he's gonna be that terrible. And by the end, he had found his groove with kicking it. His problem was he was kicking everything directly at the goalie. He couldn't figure out—

I think the cardboard cutout is going to be great tomorrow.

Even times where I was like, Dad, you got to work on going for the sides, and he would try and would go right to the middle. So he was actually getting a decent amount of speed on the ball, but he couldn't control where it was going.

Okay, uh, speed is important. It's a wide goal, uh, you know, I'm not going to be inside the— just inside the posts every time, uh, some shot And quite frankly, if I can kick with enough force where the goalie feels like he has to guess and go left or right, then kicking right— you see a lot of penalty kicks that are right up the middle, knowing that the middle is going to be vacated.

I don't believe you're going to get any power on your kicks. I don't believe practice is going to help you. And while we also— we've revealed to the audience some of your training regimen, we have secret video, we have also secret audio of Greg Cody's first couple of tries. So that is the rusted gate of a haunted house, uh, is what that sounds like.

Okay, let me get this straight. Levitard thinks that I will get no speed on the ball and that I will go 0 for 10. I challenge Dan Levitard to be in goal against my penalty kicks tomorrow.

Uh, well, that would make it hard for us to do everything that we do.

You doing the live show in goal, Dan, would be sick.

If we were both out though, we were both trying to do 3-hour 4 hours from remote. You guys think it's a good idea for me to be in goal somewhere trying to stop kicks for a segment perhaps, but I think knocking me out for the entire show to do that is just gonna get sad very quickly. You guys are gonna watch us, just a couple of old guys on the field, and I'm gonna know where Greg is kicking it every time because he telegraphs it with the audio of his rusty gate.

So that's my leg, that's my leg motion.

That's your leg going back and then forward.

Yeah, I just want to make that clear.

Haunted and, uh, and I— what did— what do you guys think? I'm sitting here saying he's gonna have no goals, he's saying he's gonna have 3. What do you guys think?

As, as a— the most recent, I think, kicking activation was me trying to kick the field goals in Doral when I tore my, my hip off my bone. Um, I would say, Greg, be very careful because You're used to doing one penalty kick in a row, right? Not 10. Yeah. So it's like once you get to like 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, you're going to try to put more speed on that ball. And it's like your hip is not ready to do that. You weren't meant to do that. You're meant to do one at a time.

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Dan Levitar. I want to address Tony and all men who would wear that shirt in public. Greg Cody. Don't do it. This is the Dan Levitar Show.

I like the idea that Greg thinks that the keeper has to anticipate where he's going with the ball because he's got so much pace behind it. We'll see. That he, he can't afford to just play the reaction game. He's got to get the analytics out and try to get some predictive analysis.

There's a scenario where Greg is going to kick to one side and the goalie will have laid out to the other side.

I was kicking with such force that Christopher could not catch the ball that I kicked directly at him. He had to bat it down.

So he saved it, which he did.

No, because I kicked it right at him.

That's just me flexing my goalie skills. I know that's the goalie move of you don't catch it, you bat it down. I was just showing off.

Okay, I dare you to show the video of me with my velocity.

Regular dare or double dare?

Double dare, actually, because I was getting— I'm not worried about velocity. I'm not worried about power behind the shot. I'm more worried about, uh, you know, being able to go left and right with it as opposed to just kicking it straight.

It's funny that you should mention all of that. I'm not going to ruin what I got in terms of exclusive video, but I am going to send to you guys what I have, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna get the live time reaction here from all of you. In fact, okay, here it is right here. So I'm gonna do this., and you guys are gonna look at it at the same time, okay? I'm gonna give you the time just so that you can enjoy what it is that I'm presently putting in front of you. What I am given here, a shot of Greg Cody. Now, to be fair to him, he's probably not kicked the ball in 30 years before the video that I have here, but the video that I have here, I want you guys to look at and make your assessment, all of you, on what you think. Roy, I can't do it on your phone because it's an Android, so I want you— God damn it! Yeah, I want you guys to look at what it is that I sent you and you guys tell me how you think. Just give me a numerical— try to— oh, okay.

Let me say, I am— I'm not even looking at the video. Let me say one thing. If you have me shooting with my instep, that is not how I will be striking the ball tomorrow. Oh, with my instep. That is not how I'll be striking the ball.

He will kick the ball 3 times.

He will get one on goal. It will be blocked and then he will feign an injury.

That is what's going to happen. I can't share this with the audience, but what I have sent those guys, just it— yes or no, Tony? Tony, yes or no, it's far worse than you imagined in your worst imagination.

I feel bad for Grayson who had to go run and get the ball.

Pat Riley is going to do an incredible job in net.

Greg, if that ball, if, if you get it on goal against any kind of goalkeeper with that velocity, he's gonna blow on the ball to stop it from getting into the net.

I kick with my instep, correct?

You keep saying this, Greg. Greg, it's whatever instep.

It's not how I'm gonna be striking the ball tomorrow, with my instep.

That's not— You're gonna do it with your toe.

No, not with my toe, with my top foot.

I think we have a potential Yonghui Coo situation where he kicks the ground before the ball.

Yonghui Coo is more like it.

That sounds like his stomach as well, I might add, during most Tuesdays.

So Greg Crody, first down. The disappointment on Greg's granddaughter's face when she has to go fetch that ball.

I sent, I sent them a video of a ball going 20 yards wide right, and I think I'm being generous, right?

I think I'm being generous there. Okay, you could stack 4 goals side by side, it would not have hit target.

That was probably my worst shot of the practice session. Sure. Okay. I'm going to make believers out of everybody tomorrow. I'll show you all.

So we've set it up properly. I look forward to doing all of that with you tomorrow. As, as UM fans, UM football fans get mad at CBS Sports for snubbing the UM wide receiver room in its rankings of best receiver rooms in the nation. I don't think I will get what I think is the correct answer from you guys on what I'm about to ask, which is give me the single reason that you believe that the last 2 years of University of Miami football have been as productive, successful, reinvigorating as they have been. Uh, because the only thing that I see derailing this possible season, the most promising of all 3 seasons, is what I think is the reason. But give me what you think, Greg, is the single reason that the University of Miami is now a football power to clearly be reckoned with if it can stay healthy.

Yeah, Mario Cristobal decided to build from the ground up and pay attention to the offensive line and the defensive line, and all of a sudden they became behemoths. They became giant and really, really good on both sides.

Wildly important. Not what I put at the top of the list, but very important. What would you nominate, Zazz? The answer is money. Well, a lot of teams have money, though.

I mean, but the Canes have not been spending, and now they are. And this is what happens. You get the local kids, you know, you get the talent. Like, like they're doing the thing now that other schools had been.

Okay. I do have a second answer, which would be Mario has, has won the portal to get the top-rated quarterback 2 years in a row and arguably now 3 years in a row.

Mine is ancillary to that, but not quite that. Tony, what would be your nomination here?

I think getting great athletes on the outside too. They've got great skill, skill players on top of the trenches, on top of quarterbacks, like they've been able to go out and do things that the Canes teams of the past haven't had.

Mike, do you have a nominee here?

One singular nominee? Dudes.

And the reason I'd knock all of those out is the only thing I can think of that would knock this season out. Okay. The reason that they've been better than they've ever been is because fortuitously in that sport, it's not that they've had quarterbacks, it's that they've had extraordinary quarterback health. This season gets undermined and collapses even though everything you guys just said is true. If this quarterback gets hurt, it collapses on the spot. Every expectation falls down. They've had 2 years now. What Greg Cody is saying is right. They've had an offensive line to protect these guys as well. But the quarterbacks in that sport get hurt all the time. Miami's had a miraculous run of health at the position. They never have to play their backup. Like, it's, it's a bit crazy that their backups never— they're never in the game and that their starter is never even dinged up in any way that you can see.

Yeah, but when you think about it, throughout the best of, of UM's football history, that's been the case. Vinny Testaverde was healthy. Ken Dorsey never got hurt. They've had a history of luck with their best quarterbacks, and may it continue.

Will say, whether it's known or not, both Cam Ward and Carson Beck dealt with injuries. Cam Ward had a bad thigh contusion, and Carson Beck came in as damaged goods. Fall camp had some zip. That zip, as the season progressed, went away.

The point that I'm making, and it's not much of one, you know how health is important in that sport, but I do think it gets overlooked as it relates to Miami. The assumption, oh, the quarterback's just going to be out there every time for us because everything you guys said— dudes, money, offensive line, athletes all over the place— you guys are in agreement with me. This stops being a championship season if Mensah gets hurt, right?

But not mutually exclusive, right? The health is directly tied to the offensive line play, is it not? Yes. We get to keep our guys healthy because we have a clean pocket, don't we? Well, I would say that goes hand in hand. I will say out of the 3 years, this is probably the offensive line that you have the most questions about.

I also think that it was understated throughout the coverage of all of last year how clean a pocket Carson Beck had compared to his peers. Like that he was— he got to play. I don't think he's going to be much of a pro. We'll all find out together. But he got to play as productively as he did because he was playing only almost a different sport than every other quarterback in the sport was playing in terms of the amount of confidence he can have that he's never, never going to take a blindside hit.

Probably got concussed on that final drive.

Okay, but Indiana is the best team, was the best team in the country, and they end up getting to him. But he spent the entire season— we can agree he spent the entire season an inordinate amount of clean. Yeah.

And I think one thing that fans will be encouraged about this year with Darion Mensah is he's kind of a combination. Of Cam Ward and Carson Beck. He doesn't have Cam Ward's arm. Few do. But he's got more ability to move the pocket than Carson Beck. Although we all saw Carson Beck with his legs. He could surprise you with his mobility. But Mensah is really good at manipulating the secondary with his eyes and his ability to throw on the run. And I think that's going to be a delight for a lot of people. But you can say that about any team in the nation that has all their hopes tied to their quarterback. Very few teams in college football could survive an injury. Oregon has an experienced backup in Dylan Raiola, but he— I mean, most people would assume that's quite the drop-off from Dante Moore. So yes, that's a huge part of any season.

Yeah. I mean, in any— not just the quarterback position. I mean, if suddenly Tony is out for the year, that's devastating to UM, right?

I mean, it's not just the quarterback, but this is where the depth of the other rooms helps too. I will say I feel a little bit better about the backup quarterback position this year than than others, but I think that also had a lot to do with the immense drop-off between Cam Ward and Emory Williams and Emory Williams and his limitations. Nickel's going to be playing. Hopefully Miami is in the situation where they're blowing teams out and he can get a little bit more. He's got some juice to him. He's got some mobility that he can flash. But Miami's not winning a national championship if Darion Mensah gets injured.

Dan Levitar, you are a fool. You're nobody. You are an infant. You have no skin in the game.

I literally put together Mike Ryan stage for your toenail.

No, but I am your career right now, pal. Look at me. No, I am your career. No, Greg Cody, you have messed with McDavid, and now you're messing with me, and I'm more dangerous, pal. This is the Dan Levatar Show. Greg Cody, do you— and I say this as somebody who over the last, uh, week or so is really insecure and feeling a bit debilitated by the amount of mistakes I'm making with people's names— but are you saying Tony because you're still afraid of his first name?

Malachi. Malachi. The others, they all learn from me.

And what CBS did is something that a lot of places forget when they're doing their preseason content factories. Greg McElroy, credit to him, he apologized for leaving Miami off of his top 5 defensive line rankings. But we have 2,000-yard receivers in that wide receiver room. Well, that— not, not many teams can say that.

Uh, McElroy and others though are raving about Miami. It hasn't been like this the last couple of preseasons, even with Cam Ward, even with Carson Beck. What's reversed here that has been interesting to watch is Cam Ward came here and Carson Beck came here and the conversation was about the quarterback and would the quarterback make them great? That's not what's happening right now. What's happening right now in the analysis of this football team is will the quarterback be as good as everyone else around him? Because everyone else around him is really good on this football team. That's a— it's a pretty seismic change. It's what— it's what evolution brought you at that position where you needed Carson. You need Carson Beck to follow somehow Cam Ward, and he does well enough. But Cam Ward came here, and Cam Ward was expected to make them great by himself and did. Their defense wasn't any good. They were not ready yet. So Beck is hired— yeah, hired to caretake all of that. But this year, the way the analysts are talking is the way they talked about Miami the years that they were always great, where the quarterback has always been an afterthought at Miami.

The players make the quarterback. It's not the other way around. Westover, he was first, but the players— Geno Toretto won a Heisman Trophy. It's not because he was that great as a quarterback. It's because all their other athletes were better than everybody else's other athletes.

From being out there, Miami obviously needs to make the college football playoff. Anything other than that would be a disappointment. But I— in the last 25 years and the last several that I've— and several head coaches that have been able to go out to practice and, and see the team, best running back room I've ever seen. Over the last 25 years. Best wide receiver room I think I've seen. I feel pretty good about defensive back. I think they can get in that class. I don't think we're going to drop off that much on the defensive line, which is saying a lot considering you lost two first-round draft picks there. But I really like the talent. There's 5-stars all across there. The linebackers are very experienced. I mean, we got like two 30-year-old linebackers in Chase Smith and Mo Torre. God rest his soul. He died for a good cause in college. Texas A&M, yeah. I just see him. I'm like, wow, reanimated Mo Torre. That's incredible. And the quarterback was the ACC's leading passer and won an ACC championship with Duke and was very good at Tulane. He's, he's a proven commodity here. This should be a special season for Miami.

Last season was a special season for Miami. Now we're rolling. Now you're stacking the talent. You have the depth behind every important position outside of maybe quarterback, which is Dan's right to highlight that. That is a huge gulf between 1 and 2. But this is a really loaded Miami team.

I also think that the perception of the Hurricanes starts with the head of the snake. I think Mark Mario Cristobal has erased all of the doubts about him. I'm seeing him now, I forget what outlet it was, but I'm seeing him now turn up in top 10 coaches lists and he's earned it. And nobody's talking anymore about that late call against Georgia Tech or he's not a good in-game coach. I think he's proved himself.

They're always talking about that call and it'll come back very quickly. Let them get into a bad late game situation and you'll see how quickly you're reminded about that penalty against Georgia Tech.

There is that one big question, there is one big question about Mario Cristobal. Can you win a national title? Well, of course, with Mario Cristobal as head coach, someone that is not really respected for tactics. But I think what needs to be respected about Mario Cristobal is we're all familiar with message board complaints. We, we— the last few seasons we've complained about Guidry, we've complained— before that we were complaining about the offensive coordinator, after that we were complaining about game management. Mario Cristobal is wise to his deficiencies. Mario Cristobal is still learning as a head coach and constantly improving. And I think one of his strengths that is often overlooked is his ability to recognize, identify issues, and correct them.

All right, first of all, with Cristobal and the whole 'can Mario Cristobal be a coach who wins a national championship,' like, isn't that conversation already done? The Canes had the ball on the final drive of the national championship game. All right, they came up short on the drive, but like, they had the ball on, you know, to win the national championship. Clearly Cristobal can be the coach of a national champion. So there's that. But what I think— what's my favorite part, what I think is the best part about the current situation is, I don't know, like every other school in the country who's a contender, when they're in this spot and they're really great, you're always having to look over your shoulder if someone is going to take your coach. The Canes never are going to have to worry about that. That. He's always going to be the coach until the Canes tell him, 'We don't want you to be the coach anymore.' Sure. And that's an unbelievable advantage.

Yeah, I mean, it's his dream job, and he said that when he left Oregon. This is his dream job. This isn't the, the next to highest step on the ladder. This is it for him.

Yeah, sorry, Zazz, I, I don't really understand.

You said there's no question of whether or not they can win.

They didn't win. I know, but clearly he's good enough to have this team in a spot to win. But did win? No. Okay, so then we don't know that he can win a national championship. No, no, but that's not— that's not the question. Is he a good enough coach to be able to be a national champion coach? Clearly he is. Oh, you don't know that until he wins. No, I do know that because his team had the ball with the game on the line to win a national championship. He did throw the interception. Does he have a ring? He didn't throw the interception. I don't know why you're trying to make me angry here.

I'm not—

I'm not the guy who's losing sleep over the Miami Hurricanes, okay? Did he win? I'm an unbiased I'm an unbiased opinion.

Can you answer my question? Can we just step back and appreciate hating ass Jeremy? That's all he's got left. It's just like triple, triple zeros. Are they holding the trophy? Yeah, are they holding the trophy? No, I— look, God bless you, I agree, they gotta win it. He didn't come here to finish second. He, he finished— he came here to, to finish first and hold the trophy. But that's all your ass has left.

Yeah, it'd be cool if your team won all their games.

My team's won all their So you have to go undefeated.

You can't just win the national— win the last game.

Okay, win the last game you play. There are plenty of teams. Be a national champion. Well, okay, you're missing one of those. Me? Yeah. No, I'm not. Your team. Your team is a national champion, which, by the way, I also went to. Your school won their last game. Didn't win a national championship. Mm, yes, they did. Go ahead and ask one of the officials. Ask who? People, people, what's UCF? The NCAA record book. Yeah, the NCAA record broke.

Did it go to UCF?

Ask the dopey coach who blew out at Luke Nebraska and came crawling back to UCF. Ask him.

That was a good coach. Good coach.

He won the big game. He didn't choke.

Speaking— he wasn't even there, by the way.

Speaking of— came back to win. Names, uh, in the, uh, discount bin, uh, Klay Thompson, Russell Westbrook, DeMar DeRozan. All of them are said to be, uh, Heat interests. I don't know what's going to happen with LeBron. Everybody is waiting for LeBron. That doesn't clear up. But when I saw Russell Westbrook and I saw DeMar DeRozan and Klay Thompson, for that matter, that is an all-in scenario on— good God, the Heat are going to put the oldest team out there they can. A flashback to another time. I don't want a team that lacks shooting to add Russell Westbrook. I, I really don't want that. Klay Thompson, I got to imagine at this point his career is going to be liability on defense. He used to be a great two-way player, but at this age— these names did what for you guys in terms of enthusiasm?

Made me sad when I saw Russell Westbrook in a Kings jersey.

I was like, ooh. Westbrook, I have a very hard time believing the Heat would be interested in. Like, that Westbrook does nothing for me. Can I be convinced that Klay Thompson can give you something if the team adds LeBron? Yeah, I could be convinced that. Uh, DeRozan Derozan's still a good player. Like, Derozan still this past year averaged 19 points.

He can get buckets.

He shot 50% from the floor. Now, he's never been a 3-point shooter, but Derozan's a good player still. So I would say, I think he, I think, is the most interesting of those 3. Westbrook, ah, you gotta miss me with that.

That's perfect Riley though, having the oldest team imaginable, the oldest team in the league. That's got Riley written all over it. Why don't they exhume Chris Paul? Bring him back. Back.

But Klay Thompson though, what did that do for you when you just think shooting? When, when you're just asking somebody to make threes, you're not asking him to do anything else.

I mean, Dallas asked him to do that, mixed results there.

Yeah, but not with this rim presence, not with this ability to break down a defense and just make them all wide open threes. I, I hear you.

I, I understand the reaction, like, wow, these guys are kind of washed. I'm with Zazz. DeRozan can offer something. Miami needs stuff on the perimeter. I look at a lot of them and I said Miami needs to get lucky depend on someone like that for them to get to where they want to go as presently constituted, so might as well take as many lotto tickets as you can and hopefully you can recreate some magic.

Would there be a ton of difference? Now again, I'm only saying if the Heat get LeBron, would I be interested in Klay Thompson? Is there that much difference in bringing aboard Klay Thompson than when the Heat brought aboard Ray Allen?

Yeah. He's about 4 years older. Or Mike Miller.

Ray Allen just took incredible care of his body, was still super quick, was hell to chase around the court till his last—

He certainly wasn't defending anyone.

He won a title 2 years before the Heat got him, or 3 years before the Heat got him.

To his last NBA minute, Ray Allen was still an absolute monster to chase down, running around screens. He would get you dog tired. Klay Thompson's body shows the wear and tear of the injuries that he sustained.

That's the one that's always interesting to me, right? Because I do believe some of this stuff is so imperceptible. Klay looks the same in many of the same ways, is wearing the uniform, the name's the same on the back of the jersey. But he hasn't been a top 75 player of all time since he injured himself that way. His career ended for all intents and purposes. He's bounced around the league, but his career as— man, we were talking about him as the best two-way player in the entire sport.

Like, he suffered the Achilles injury and an ACL back-to-back.

That's a deadly combo. I would just add, Ray Allen, when he joined the Heat, was 37 years old and he missed 40 games the year prior. Klay Thompson is 36 and he only missed 13 games this past year. I think there's something similar there.

I don't because of the injury. Like, to me, Ray Allen came here and to me looked exactly the same as he did the 3— every year that he played. Like, in Milwaukee he was playing mid-range and he was handling the ball and not just taking 3s, but the last 5 years of Ray Allen's career he looked exactly the same all the time. It's, it's this— Clay Thompson looks like a shadowy haunted rusted gate of a basketball player.