00:00:00
Speaker 1: Now, Eddie, it's a Monday. It's somewhat befitting outside of the sport day we had yesterday from a professional standpoint. And I thought to myself on the drive in today, I thought, OK, so we could talk about the rarity and the the first time. unprecedented event that we got to witness in the state of Indiana over the weekend from a sports standpoint that we may never see again. Or we could talk about the complete debacle that took place in Jacksonville or the complete debacle that took place at Cambridge field house. And we can preview tonight. We can do a number of things. And I thought I need a little more time to balance this all out. And then I, and then it hit me, it dawned on me and I said, Oh, I'll have a little extra time to prepare for, my thoughts and clear the table because Eddie will have a fabulous show intro that is all set for me. And that will allow me an extra 90 seconds or so. Now, are you boycotting?
00:01:04
Speaker 2: Well, see, Jake, if a team's going to go out there and play like they did yesterday for the Colts and the Pacers, quite frankly, why the hell would I give the effort.
00:01:13
Speaker 1: In giving them attention like that? Well, so here's the thing. Can we compromise on this? If you had to think of a song, did you at least contemplate like a song that would work to be able to play for today?
00:01:29
Speaker 3: Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: So you have a song fired up.
00:01:31
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:01:31
Speaker 1: So let's do this right here, okay? Because everybody wanted to do this yesterday with the Colts, right? I'm holding up my notepad here. I'm shaking it like an Etch-A-Sketch. Start the whole thing. Just blow the whole thing up and start all over again. That's what the Colts are about to do. So in honor of that, why don't we just go ahead and we're going to do this over again. No intro. You just play music and your little computer dealio and the intro and we'll start all over again.
00:01:57
Speaker 3: You ready?
00:01:58
Speaker 1: You want the intro or you just want the song? No, we're going to start the whole thing over again. The intro and then the song and then we'll just go from there.
00:02:04
Speaker 4: You ready?
00:02:05
Speaker 1: Here we go. And this is, there we go. Three, two, and one.
00:02:09
Speaker 5: It's Query and Company. I'm going to be keeping you company for the next few hours. You are not going to believe the company. This company.
00:02:15
Speaker 6: You're going to bankrupt your mama's company. At least I have the radio to keep me company. On 93.5 and 107.5. The Fan.
00:02:19
Speaker 5: The roof, the roof, the roof.
00:02:25
Speaker 1: Is on fire. We don't need no water, let the mother f * * * ing burn. Burn, mother f * * * ing burn.
00:02:35
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:02:36
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's what we're doing. The roof isn't even, the roof is probably open, right? I mean, let's be real, because every other decision that's been made has been the wrong one, so what the heck. Good morning to you on a Monday, and it is a gloomy-looking Monday, but we're going to get through it nonetheless. My name is Jake Query. Eddie Garrison, the other voice you heard on this program, and his querying company here on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan. And I don't know whether or not we are going to see or hear about changes on West 56th Street today. Certainly the precedent is set there for that. And if so, we will get you to the Gandalf Financial Services breaking news sounder immediately. When you hear it today, that probably means that something big is happening. Although, to be fair... there has not been any sort of inside scuttlebug to tell us that that is imminent. But what we know is this. We knew last week it's over. I knew it was over. You knew it was over. Jim Nance knew it was over. Seth DeFlo knew it was over. Everyone knew it was over. But What we saw yesterday was a locker room telling you that they also got the memo. It's over. If there was any hope in maybe making a trade of two players would send a message and gosh darn it, guys are gritty and they're professionals and they're out there to win games. Jonathan Taylor, this isn't a rebuild. What are you talking about? This isn't a rebuild. We're out there to win games. That was a team yesterday. that knows it's a rebuild. And we'll get into that aplenty. And let me begin with this. I think the common thought would be that I should open the microphone today and sit here and spend the next three hours criticizing, railing on, calling for the job of, throwing under the bus, Shane Steichen. Because Shane Steichen, when he came out for his opening statement yesterday, I'll let you hear it, Shane Steichen made no bones about the fact that he's right there on the front line as well. And probably what was the longest winded rant that he had yesterday, a full, I think, 18 seconds. This is Shane Steichen taking the podium yesterday after seeing the Colts get completely humiliated in Jacksonville.
00:05:17
Speaker 7: Yeah, it wasn't good enough. Flat out wasn't good enough. Like I said, we got outcoached. We got outplayed. And we got to freaking learn from our mistakes in a hurry. And like I said, the effort and the energy has got to be there every week. If it's not, you're going to get beat like that.
00:05:30
Speaker 1: Now, I had prepared to come in here and actually kind of take the other side and not have the back of Shane Steichen, but be explanatory as to why I think he gets somewhat of a pass. But then I hear that, and it again reawakens in me this incredulous, not anger, but frustration. We got some things we got to clean up. We got to clean them up in a hurry.
00:06:03
Speaker 3: Bro.
00:06:06
Speaker 1: I get that that's what the Teddy Ruxpin robot that you pulled a little ripcord is programmed to say. Remember when you were a kid and somebody gave you a Teddy Ruxpin and you pulled the ripcord and it said, I love you.
00:06:18
Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
00:06:20
Speaker 1: Talking teddy bear loves me. Let's play. Unbelievable. And what you didn't know is there actually was some guy at Hasbro that just recorded that and went into an audio box and it was inside and it was programmed to just say the same five things over and over. I am sick and tired of hearing the same things over and over. I'm sick of it. I'm tired of it. And this market is tired of it. And every one of you that have paid your hard-earned money to go watch this football team and have them play in the most highly subsidized building in American sports should be tired of it. Don't sit here and tell me that you got to quickly turn things around. You got to get things fixed. Hogwash. It's all bleeping talk. It's all air filler. And enough is enough. And if you didn't get the memo from that when your owner sat there on the sidelines with her notes, you know what her notes said? Everybody wants to know what she's been writing on the side of it. What her notes said is, I'm tired of hearing the same freaking thing. That's exactly what her notes say. Because what did she do? She said, let's trade the two pillars and send the message to everybody that no one is safe. And if that didn't get through to you at that point, and you went out there and absolutely humiliated yourself and wet yourself yesterday, if that didn't get the message to you, then burn the whole thing down. Done. Over with. Over with. That's the reality. All of it. Burn it down. Now, now that I've gotten that angst out, The roof, the roof is on fire. We don't need no water. Let the mother.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: F * * * er burn.
00:07:57
Speaker 8: Let it.
00:07:58
Speaker 1: Burn, mother f * * * er. Let it. Now, here's the other thing, though. In this circumstance, in this situation, I'll actually, for this game, give Steichen a pass. I don't give him a pass in the totality of his tenure as the head coach of the Colts. And I do think that there are people that have a lot of respect for him around the league. And I mean, as an offensive coach and a quarterback guru, sure. I think to some extent, what we saw yesterday, and I wish Shane Steichen would have said this. I wish instead of the pull the rip cord and Teddy Ruxpin comes out with the same thing, I love you, let's play. Instead of hearing that same thing, I wish he would have been an honest Teddy Ruxpin. I'm not going to go with the recorded answer that they tell me that I'm supposed to say that a guy at Hasbro programmed inside of me robotically. I wish he would have said what he really felt. And what he should have said was he should have come out there and said, look, you want to know how bad this was? I'll tell you how bad it was. I went back as the head coach of the Colts and I looked. And the glory years of this franchise and the one that everybody talks about still to this day is the Peyton Manning era. You can't go into a Kroger on a Sunday and not see somebody walking around with either a Freeney, a Wayne, a Sanders, an Edge, a Mathis, a Peyton, a Clark, a Stokely Jersey. That's the glory years, that's the standard, and that's the benchmark. And I went and looked at it, and you know what I found as the head coach of the Colts? I found that in the entire tenure of Peyton Manning, in the entire era of the greatest golden years in Indianapolis Colts football history, they won two games, two, by 35 or more points. They beat the Houston Texans in the Texans' third year of existence by 35 points. And they beat the New Orleans Saints in Peyton Manning's big return back home when they scored 55 points by 36 in a game. That's it. The greatest era of Colts football in their decade only managed to beat the drums out of somebody as badly as the Colts were beaten yesterday twice. And one of them was an expansion franchise with a quarterback that could tell you exactly how many lights were at the top of Reliant Stadium because David Carr spent all his time on his back because they never protected him. A foreshadow for how the Colts handled the post-Payton Manning era with their next quarterback. But I digress. Even with all that, I would have actually admired it if Shane Steichen would have come out and said, you know what, here's the thing. We thought we had some things to clean up, but I got completely neutered last week. I got completely undercut last week because what we saw, and I was as curious as the rest of you. I was as curious as the rest of you as to how this team was going to react, but how this team is going to react was this. They went out there despite every game plan that we had and every motivation that we had and every speech that I had, and I made them watch Hoosiers, and I made them watch Miracle, and I made them watch Rocky and all these movies and everything else. I don't know if he really did. I'm just saying. All of that. I tried everything in the book, but you know what? Above me this week, they traded our two captains and pillars that are most representative. And maybe they did that to send a message to the rest of the locker room that nobody is safe. But you know what the memo actually received was by my locker room? Was a bunch of guys that went, eh, it's over. They are literally going to let this burn. So, you know, I'm not going to give too much burn into it, to be honest with you. The most significant play yesterday in that game, the most significant play in the National Football League yesterday was not Baker Mayfield not completing a pass and winning a game. It was not.
00:12:02
Speaker 9: A.D.
00:12:03
Speaker 1: Mitchell going for over 100 in New York. The most significant illustration yesterday of any team and any mindset in the National Football League was when The Indianapolis Colts, the lowly, hapless, laughing stock Indianapolis Colts, going down to a place that has been a house of horrors in general, tried some trickery. They tried to do something new, like trading their pillar players earlier in the week or firing their general manager. They tried to do something new to catch everybody off guard. We're going to do some trickery. We're going to hand the ball to Jonathan Taylor, who claims this isn't a rebuild. And we're going to have him sweep and then try to do a little fun little toss to Josh Downs, who wants to be traded. And we're going to do all of this by starting the play with our quarterback that we're going to tell everybody is still healthy because maybe somebody will be dumb enough to give us a seventh round pick and inherit his 20 plus million dollars next year, even though everybody knows that's never going to happen. 40 million or whatever it is, but we're going to do this and we're going to do trickery and catch everybody off guard because we're sneaky and it's Halloween time and we're going to play some tricks and try to treat the fans. And you know what happened? Like everything else since Chris Ballard walked into that building, every plan they came up with right before our very eyes became a huge flipping joke. Jonathan Taylor bobbled it. Josh Downs was supposed to get it. Josh Downs looked at it and thought, yeah, I'm good. I actually think he kind of lost his footing, but nonetheless, did he make every effort to get that loose ball?
00:13:58
Speaker 3: Nah. Why?
00:14:00
Speaker 1: Why make the effort? Because even though the guy that was throwing it to me says this isn't a rebuild, I know better. And the whole time Daniel Jones is watching it and he's thinking to himself, this seems symbolic of the opportunity I was given. This seems symbolic of the opportunity the Indianapolis Colts gave me, and I'm watching right now Jonathan Taylor play out exactly the way I handled my opportunity. Fumbled and watched it just dribble away.
00:14:32
Speaker 3: Now.
00:14:32
Speaker 1: I personally think Daniel Jones is not 100% healthy, but that's on the Colts as well because they had no backup plan. And what do I always say? It wasn't raining when Noah built the arc, which takes us then to the other thing. And why not when your season is circling the drain and it's burning down, then why not go ahead and give yourself a storyline like, hey, guess what? Welcome back to 1986 Indianapolis. We've got a quarterback controversy.
00:15:00
Speaker 10: Great.
00:15:01
Speaker 1: We got a backup quarterback that was a top five pick that basically had one general manager. And I remember when Anthony Richardson was drafted, I remember specifically a person from within the Colts organization saying to me the next year at the combine, the next year after his rookie year, someone said to me, this kid is the kind of quarterback that gets people fired.
00:15:25
Speaker 6: Pretty sure Bruce Arian said the same thing.
00:15:27
Speaker 1: I think he did. Correct. And guess what? Profit. But, and I don't mean FIT. But Anthony Richardson now, I get it and I understand it. You would like to see him play. Okay. But for what?
00:15:47
Speaker 6: For what?
00:15:49
Speaker 1: Nobody's trading for this guy. Nobody. When's the trade deadline, Eddie? A week from now?
00:15:54
Speaker 6: A week from tomorrow?
00:15:56
Speaker 4: No.
00:15:56
Speaker 11: Boss man, I was thinking, let's make a trade for that Anthony Richardson kid in Indianapolis, even though we can get him as a free agent here in a couple of months. But let's go ahead and send out a fifth rounder for him because he looked pretty decent in the eight snaps he took.
00:16:09
Speaker 1: Come on. There's nothing to be gained for the Colts in playing him because he's not in their future. There's nothing to be gained, really, in playing Daniel Jones because he's not in their long-term future, and if he is, then you want him to get healthy because I don't believe he's fully healthy. You are so stuck at that position, and yet that's okay because when it comes to the quarterback position, then you just, we'll draft one this year.
00:16:42
Speaker 6: Oh, that's right.
00:16:44
Speaker 1: We can't even go out there and intentionally suck Because our first round pick goes to the New York Jets. It is so, if you've ever had one of those dreams where you're walking down a hallway and every door that you grab is the one that's locked, then welcome to the 2026 Indianapolis Colts. And as for Shane Steichen, who is the easiest guy to come out there and point the finger towards, I actually, in this case, not in totality, but as for yesterday, I actually give him the benefit of the doubt. I give him a pass, and I know that that's probably totally unexpected. Now, the things that he says and the going through the motions have worn me out. Worn me out. But what's he supposed to do? When the message was sent to the locker room during the course of the week, it's over. That's the message they got. You traded our one promising defender in terms of an edge rush, and they've got some guys that are showing a little flash, but you get what I'm saying. Our literal leader of the locker room. The stalwart of the locker room that just keeps everything professional. And then on the other side of it, even though Quentin Nelson, to us, meaning the media, fans, whatever, is a pretty stoic, like Stone Mountain, quiet kind of dude, players will tell you in the locker room that he is an absolute leader that just kind of keeps things where they need to be, keeps things light a little bit, but there's just a trusted, there's just those Simple moments where you look over and you think, when that guy's in the locker room, you're like, I think we're going to be okay because there's a leadership without even having to speak, even though I think he's more vociferous and gregarious around his teammates than he is publicly. You send both those guys out? You send the two guys that are on the JW, the two guys that are pictured outside the building? What is Shane Steichen supposed to do at that point? What was he supposed to game plan? What was he supposed to come up with? What possibility could he get of motivation to wake these guys up when they're professional players? They get it. They know it's over. And that message was sent in subtlety last week that the 2026 season is over. It's all about now. The chance for people that don't normally go to games to maybe go to games because people that have season tickets. And I understand why people are going to hold on to them. But are you really going to go down and watch them play the Dolphins? You really going to go like late November and watch them play the New York Giants?
00:19:50
Speaker 6: You know what I think of when I hear Colts, Dolphins?
00:20:00
Speaker 1: You know, that guy's playing that through a vacuum, right? Which is only fitting because there's nothing that could have more suck to it than the Colts-Dolphins game. But I will tell you this. You know what they should do? Here's my marketing brilliance. If the Indianapolis Colts are listening right now, and I'm sure they don't have anything better to do, here is my marketing tip for the Indianapolis Colts. Eddie, can you please pull up for me the Colts' actual schedule in terms of dates? When do they play... What is their final home game? Their final home game?
00:20:32
Speaker 5: Yes.
00:20:33
Speaker 6: TBD.
00:20:34
Speaker 1: Oh, that's against Jacksonville, right?
00:20:35
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:20:35
Speaker 1: The reason it's TBD is not because they're trying to determine the date or time. It's because the NFL may just say, to hell with it. We don't even need to play this game. Jacksonville wins the game.
00:20:47
Speaker 5: Done.
00:20:48
Speaker 1: That's not really the case. They're waiting to see if they were going to have to flex it or whatnot. It's going to be a 1 o'clock game on Sunday. What's their penultimate home game? TBD. That's also TBD?
00:20:59
Speaker 6: It's either Saturday or Sunday.
00:21:01
Speaker 1: Who's that against?
00:21:01
Speaker 6: Cincinnati.
00:21:02
Speaker 1: There's zero chance that's on a Saturday. There is no way that the NFL is going to say, hey, you're doing your holiday shopping? Be sure to stop at the TV section of H.H. Gregg where all the guys stand with their shopping bags while the wives are doing holiday shopping. That sounds misogynistic, not intended to. I'm just referencing the way it used to be in the 80s. And watch the Colts and Bengals. Come on. When do they play the Giants?
00:21:33
Speaker 6: The Giants?
00:21:34
Speaker 1: Yes, the New York Giants. The New York football Giants.
00:21:37
Speaker 6: They don't play the Giants. Sorry, yeah, they do.
00:21:39
Speaker 1: The 29th. The 29th of November, right?
00:21:42
Speaker 6: Right before the bye week.
00:21:45
Speaker 5: Okay.
00:21:46
Speaker 1: That's a Sunday?
00:21:47
Speaker 2: Boy, look at this upcoming stretch. Sunday against Dallas. The following Sunday, home against Miami. Short week, Thursday night football. Colts, Texans, and then the Giants.
00:21:59
Speaker 6: At home again.
00:22:00
Speaker 5: Okay.
00:22:02
Speaker 1: Here's my tip for the Colts.
00:22:04
Speaker 6: That's a whole lot of guh.
00:22:05
Speaker 1: Let's make this interesting.
00:22:07
Speaker 6: That's a whole lot of throw up.
00:22:08
Speaker 1: Let's make this interesting.
00:22:10
Speaker 6: Gosh.
00:22:11
Speaker 1: When the New York football giants come on November 29th, this is my one-man pilgrimage. On November 29th, when the New York football giants come to Lucas Oil Stadium to take on the Indianapolis Colts, Let's open the roof and open the window. And I know if there's a snowflake in Terre Haute, you can't do it because when they put $ 720 million into that stadium, they decided to only make two elevators, one escalator of death, and wait for it, no drainage system. But nonetheless, assuming that it's going to be arid dry across the Midwest and there's no chance of precipitation, then let's do this. On November 29th, at the very least, let's open the window, open the roof, and let people enjoy outdoor football. Because if that team is not going to look like it's football, and if that game plan doesn't look like it's football... And if there is no semblance of actual old school John Facinda talking about the New York football giants coming into Lucas Oil Stadium and the old grit feel of it, of seeing your own breath and watching and hearing the pads pop, at the very least, let's have that. At the very least, let's let people totally enjoy and explore what it's like to be the old school football environment. Because the only old school right now the Colts are doing are partying like it's 1985. Is it going to be Mike Pagel or Art Schliester? Or maybe we can bring back Gary Hogeboom and just wait until Owen Gill gets uncorked. That's where we are. Pacers last night was disappointing to say the least. And I realize that they are ravaged with injury. And I realize that some of that is also being a little bit of preventative or erring on the side of caution in the case of the timelines of the return of Halliburton or McConnell and then Toppin's injury yesterday. I mean, lower back. I think some of these probably, if this were the playoffs, for example, it's different.
00:24:19
Speaker 6: It does sound like, though, that Obi could be back tonight.
00:24:22
Speaker 2: Carlisle said pregame that he seems to have taken a turn And that depending on how he feels this morning, he could be available against Atlanta.
00:24:32
Speaker 1: See, my thing is simply this. I understand why they're erring on the side of caution. But without Zubats, it's irrelevance the wrong word, but you need Zubats and Halliburton, mostly the timing of those two, and Siakam. I've always said 35 games. But we're losing games quickly here. And I don't mean losing on the scoreboard. I mean, we're losing time here quickly. Time's moving quickly on when they need to get this acclimation period underway and begin going. The problem is simply, even though I can appreciate the effort put forth by Slauson and the way he plays, Larry Nance Jr. at times looks like, I mean, he is one that is the slowest to acclimate to where he's supposed to be all the time. But When you are going out there and you're playing and you have Jay Huff fouling out of the game while not taking a single two-point attempt and getting, what do you have, three rebounds and zero points and fouling out? It is making, it is too much PTSD from a year ago. And the habits of a year ago of, yeah, but there's optimism in why we're losing and we all get it. That pass is gone now. And while I understand... And I totally am on board with the precaution of injury and bringing people back. At some point, you got to start fighting through it and get it going because you are going to lose time on that acclimation period. You just are. But when we come back, more into the one big area of question for the Colts that has nothing to do with how in the world you get embarrassed that bad in Jacksonville and history in college football. We'll get to all of it as we roll along here on a burn, blank burn. That's the Violent Femmes on that song, is it not, Eddie?
00:26:34
Speaker 6: I'd have to come back and look and remember.
00:26:36
Speaker 1: You know what? Maybe it's not the Violent Femmes. Either way, the message is the same. And we'll continue it next. Bloodhouse Gang, is that what we determined?
00:26:45
Speaker 6: Bloodhound Gang?
00:26:46
Speaker 1: Bloodhound Gang, sorry. I knew that. I'm a little tired. Because I was up until like 3.48 in the morning just sitting there contemplating, like, what in the world did I just see?
00:26:58
Speaker 2: Now, I'm curious of this. Wait, are you talking about the Colts? You're talking about the Pacers or the string of text messages that you got?
00:27:12
Speaker 1: Little of all of the above, right? I had an interesting weekend of I've always been. People ask me all the time, hey, do you ever regret giving out your cell phone number on the air?
00:27:27
Speaker 4: No.
00:27:28
Speaker 3: I don't.
00:27:28
Speaker 1: I love it.
00:27:29
Speaker 6: The warden called you an idiot last week.
00:27:32
Speaker 3: He did.
00:27:33
Speaker 1: He did. Warden Farnsworth was not on board. You think the warden's going to call us again? We recommended to him Philly and Washington, right?
00:27:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, we did.
00:27:42
Speaker 1: It wasn't a terrible game.
00:27:44
Speaker 6: I think the other game that I suggested was Tampa, Atlanta.
00:27:49
Speaker 1: I think that one the inmates would have wanted to watch just because the anomaly of it, right? To have an entire.
00:27:56
Speaker 6: I guess.
00:27:56
Speaker 1: It's only the second time, I believe, did I read correctly, the second time in NFL history in the first 50 years where a team won without completing a single pass?
00:28:05
Speaker 6: I think 74 was the most recent time.
00:28:07
Speaker 1: I mean, that's kind of like, and I mean, everybody knows this by now, but the second that Indiana hit their field goal against Minnesota, I sent a thing on the Expos Twitter that said, that has to be the first time that you have seen 60-yard field goals in back-to-back possessions, right?
00:28:28
Speaker 6: In college football?
00:28:29
Speaker 1: Well, it turns out it's never been done in football. It's never been done by two teams in the same game. It's been done by Tony Franklin, who was a barefooted kicker, hit two 60-yarders in the same game. But in terms of it happening on back-to-back possessions, it's never happened in college or pro.
00:28:43
Speaker 2: I need to know how the heck McAteer controlled that football to get it through the uprights.
00:28:48
Speaker 6: Did you see that thing? It was like.
00:28:49
Speaker 1: I mean, it was... Both those kicks were amazing. And we can get into Indiana. Don Fisher is going to join us, I think, later in the show. We'll get into it later. But, you know, there have been times in this town where we've had quarterback controversies. The narrative has always been that the most popular person on a franchise or on a roster is the backup quarterback. Unless your quarterback is... definitively and undeniably, you know, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, a little different. But if you go back in the history of the Colts and Indy, and you take out Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning, virtually every other quarterback that has come through this town came through either dealing with calls and outcry for the backup or ascended to to the starting position because at one time they were the backup and there were calls and outcry about giving them a shot. You've heard me mention all the names. Pagel and Sleaster and Shane Matthews and Kelly Holcomb and Don Makowski and Jeff George and Jack Trudeau and Ricky Turner and Craig Erickson and Steve Walsh. On and on and on. Browning Nagel. Ryan Lindley, Josh Freeman, on and on and on. But we kind of took pride in the fact that it was a franchise that had found stability at that position. And then once you found stability at it, everybody understood because of the circumstance. And I don't know if you know this or not. They should do a better job of talking about it. Andrew Luck retired and they weren't expecting it. And so everybody understood that. that that was a process where you were going to have to wait through until the right opportunity to go out and get your franchise quarterback. And this is a franchise, and the ultimate irony, the ultimate irony is right now the Indianapolis Colts are in the situation that they're in because they swung and missed at the most important draft pick in the recent history of the franchise. And Now the irony is, because they swung and missed and they found themselves just stuck in this, not LA, but Indy tar pit, this vat of suck, the answer to a lot of people is, at least let's give Anthony Richardson another shot. And I understand that there is some intrigue there that is of slightly more curiosity than what we've seen out of Daniel Jones. And again, I do believe that Daniel Jones is not 100% healthy. But even if he is, I also think that a 100% healthy Daniel Jones, at this point we can safely say, is probably a lot more likely to be New York Giant Daniel Jones than first 10 game a year ago Daniel Jones. But what is the benefit? What is the gain of now turning the keys back over to Anthony Richardson? As a matter of fact, and I don't mean this to be confrontational, But I am curious, if you are somebody who wants to see Anthony Richardson back on the field, if you want them for the rest of the year for Anthony Richardson to be your starting quarterback, then I want you to call right now at 239-1070. And I'm not setting you up like, tell me why because I'm going to tell you you're wrong. It's not it at all. I don't think there's a wrong answer here. Now, we may have an open dialogue. We may have an open dialogue. And the open dialogue that I'm going to present is not one that I'm doing to be counterproductive or to counterpoint you, but rather to illuminate the situation that they put themselves in. Because I think they painted themselves into a corner here to a great extent. 239-1070 is the telephone number. Overall thoughts on the Colts, but notably on the quarterback situation. Matt will lead us off.
00:33:17
Speaker 3: Hi, Matt.
00:33:18
Speaker 1: How are you?
00:33:21
Speaker 5: Hey, I'm doing good.
00:33:22
Speaker 12: Thanks a lot for taking my call. Yeah, I just wanted to, my reasoning for giving AR the keys at this point, you know, we're in the midst of selling the whole team, right? We're breaking it all down to the bones. We're selling everything. So from my perspective, if you're going to do that, you might as well for sure, without a doubt, 100% find out if you have anything at all in AR. And if you don't, then that's just another guy on the team that you're selling along with.
00:33:51
Speaker 4: The rest of the team.
00:33:52
Speaker 1: And, Matt, I understand that.
00:33:54
Speaker 10: There is a chance.
00:33:55
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, though.
00:33:56
Speaker 12: There is a chance he's something different without Ballard, another year under his belt, he's more mature, and maybe he's not.
00:34:04
Speaker 4: But at this point, what do we have to lose?
00:34:06
Speaker 3: Totally.
00:34:07
Speaker 1: Here's my thing, Matt. And, Matt, I don't disagree with that, but here's my area of concern, okay? What reason do we have to believe that Anthony Richardson would be a Colt next year? Let's say he, as the kids say, let's say he goes and balls out, right? Let's say that he's all of a sudden it's like, holy cow, that he flipped, you know, he turned the page and he's, he's playing phenomenal football. Why would he be here next year? I mean, that's my question, Matt. I appreciate the call. I believe it's Tawan who is next. Eddie, I'll let you scan him through here. Tawan joins us next on the program. Eddie, go to line three, to Tawan. Matt, I appreciate it. Did I say it right? Is it Tawan? Is that right? Are we having problems with the phones, Eddie? There we go. Tawan, you there?
00:35:00
Speaker 3: Yes, sir. I'm here.
00:35:00
Speaker 1: Sorry about that. All right, your thoughts.
00:35:03
Speaker 3: My thoughts is... The Colts are a bad franchise, and they're boring. You throw A.R. in there, at least it'll bring a little bit of excitement to the games, because nobody wants to go to the games and watch a snooze fest. A.R. isn't the greatest, but he will bring a little bit more excitement to the game.
00:35:22
Speaker 1: I don't disagree with that. He does have a little more... Here's the thing, Tuan, I think you'll agree with this. Even if he hasn't shown the.
00:35:31
Speaker 1: The regularity, the consistency, or the level of pop or juice that was thought of when he was such an intriguing prospect, there still is that intrigue, right? Yes, sir. It's very similar. I keep saying, and they wear the same jersey number. Are you a Pacer.
00:35:50
Speaker 3: Fan, Tuan? Oh, yeah, you can say that.
00:35:54
Speaker 1: So Jairus Walker to me is Anthony Richardson. Like you can see it. Like you look at his body, you look at the occasional flashes, and you're like, oh, my gosh, look at that. And then it just goes back into hibernation for long enough where it is super frustrating and you keep waiting for it. But you want to see him out there because you never know when he might hit that pretty three or have a good defensive play or whatever else, and you're like, man, I'd hate to pass on this if there isn't something there because he's still young enough. But in Richardson's case, I appreciate the call, Tawan. My thought simply is that, like Matt was saying, I get it. You want to see if there's something there because before you completely burn it down, you want to cross-check every reference. But if you're Anthony Richardson and you play well and you use this time period to finally show that, yes, you've learned it, you're mature, you've got a better hold of the system, and the skill set is there, or the raw materials are there, he's already requested a trade. And to my understanding, he's never rescinded that trade request. And while I think he appreciates the fact that he's been a good, you know, for the most part, he seemingly has not been vocally inside the locker room, a bad apple. But if he shows something, some other franchise is going to make him an offer, and he's gone. Because they did not pick up his contract. So he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, free to go wherever he wants. And if your girlfriend tells you, you know, I just, the more that we've gone along here, I think maybe we should start seeing other people. Then the second that somebody else comes up and starts talking to you, you're probably like, you know what? It doesn't seem like my girlfriend's completely into this. Paul, what's up, Paul?
00:37:48
Speaker 10: What's up, Jake? How you doing?
00:37:50
Speaker 1: I'm well. I know you're the director of giddiness. What's your level of giddy today?
00:37:58
Speaker 10: I'm giddy that I have a great job that I enjoy. And that you pulled it out on Saturday.
00:38:05
Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough. All right, Colts thoughts?
00:38:09
Speaker 10: I would love to see Anthony Richardson back there. One, he showed yesterday that, you know, when the pocket collapsed and they were coming in on him, he could get away from a the rush and actually do something with his legs. I think he's matured. I think he's grown up, and I think that him sitting back watching and getting humbled beyond belief is going to do great for his career after this, whether it's here or somewhere else. I just think he deserves another chance because he's He's been through it.
00:38:44
Speaker 6: He's sat.
00:38:44
Speaker 10: He's gotten humbled. And I think he's ready to take on this role and show not just the coach but the rest of the league what he can be as a starting quarterback.
00:38:54
Speaker 3: All right.
00:38:55
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, Paul. I don't disagree. I appreciate it. And, yeah, the legs are there for certain. Now, the other thing, too, there's one other aspect of this that we've got to consider. But there are a lot of curveballs that come with it, and I'll explain what I mean next. This is what everybody's yelling to Chris Ballard right now. You did. You started it. You know, the situation that they're in, it's very easy in life in general to always point the finger towards the departed person. And I don't mean somebody who passed. I mean in business. Somebody who's moved on to another job or been fired or whatever else. It's like, has anybody seen, by the way, that, I mean, what is going on? We just overlooked it, and we're looking at the numbers here in the books, and what is going on with our finances in terms of our spending outgo last year? You've got to blame John. He was the one that was supposed to be in charge of budgets, and he left. Even though everybody knows that it was Brian's fault, but we're going to blame John because he's the guy out, and he's not here to defend himself and explain. So that's an easy and perhaps at times even lazy narrative to just automatically point everything at Chris Ballard and be like, his fault, his fault, his fault. There are places of blame all over the place. But you have a situation right now and a large reason why the Colts are in this spot. Think about this. They gave.
00:40:41
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones. A two-year contract for $ 88 million. I think $ 60 of which is guaranteed. Now, of that $ 60 guaranteed, and I just looked this up again to make sure that I'm clear here, he's a $ 19 million cap hit this year. He becomes a $ 46. 8 million cap hit if he's released before the end of next year.
00:41:06
Speaker 3: $ 46. 8.
00:41:06
Speaker 1: Now, That contract, and I understand it. When your owner comes out and says, we're just going to unpause this movie, I'm going to bring back Shane and Chris because they were 8-2, and I liked the way the movie was playing, and then the projector broke, so we just hit pause, and we got the projector fixed, and we're going to unpause it. As soon as she said that, Then Ballard knows, okay, well, I've got to take whatever it's going to take. I've got to get this guy back because he was our quarterback when we were 8-2 and the owner loves him and the way that we were playing and whatever else. But they gave him that money without totally understanding and knowing whether or not he was going to be 100% healthy. And I do believe. Now, like I said, there's no guarantee that if he's healthy that he is automatically back to that rhythm that he was in when they were 8-2. I personally felt last year that the injury, the injury a year ago to Daniel Jones allowed us to not to be spared seeing what we're seeing. And that is that I think he started regressing before the injury happened. And we were on the path for a real disappointment. And then the injury happened. It's like, okay, well now there's reason for why they're going to struggle. But what, nobody seemed to take note of a year ago was you removed the quarterback out of the equation and found out your roster's not very good. So you thought that just like the one quarterback was going to come back and that was going to be the difference, not coming off an Achilles? So that number is really hard to move on from. People that I have no choice but to respect in terms of their placement and understanding of football, and being around it and covering it a long time, are mentioning Daniel Jones as a trade possibility for contending franchises like Minnesota, for example. And I'm like, am I missing something here? What incentive is there to go out and get a guy that you're going to pick up for next year a $ 46 million cap hit if somebody else is to take on that contract? for a guy that I think is still playing through and not 100%. And with an Achilles, you just never know. I don't think the mobility's there. Certainly the speed isn't there. And the sliding and moving around that allowed him to be who he is is not there. Will it come in time?
00:43:54
Speaker 4: Maybe.
00:43:55
Speaker 1: But that's a big investment. But the other thing, the other two aspects that put them in the spot they're in right now, the Alec Pierce contract, which we almost have forgotten about, They gave Alec Pierce that money knowing at the time that he signed the contract, it literally was like, hey, we're going to run by Kinko's and print out this contract so you can sign it. And then it's perfect because there's actually an outpatient surgery place down the street. So once we sign the contract, then we'll go and do your surgery and get the ankle taken care of.
00:44:26
Speaker 13: What?
00:44:29
Speaker 1: Who knows when we see him again? We've completely forgotten about it. And then the last aspect, which is the Anthony Richardson aspect of it, because yes, there might still be intrigue there, but you denied and it was the right decision. I get it. There was no reason to go ahead and pick up the option on his contract. And you had to send that message as well. But I think they really thought when they did that, that they were going to end up trading him. and that it was going to be an intriguing trade for somebody because, hey, we can send you this guy for this year, and he's in the last year in his deal, and then you can re-sign him. And when nobody called, now you're in a position where I understand that everybody wants to see him play, but you didn't pick up the option on his contract. So all you are doing, theoretically, is getting people excited to let him audition to whoever the next franchise is going to be that's going to take on the finalization of that project. the group project. You're doing all the work for the group project so that somebody else can come in and potentially then turn it in for a B. That's where you are. But I guess at the very least, it's like, hey, Anthony Richardson's plan, guess what? Spike those secondary ticket prices up to 28 bucks for Colts Dolphins.
00:45:46
Speaker 5: Right?
00:45:49
Speaker 1: But, and several people, and I'll read the text on the other side here, have another option that seems to be the popular one. I'll explain that, and we'll get into college football next. Busy, busy day in the world of sports here in Central Indiana. Butler and Lafayette tonight, college basketball. 7 o'clock on our sister station, Fuego, pregame at 6.30. It is Indiana and Eastern Illinois in college basketball. That would be Marty Simmons, by the way, the head coach for Eastern Illinois. 7 o'clock over on our sister station, WIBC, pregame at 6. Purdue and Gonzaga getting underway tonight. That is on TNT television and Matt Painter on with J & B. You just heard Caleb mention that in that 38-second promo that he did. And then the Pacers and Hawks tonight, 7.30 start. 7.30 because it's a back-to-back pregame at 7 o'clock here on this radio station.
00:46:44
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:46:45
Speaker 1: Nobody says that.
00:46:47
Speaker 4: Now.
00:46:48
Speaker 1: For the Colts, before we get into college football and the weekend that was, and something I think is interesting on the horizon in college football, I have seen plenty of this. And I agree, by the way, 100% with whoever it is that wrote in and said, Daniel Jones broke his leg three weeks before they announced it.
00:47:09
Speaker 4: Again.
00:47:09
Speaker 3: Again.
00:47:12
Speaker 1: I don't know about three weeks. I think something happened in the Atlanta game overseas last year. But I thought Pittsburgh, when they brought the house at him defensively, exposed his inability to handle heat and pressure. And then Atlanta carried and piggybacked off that. And that's where I think it was his fibula initially. that was compromised, and then that led to the Achilles in Jacksonville. But several people have pointed out that Riley Leonard is their answer. Why not see what's there in Riley Leonard? Let's see what's there in Riley Leonard. I think, and I get it, but that to me feels like, and we see this a lot with the Pacers, and I'm totally victim of this when it comes to the Pacers. Like last year. There are guys that played well, and you're like, you know what? I really like this guy. And we've seen it over the years when there are situations where a guy gets in and gives you quality minutes for a game or two stretch. Micah Potter comes to mind. And I like Micah Potter, right? I'm like, boy, they should really. But then you realize that in big boy, when it matters, in the trenches, stuff. You're like, yeah, that was a nice fill-in piece. O'Shea Brissett. Guys like that. And at the quarterback spot, we've seen that over the years here. Paul Justin.
00:48:47
Speaker 3: Oh, man.
00:48:48
Speaker 1: They went out and played well against Green Bay. Paul Justin. There's your guy. Lindy Infante says, Paul Justin, rest of the year. They're going to hand the keys over to Paul Justin. Kelly Holcomb. Came in and played well against Cleveland. Kelly Holcomb's the guy. Let's just start Kelly Holcomb. But there's a reason why in the beginning of the year, nobody sees these guys more than whether you trust them or not, the coaches, the execs, whatever else. I think Riley Leonard, just from an arm standpoint, is is really limited. And that's the challenge. I think he is the proverbial donut tire. Perfectly sufficient if you need to get to the next exit, but I don't think that he is the long-term solution or answer. And I think that if you try to go that route with it, you find out pretty quickly where things are. Jim joins us at 239-1070. I want to get into college football as well, but let's continue the Colts conversation for the moment. Jim, what's up?
00:49:52
Speaker 9: Hey, I'll be brief. I appreciate everything you do for us, man. You're great at your job. Real quick, I didn't know that the Colts were a farm team because if you look at the performance... Of these players, I'll name five names. Adonai Mitchell, 178 yards, 12 targets. That's last week. Zaire Franklin, leads tackles. Then you have Quinny Paye, six tackles, four QB hits, two sacks in one game. Nick Cross has lean tackler on one game. That's a couple times over the year they've done well. And, you know, we've got all these players that are going to our places. And let's go all the way back to Tom Brady's last year in New England when they won the Super Bowl. They had four traveling guys for the Colts who were their backups, like a John Simon, and they won. So have we turned into a farm team, or do we know yet?
00:50:48
Speaker 1: Here's what's funny about that, Jim. And by the way, Jim, just so we know, are you working today? You got the day off? What's going on today in Jim's life?
00:50:55
Speaker 9: I'm retired, man, so I can do some things or not, but I wanted to listen to you this morning.
00:51:00
Speaker 1: Well, and I very much appreciate that, but based on your kind words about me, I wondered if you weren't day drinking. But it is very much appreciated, right? I do appreciate it. And you make a really good point, Jim, that I've thought a lot about myself, because when you look at those players, then you wonder, In fact, were they properly assessed coming out when they were acquired by Indianapolis and then just not developed? Or is it not that they weren't developed, but rather they were miscast and they were trying to utilize them in a system totally different than what would be advantageous for them here? Because you are correct that we are now seeing repeated examples of players that as soon as they get out of here, they blossom.
00:51:45
Speaker 3: Now, A.D.
00:51:45
Speaker 1: Mitchell's case, to be fair, everybody in town after multiple boneheaded plays were done with him. And, you know, maybe he just needed time to grow up a little bit. But yes, Quiddie Paye is a good example. I mean, there are others, right? There are certainly others. Who is the one? Eddie, help me out here. I can't believe I just spaced on the name. Who was the defensive tackle that went to the Titans that suddenly became a player as well, like three or four years ago?
00:52:14
Speaker 6: Danico Autry, the defensive lineman?
00:52:16
Speaker 1: Thank you. Danico Autry. That's another one, right? They kind of gave up on him. Then he goes there, and it's like, oh, man, there's something there. Jay, 239-1070. What's up, Jay?
00:52:29
Speaker 14: Oh, yeah. What's going on? I just want to say this, man. A lot of people don't realize that Anthony Richardson has actually had a winning record, and he hasn't played since 2024, so.
00:52:43
Speaker 14: You know, I think between that time, like one of your callers said, he had time to sit back, watch the game, you know, mature. And I do believe strongly that if he's given the opportunity to finish out the season as the co-starting quarterback, man, that he's going to raise some eyes, you know, and people are going to be like, wow, man. And like what you said, he could just– decide to say, hey, man, I got a whole lot of teams interested in me, and Indianapolis, the way they did me, I think I can do them now.
00:53:16
Speaker 1: And that's the one thing, right, is, listen, I would love to see it for him. I'd love to see him get an opportunity to show that he's grown up and he's learned and all of those things. The question is, in the business aspect of it, in a personal aspect of it, you'd be happy for the guy. From a business aspect, and this is a business, DeForest Buckner is in San Francisco and Quentin Nelson is in Seattle because this is a business. And in the business aspect of it, if he comes out and plays well, it helps the Colts long-term?
00:53:50
Speaker 3: None.
00:53:52
Speaker 1: Because if you're Anthony Richardson, assuming that if he plays well that there are going to be teams that have interest in him, then you would be best served to basically follow what we were just talking about previously. what Jim was saying, and that is, hey, I'll just join the list of players that go and leave here and blossom elsewhere. Rounding us out on the phone call segments here will be Ray. Ray, what's up?
00:54:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, you there with me?
00:54:25
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:54:25
Speaker 1: What's up?
00:54:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is Brian. My name is Brian, not Ray, but that's all right.
00:54:29
Speaker 1: Oh, that's all right. Sorry about that.
00:54:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think our problem is our business acumen, man. You know, we give away Quentin Nelson for, and if they say a third and a fourth round pick, it's not a third and a fourth round pick. It's a fourth and a fifth round pick. And we give away DeForest Buckner for a fifth round pick. Those are two teams we're going to draft last and they say we wouldn't do anything about it. Anthony Richardson is the youngest quarterback in the NFL still today. He never got a chance to develop. We spent– now, not only did we spend $ 80 million on Daniel Jones, not only did we spend $ 50 million, made him the highest-paid wide receiver Alex Pierce, not only did we give two number-one draft picks away for Saltz Gardner, we have a management problem. We have an ownership problem. Forget the players. Fire all of our management. Have Kyle Hersey sell the team to somebody else. That's our problem. Time after time again, we're asked to pay premium prices for a subpar product. Anthony Richardson, the number four overall draft pick, never had a chance in hell to do anything in Indianapolis. So we just not only forget about it because we're going to give him away anyway, give the kid a chance to prove that at least we were right drafting number four.
00:55:47
Speaker 1: Ray, let me ask you something.
00:55:49
Speaker 4: Yes, sir.
00:55:50
Speaker 1: What line of work are you in?
00:55:51
Speaker 4: I run a construction company.
00:55:55
Speaker 1: Because here's the thing. Now, when you say a construction company, are you building buildings, roads, bridges?
00:56:01
Speaker 4: I run a company called Leaf Filter. I install gutter protection on people's homes.
00:56:06
Speaker 1: Okay. Because you could, and I don't need gutter protection, but if you told me that you were going to build patios and decks, I would have you come tomorrow and do it. And I'm being serious when I say this. Clearly, I think you have an understanding how to build things. Clearly. Because I totally, totally, totally agree with everything you just said. And in terms of Richardson, the one area, Ray, where if I'm doing it on a pushback here, there is some of the Richardson misstep I think that we have to say was on him, right? I do think that I don't disagree with you that they pulled the plug maybe too early on it, but some of that was precipitated by his own action or inaction. But everything else you said in terms of the way that they have handled their money, the way that they've handled their selections, the way that they have basically just put eggs in baskets before they even knew if the basket was strong enough to hold the eggs, I totally agree with everything you said. And for that reason, Ray... I think it's entirely possible that Carly Ursae Gordon is going to treat the front office the way you treat gutters, and that is cleaning all the way through until it is spotless.
00:57:26
Speaker 3: Right?
00:57:27
Speaker 4: It would be her best thing that she could do. How does Shane Steichen still have a job? And that's the question. I know we're getting off topic, but how does he still have a job?
00:57:38
Speaker 1: I think Shane Steichen still has a job at this point because, and it's a great question, Ray, and I appreciate the call. Certainly appreciate it. If you go back and you look at when Carly Orsay Gordon did an interview when she first kind of ascended into the primary owner, I mean, after the passing of her father, and she said, based on precedent, that the one thing that she learned in observing, remember the notepad, was that it doesn't work when you get a general manager and a head coach that are starting at the exact same timeline. And I think what she was referencing there, people are going to think she's talking about Ballard and Steichen. I think what she's referencing is she witnessed the dysfunction that took place with Ryan Grigson and Chuck Pagano and her father's decision to extend both of them at the same time. They both came in at the same time. And so because they were supposed to, by design, work step by step, The proper chain of command, I think, was not necessarily there in place because literally there were two guys that bounced into each other in the hallway carrying in their boxes and sat them down and said, oh, hi, nice to meet you. And they started at the same time. And so everything was supposed to work, quote, attached at the hip. And for that reason, I think for her, she is looking at it saying, if I fire Shane Steichen right now, then whatever general manager I bring in, theoretically, It's going to be seen as the general manager and the head coach, same thing all over again. And I think it's very important for her to bring in a GM and let that GM then organically make those moves so it is very clear the proper pecking order and chain of command. And I realize rhetorically you're asking the question, but I do think that that goes a long way. Now, we may find out between now and when John's on the air that Shane Steichen's out of a job. But I do think it's possible that Shane Steichen rides out the year because I look at it the same way I do with Anthony Richardson. And that is, what is the gain for this season right now? Even though, when you look at it, you're like, wait a minute. You keep thinking in the back of your mind. I guess at this point, you're better off just playing for the draft pick. And they're like, oh, that's right. It goes to New York. Every possible scenario that the Colts are facing right now They're in that position because when it came time to prepare, they made the wrong decision. And therefore, every scenario you look at, whether it's quarterback, whether it's head coach, whether it's general manager, whether it's draft picks, all of it, every single one of them, they're in that situation because the previous chess move, they made the wrong move and checkmated themselves. I mean, that's kind of where they are. College football over the weekend, Did you watch, Eddie, the Indiana-Minnesota game? I'll ask again. Eddie, did you happen to watch the Indiana-Minnesota game?
01:00:34
Speaker 6: Yeah, sorry. I was working on something.
01:00:36
Speaker 1: That's okay. Am I the only one that thought it? First off, let's go back to this. I know that there's a lot of talk about Kurt Cignetti and the timeout at the end of that game and where he may have erred. And it's not often. I mean, a year ago with Indiana, a year ago with Indiana, Indiana made literally zero mistakes. You didn't see timely or untimely penalties. This team, from a coaching standpoint and from an X's and O's standpoint, Indiana hit everything correctly a year ago. They pushed every correct button. And it feels to me like this year, even though they are winning because they're very talented and they're very good, some of the areas where they seemingly were always having the right answer a year ago, they're starting to show a little bit more self-inflicted vulnerability. And that includes from a coaching standpoint. And I know that's probably blasphemous to say about Kurt Cignetti, who is clearly the elite of the elite in coaching. But he started to make a couple of questions that they've survived, but in tighter games or bigger moments, even though there's not much bigger moment than when you're at a home game and homecoming and you're on national television. Yeah, I get all that, but you get what I'm saying. I thought they dodged a couple of bullets is what I'm getting at, and they are bullets that if they're playing in, say, a playoff game, you're not going to survive that. But that's part of why you go through the– the schedule and everything in general, and you survive those things and you move on. But I thought, and I heard no one mention this, and maybe I'm, I mean, it wouldn't be the first time I've been a moron, but when Minnesota hit the 60-yard field goal to presumably win the game, the one area that surprised me is that they didn't squib it.
01:02:43
Speaker 2: Because then all you do if you're Indiana is you fall on it. You don't try to return it.
01:02:49
Speaker 1: No, but if you.
01:02:52
Speaker 1: No, but you fall on it until you're touched, right? No, you're down in college. Once one knee's down, you're down. Okay. Because... But they kicked it. If I'm not mistaken, Indiana took the touchback, right? Either way?
01:03:06
Speaker 4: Yes.
01:03:07
Speaker 2: So no time would have come off the clock.
01:03:10
Speaker 1: So I guess, where did he kick it? I can't recall. Where did he kick it to? Was it a flat-out touchback or was it a non-return?
01:03:17
Speaker 6: It was a touchback.
01:03:20
Speaker 1: So, okay, at that point, so then don't you kick it? You see what I'm saying? Like, why would you not kick it then to, like, the 10 and force Indiana to try to either return it or take a knee and then have to go that way?
01:03:31
Speaker 6: So a shorter kick, not a squib kick.
01:03:34
Speaker 1: No, a long– yes, a shorter kick as opposed to through the end zone, yes. What I'm saying is I thought that they just went through the routine on a touchback there without– forcing Indiana the possibility to burn because as it turns out three seconds was the difference or two seconds was the difference right I thought Minnesota kind of misplayed at the end there because they were under the assumption the game was over and when you have Charlie Becker the game's not over because I mean it was a great catch that he made now I also believe from Indiana's standpoint.
01:04:11
Speaker 2: They also did not kick to Indiana at any point in the game. I think they were worried about the return game for Indiana.
01:04:17
Speaker 1: But in the end, though, on that last play, I mean, I get you want Indiana to have to do some return and burn clock, right?
01:04:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I haven't watched enough Minnesota Golden Gopher football to tell you if they're good or not in coverage on kickoffs.
01:04:31
Speaker 1: Well, but I mean, what are the odds you're going to give up?
01:04:33
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, if it's been an issue for you all season long on kickoff coverage, I would probably avoid it because that's something that Indiana has had success in in the one area on special teams is their kickoff returns.
01:04:45
Speaker 1: But again, I will maintain it. I thought Minnesota played too conservative, if you will, there towards the end as if to assume that Probably like most of us did. I mean, you saw plenty of people that were like, oh my gosh, Indiana just got beat on a 60-yard field goal because what are the odds that you're going to see back-to-back 60-yard field goals? I mean, like I said, it's never happened in the history of football, collegiately or professionally, either one. But now for Indiana, what time do they play on Saturday? Do you know, Eddie?
01:05:19
Speaker 6: They're off this week. They're idle.
01:05:21
Speaker 1: They're idle and then they've got USC, right?
01:05:23
Speaker 6: Correct.
01:05:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's okay. So, So USC, with that game on Saturday, and I watched the very end of it with USC and Ohio State, I thought USC, I really did think to myself, Indiana is now in position where they're going to win out, right? And I thought Minnesota played very well. And for Indiana, the real advantage they have here with the bye week is the fact that And I was uncomfortable with people that were booing Josh Hoover. And I get you're not booing necessarily the person individually, but just the disappointment of what you're seeing. I don't know this. I'm not telling you something that someone told me. But just in watching it, I'm like 99.9% certain in saying this. He's hurt. It's not that he forgot how to throw or that he's just a wildly inefficient quarterback. I think he has. Now, I'm going to make a comparison to a 50-year-old guy, and I'm not a leading the country and passing efficiency level Division I quarterback. But I'll never forget, last May, I was in a park, and there was a guy hitting tennis balls, like against the wall. And one of his tennis balls went errant, and it came down towards where I was, and I picked it up to throw it back to him. And I haven't thrown a baseball or a football or anything, and it's not like I regularly go out and play pitch and catch. But I went to throw the ball, and I'm like, oh, my gosh. I threw the tennis ball 20% the distance I used to be able to throw a tennis ball, and I felt this really bad pain. Well, since then, I've learned that I had basically scarring in my rotator cuff. For that reason, I could not move my arm in a full rotation without my body naturally stopping, and that's why I couldn't throw the ball to the level of velocity that I've been used to my entire life. I think if you look at Josh Hoover and the reason that he is sailing the ball over, he is overthrowing or he's throwing high, it's because his release point is earlier because I think he has a shoulder injury where he cannot oscillate his arm all the way through. And so maybe, and I have no idea if that is a season-long injury or something that like with a week of rest and ice comes back. I have no idea. And I don't even know definitively that's what he has, but it certainly looks that way to me. And then he got obviously hit, and that's when they made the change in the move. But I think he's hurt. I think he's hurt, and we'll see whether or not they go back to him. And I think the reason Kurt Cignetti was slow in making that change is because Cignetti also, I think, knew that he was hurt and knew what the limitation was, but felt that was still their better option. And then the other question becomes... By USC beating Ohio State, I'll ask you this real quick, Eddie. Is Ohio State out?
01:08:23
Speaker 6: I think so.
01:08:24
Speaker 1: Do they have to play their way back in?
01:08:26
Speaker 6: Well, it would take a miracle.
01:08:28
Speaker 2: They would be needing a loss from Indiana because they would need to be tied with IU in the Big Ten standings.
01:08:34
Speaker 6: Right now it's Indiana and Ohio State.
01:08:38
Speaker 1: Or UCLA. Yeah, I know. Ohio State has the tiebreaker over Indiana.
01:08:43
Speaker 2: That's why I said that they need to be tied with Indiana in the Big Ten standings to make it to the Big Ten championship, and they would have to win.
01:08:49
Speaker 1: See, I think they're still in. I think they're still in because they have one conference loss and two total losses, but both of those were against teams that were at the time of loss in the top five on the road.
01:09:00
Speaker 4: Jake.
01:09:00
Speaker 2: Well, I'm sorry, USC's not top five. Without Julian saying, Jake, I think they have to win the conference. They have to win the Big Ten championship in order to get in.
01:09:09
Speaker 1: So you think if they get to the Big Ten title game and lose that game, they're out. That's probably realistic.
01:09:15
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:09:16
Speaker 1: But then again, nobody else is necessarily season control, right? I mean, every week, like, there is so much parity right now amongst the top 12. Like, who's the best team in the country? Is it Miami?
01:09:28
Speaker 2: I think the Big Ten is a two-bid league if Indiana makes it to the Big Ten championship. If Indiana does not, then it's a one-bid league.
01:09:36
Speaker 1: Okay. But Indiana, assuming that if Indiana, UCLA, and Ohio State all went out, Indiana does not go to the Big Ten title game, right? If Indiana and Ohio State both have one loss, Ohio State gets in over Indiana and takes on UCLA.
01:09:52
Speaker 6: I think it would depend on Julian Sand.
01:09:56
Speaker 1: If Ohio State wins out and gets, all I'm saying is this, regardless of the college football playoff, if Ohio State wins out up to the Big Ten title game, then they go to the Big Ten title game, correct?
01:10:08
Speaker 13: Yes.
01:10:10
Speaker 6: Same for Indiana.
01:10:12
Speaker 1: No, not accurate. If Ohio State and Indiana both.
01:10:16
Speaker 6: That's what I said. If they both went out, Ohio State's in over Indiana, yes.
01:10:19
Speaker 1: Oh, in over. I thought you said same for Indiana. Yeah, you're correct. Mike Chappell, by the way, back to the Colts conversation, joins us next. Colts yesterday, and again, if you're just joining the program... Where have you been? I looked it up yesterday. In the totality of Peyton Manning's time as an Indianapolis Colt, they had two wins. Two-a. By 35 points or more. They had a 36-point win over the recently expanded Houston Texans. I think in year three for the Texans. That was a 35-point win. And they had a 36-point win over the New Orleans Saints down in the Superdome. That should tell you how lopsided that was yesterday in every way, shape, or form. Mike Chappell joins us now from CBS4 and WXA on Fox 59. On the Game Day Men's Health guest line, Chap, I will begin with this. If you had to forecast it, will we hear any sort of breaking news regarding the Colts and front office and or coaching decisions? Not front office, I guess, because we've already had that. But will there be changes between now and their next outing?
01:11:40
Speaker 5: I would say no because it normally happens first thing Monday because as much as people don't want to think about it, there are still games to be played. And if you're going to fire your head coach, well, you've got to start the preparation for Sunday. So the same for the defensive coordinator if you want to go that route. Also, let's be honest. It's not going to matter. Changing anybody is not going to matter. It'll appease people. I don't know whether we've reached the point that the players have tuned out Shane Steichen. If they have, shame on them. They've done nothing to earn turning people off. So never say never. But it's funny, as I say that, I keep glancing at my phone, refreshing, because you never know. But they normally meet. Jim sometimes, when he was really PO'd, they would meet Sunday night because he wanted to let everybody know that he wasn't happy. I get the impression now they meet in the morning and, you know, they met with Shane last week and he was okay. So, yeah, I think we're okay, but I keep refreshing as we talk.
01:13:02
Speaker 1: Chap, give me an area– with this franchise right now. This year's over. And it was over the second that they made those two trades because the rest of the locker room, what we saw yesterday, what we saw yesterday was the players themselves took those trades with the same messaging as the rest of us. And they know it's over. Okay? Give me the one area, if any. If I'm a Colts season ticket holder and I'm putting my hard-earned money into it, to go down to games, and I'm looking forward to it, and I'm like, you know what, I get that this year's a wash, but now there's next year. Give me the area where I should be optimistic. What's the one area where they seem to have covered that base and they're in good shape?
01:13:52
Speaker 5: Special teams. Rigo's still a quality punter, and Luke Rhodes is a quality snapper, and until two weeks ago, Schrader was perfect, and I'm reaching. No, I don't know where. Offensive line, well, you got rid of Quentin, which made sense on every level.
01:14:12
Speaker 1: I would agree.
01:14:14
Speaker 5: And it's a young offensive line. You don't go to games to watch the evolution of the offensive line. You don't. Defensive line, I thought Shane really had to reach to credit. I think he did it for a reason. When he praised Caden Curry for playing his frigging balls off, I think that was the case of him saying, this guy's out there laying it on the line. What are you doing? So C.J. Allen, I thought he played well and he's going to play more and more and more. But I don't know what else. And people have to understand that, I mean, don't you think Jonathan Taylor is gone? I don't understand. I've never understood. It's never made sense to me that you want him to be part of your rebuild.
01:15:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, there is not a single– I hate to say this, Chap, because he's a wonderful player and seemingly a really nice guy. But when it comes to Jonathan Taylor, he's a victim of circumstance around here, and that is that their circumstance is if they're moving forward– This is not a team that's moving forward of, Hey, next year we'll get everybody healthy. No, this is a complete rebuild. It's not a reset. It's a rebuild. And in that capacity, based on timelines, he brings you no value. And that's crazy to say.
01:15:40
Speaker 5: And you've wasted his career anyway.
01:15:42
Speaker 1: Right.
01:15:43
Speaker 5: I'm still, I always point to, you know how hard it is to have a running back rush for 1800 yards and 20 some touchdowns and you not make the playoffs, which they did. Uh, So, yeah, I don't know. You know, desperation and as a deadline nears, his price will go up, I suppose. But if you can get a two and a, what, four? I don't know. I would take it. I don't think you're going to get a one for Jonathan Taylor. And if they do, kudos. Kudos for that. And I don't understand what they did yesterday with Taylor. He had eight carries and a couple of catches. And I don't understand why, yes, the game got out of hand. I understand that. But either play him or don't play him. I didn't understand how they used him like they did. And every time a running back's on the field, there's a chance of getting hurt, which every player runs at risk. But this is your one commodity that can, and I hate to sound like a cold-hearted NFL type, but he's an asset and you risk that asset by playing him. So I don't understand what they were doing.
01:16:57
Speaker 1: Chap, I would even say yesterday's game didn't even get out of hand because to make that statement would indicate that it was in their hand at some point.
01:17:05
Speaker 5: It was 7-0 until they did that funky thing with Taylor and Downs and whatever that play was going to be.
01:17:12
Speaker 1: That play, listen, that play, there is no– remember back in the day, Chap, when they used to come out with a DVD of like the Colts season in review and it was like the highlight season that they'd sent out– They don't need to do that anymore. Just send that play. Here is your 2026 Colts encapsulated in one moment. You got the guy that requested a trade with a football on the ground and he decides to dive in the opposite direction. You got the running back they've completely overused that didn't know exactly what he was supposed to do on the trickery. And you got Daniel Jones that wonders what the hell he's even doing out there to begin with, watching and observing all of this with an offensive line that's breaking down in general and can't get back over the football line. When they tried trickery and it didn't work. It was the perfect encapsulation of their year.
01:17:57
Speaker 5: Well, once JT stumbled, the play's over.
01:18:00
Speaker 3: Right.
01:18:00
Speaker 5: Go down and all that.
01:18:03
Speaker 1: But they can't even execute the cover-up of a screw-up correctly.
01:18:07
Speaker 5: Right.
01:18:08
Speaker 3: Well, yes.
01:18:10
Speaker 5: And the more players they get rid of, JT, Josh Downs, I mean, when a player so obviously doesn't want to be here, I don't know whether I want to trade him or make him endure the rest of the season. I don't know. But I tell you, and one thing that's kind of under the radar, Jacksonville lost a really good run-stuffing tackle yesterday. Grover Stewart, I'd just leave you down in Jacksonville and have them send me a draft pick. I would do that in a heartbeat. I don't care.
01:18:44
Speaker 1: If it isn't... Because he's on a contract here as well, right?
01:18:47
Speaker 5: He's done what... He's expiring contracts.
01:18:49
Speaker 1: So he could be their Booger McFarlane, right? You just get him and.
01:18:52
Speaker 3: Right.
01:18:52
Speaker 1: Now, Jack, for what reason? Because I've heard this a lot. Mike Chappell's my guest, CBS4 and WXA and Fox 59 on the Gain Day Men's Health Guest Line. I keep hearing, and I don't know where this is coming from.
01:19:04
Speaker 4: All of.
01:19:04
Speaker 1: Like, Minnesota supposedly has this interest in Daniel Jones, and I'm going... what am I missing here? What, why would you a take on that contract and B what has he possibly shown other than they're looking at it? They're going, maybe he's 80 Mitchell. Maybe he's quitty pay. Maybe he's Danico Autry. Maybe he's a player like all of them that seemingly once they get out of here, they find this new juice of life in the fountain of youth. What possibility would there be of intrigue for somebody to save the Colts from Daniel Jones?
01:19:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's, uh, like Washington did with Carson Wentz. Uh, Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Again, Kevin O'Connell, he's the quarterback whisperer, and they just traded J.D. McCarthy. So I don't know what's going on there. I think Kyler Murray's a problem there, but I don't even remotely see Daniel Jones being part of the solution. And if he is, you can drive him up there in, what, eight hours, ten hours? So I would do that in a heartbeat, and I don't care what the compensation is because they're taking the contract. Yeah, that's why, again, I've always said there's four or five guys I trust nationally, the insiders. Some are just throwing spaghetti on the wall and see if it sticks. So that's one that's crazy. We're going to get Shane Steichen at 220 or whatever. That's the plan. And the only question, I guess two questions, in retrospect watching the video, did your team quit yesterday?
01:20:42
Speaker 1: No, they never started.
01:20:44
Speaker 5: Well, I'm talking effort. And doggone effort, you play 17 games. Effort is like signing your name to your test score. At least do that. But also, what are you doing at quarterback? And I don't know that he's going to give us an answer. I won't be surprised if they stick with Daniel Jones but say, really stress he's got to play better.
01:21:10
Speaker 1: Okay, what benefit is there for the Colts for Anthony Richardson to take over the reins and play well?
01:21:16
Speaker 5: Entertainment value? I don't know. It makes more sense to start Riley Leonard to see what you've got. But to do that, you've got to elevate him to number two and demote somebody to three. So it's, it's, it's a bunch of bad options. And I think Joel Erickson might've mentioned this yesterday. I wasn't in Minneapolis, but he apparently like these last nine games, these are preseason games.
01:21:46
Speaker 6: Yeah.
01:21:47
Speaker 5: That's what the fan base is going to be watching. And it's, it's, that's, that's the issue when, when Carly Ursae Gordon pulls the plug, which she did. When she traded Buck and Nelson.
01:22:00
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, here's my one-man pilgrimage. And if you want in on it, we can make it a two-man effort, okay?
01:22:05
Speaker 5: I don't know if I want to be side-by-side with you.
01:22:09
Speaker 1: But listen, I think you'll like this one. You ready?
01:22:11
Speaker 5: All right, I'm ready.
01:22:13
Speaker 1: Now, we have to make sure, by the long-range forecast, that there is no precipitation between here and Boise, because we know there's no drainage system inside Lucas Oil Stadium. But November 29th, when the New York Giants come calling... You got, you know, it's festive weekend. It's the end of the month. Let's make it interesting. Let's make it interesting. Roof and window open, baby. Outdoor football. Get John Facinda to narrate it, talking about the frigid temperatures of Lucas Oil. And you get the Giants and the Colts, and let's slug it out, baby. Let's go for win number three, and let's do it while rocking it old school like we're at Riverfront Stadium watching Ken Anderson hand off to Pete Johnson. Let's go, right?
01:22:58
Speaker 5: God, if they're going for their third win, wow. Because you've got Miami in there coming up. Of course, Miami's got this game circle on their calendar, too. That's a sad. Philly?
01:23:09
Speaker 1: Miami might tank it just because Miami actually does have a first-round position to play for, right?
01:23:15
Speaker 4: I know.
01:23:16
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's why everything is– they're in such a bad way. That's why whatever I can get drafted. I'll tell you one thing. I don't care if I get like six round draft picks. I don't care. I think past the fifth round, you're just throwing darts. Now, if you want to get a bunch of draft picks to move up, fine.
01:23:37
Speaker 1: We don't even know who's going to be drafting for them. We don't even know who's going to be coaching who they draft.
01:23:42
Speaker 5: I don't care who's drafting. I don't want 15 draft picks if seven of them Or in the sixth and seventh round. I really don't.
01:23:51
Speaker 1: Outdoor football, baby. That's the answer. Outdoor football. Colts, Giants, old school. I'm telling you right now.
01:23:59
Speaker 5: I was wondering where you were going when you mentioned Boise, Idaho. I didn't think we were going to walk to Boise and protest.
01:24:05
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you. I'm telling you. All right, chap. We'll see what happens over the course. Keep refreshing that phone. And if something breaks, if something happens, I know you'll be there for us. Appreciate it.
01:24:16
Speaker 5: Be well, guys.
01:24:17
Speaker 1: All right, Mike Chappell joining us, CBS4, WXAN, Fox 59. We come back. Did you say Don's in or out, Eddie? Do we know yet?
01:24:23
Speaker 4: He's in.
01:24:24
Speaker 1: Don Fisher will join us about 40 minutes from now, recapping not only Indiana in football as they get ready for a bye week, but basketball season, Hoosiers in action. Tonight, we'll do that in 40 minutes. Now, I'd like to announce the disclaimer here that it's a little bit gloomy out. It's kind of a rough weather start to November here. But that's not to say that there's not a ton to be thankful for in the month of Thanksgiving. We can be thankful that Indiana is 8-1 after surviving what was a fabulous finish against Minnesota. We can be thankful that.
01:25:12
Speaker 3: The....
01:25:14
Speaker 1: Even though Purdue football has kind of come up the rails here a little bit, at least offensively they played well and that their basketball program starts tonight against Gonzaga. We can be thankful that Indiana basketball gets underway tonight. You can hear that beginning of pregame, 6 o'clock here on our sister station, WIBC, against Eastern Illinois. Or that the Pacers get a chance tonight to bounce back after last night's total debacle in keeping with the sports theme of Indianapolis teams yesterday. against the Hawks at 7 o'clock, 7.30 tonight, pregame at 7, because it's a back-to-back, so they start at 7.30, or that Butler is playing tonight against Lafayette, 7 o'clock on our Cistertation Fuego with pregame at 6.30. But at the same time, we can also have, with all of that, even though with this gloom in terms of the weather and the bright spots... At least we have something to talk about today in terms of just getting things off our chest. And I got fired up about it at the beginning of the show earlier, and I'm going to do my best to, in a more succinct and calm fashion, reiterate to you some of my frustrations of both franchises in this town.
01:26:35
Speaker 4: Next.
01:26:37
Speaker 3: Hi there.
01:26:37
Speaker 1: Good afternoon to you. My name is Jake Query. Eddie Garrison, the other voice you hear on this program.
01:26:41
Speaker 4: Hello.
01:26:42
Speaker 1: We call it Query and Company here on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan. And certainly all of you within the company, I appreciate each and every day you are listening to this program. I appreciate the messages over the course of the weekend and interacting with everybody. It is truly, it is a privilege. Especially that fella.
01:27:03
Speaker 6: About the Pacers game.
01:27:05
Speaker 1: What's that?
01:27:05
Speaker 6: Especially the fella asking you about the Pacers game.
01:27:08
Speaker 1: There was a guy that was very concerned as to why Shannon was not with me at the Pacer game last night. She was feeling... Last night or Friday? This was last night. Last night's game. She was with me on Friday at the game. But she opted out yesterday. But it is a privilege to be able to discuss sports each and every day here in my hometown.
01:27:32
Speaker 4: And.
01:27:32
Speaker 1: I am well aware.
01:27:38
Speaker 1: Of the passion that people in this town have for sports. Matter of fact, I look forward to speaking about exactly that in the introduction for a program with the Indiana Sports Corps coming up on Wednesday. And so because I have this incredible passion about sports here and wanting to see this city succeed in so many ways, I may be like this hopeless romantic about the teams here. Not in the way of being a homer, but I try to limit my vocal frustration so that it doesn't just become... If you did it all the time and you didn't try to navigate your way through and be reasonable about things, then it loses its oomph when you as a listener can say, okay, this moment, be really bad because this isn't the typical form, so to speak. So I try my hardest, even when times I'm frustrated, to not let it show all the time because I try to have a level of objectivity. And for that reason, I went into yesterday's Colts game not optimistic, but curiously realistic. I thought to myself, you know what? Maybe the Colts sent a message. Maybe this was 6-D chess. Maybe the Colts are actually far smarter as an organization than I have given them credit.
01:29:32
Speaker 6: Have you attempted to play that game?
01:29:35
Speaker 1: 6D chess?
01:29:35
Speaker 6: Yeah.
01:29:36
Speaker 1: You know, chess, just even the 1D chess, I tried to play it once in Washington Square Park in New York City and it was over before it began. I'm sure the 6D is probably six times the degree of difficulty, right?
01:29:51
Speaker 6: Probably.
01:29:52
Speaker 1: And I went into the game saying, okay, Let's see where the chips fall. Show me what you can do. They traded DeForest Buckner. They traded Quentin Nelson. Two pillars of this franchise. Maybe that sent the message. Maybe they were really smart because they knew they were going to rebuild anyway, and so they were sending the message to the rest of the roster. If these guys can be traded, then what does that mean for you? And maybe that meant that they were going to go out there and play at a level with an intensity that none of us could have possibly imagined. Maybe that's what they were thinking. That's what I told myself. And then it happened. They secured, they justified, and they finalized all thoughts anybody could have had That they were trying to stave in the sake of being optimistic. That yesterday was a joke. That was a joke. That was an embarrassment. That was a shame. And it was a sham. That was a franchise that indeed got the message. They got the message loud and clear from the owner. They got the message loud and clear from the interim general manager. And the message was simple that they received. That entire locker room got the message that we all knew in the back of our minds but didn't want to admit because we were trying to talk ourselves into the excitement of being able to go and have to watch this team every Sunday from here on out. And the message they received was, it's over. It's over. Professional athletes aren't dumb. Professional athletes are not only competitors, but they also have a pride about it. But at the same time, when they see that message of the two pillars of the franchise being traded, then what they know is this is not a retool. They are blowing this thing up. They're blowing it up. And if that's how they feel about this team and if this organization has already punted on this season, and it's their right to do so, and I'm not saying it's the wrong approach, but for right now, for the rest of this season, it's over. It's over. Welcome, welcome to nine games of exhibition football. Welcome to it. And the encapsulating play, for me, happened when the Colts were down 7-0. They were down 7-0, and you thought, you know what? It's Halloween weekend. Let's reach into the bag of treats, and let's try to trick them. We're going to try to trick Jacksonville, and we're going to treat the audience to an exciting play of sweeping around and having our running back, who's our one bright spot, and a guy that's capable of running for 1,800 yards in a non-playoff season. Let's have him sweep around, and then what we'll do is we'll do a little trickery, and we'll get it to our open space guy, the guy that said he wants to be traded, that has no interest in being here, but we'll have him make a play for us. And we'll do all of that with our non-mobile quarterback that we're putting out there, even though everybody can tell now that he's still injured and he has no mobility whatsoever and has no accuracy at all and is starting to look actually like, once we took the mask of Halloween that he's wearing, that he's actually the same quarterback that New York gave up on. This will be exciting. And you know what? Like everything else they've done for the last half dozen years, they fumbled it and they screwed the whole thing up and wet themselves. And when they did, Josh Downs, the wide receiver that wants out, his last name might be Downs, but guess what? When the ball's on the field, guess where he ain't going? Down after it. Because why would you? That means that you have effort. That yesterday was an abomination of everything that you ask out of your fans. You've been asked, dig a little deeper, show a little more heart, be there for the shoe. And everybody in this town has given up on that team. Everyone. We didn't talk about it. And we still were pretending that maybe there was a full-size candy bar within the remaining nine games. But no. What we know is actually it's just a big, huge bag of that black and orange wax, whatever it is, peanut butter toffee candy that nobody wants. That's what's in the remaining bag for the Colts this year. And that effort was abysmal. And then afterwards, I thought to myself, you know what? I'll give Shane Steichen a little bit of benefit of the doubt here because they completely undercut him. If Shane Steichen feels like he can rally the troops, if he can get out there and give that Normandale speech, I don't care what the scoreboard says in my book, we're going to be winners. Or maybe he was going to go in and give his very best. Miracle speech. You were born to be players. Your time is now. Maybe that's what he was going to do. But he looked over that locker room and he had to be, in the back of his mind, aware that he was looking over a locker room of a bunch of guys that were looking around and they were seeing the captains on both sides of the football that had commanded that locker room jettisoned out to greener pastures. And instead of saying, gosh, if they can get rid of them, what are they going to do for me? I'm going to play harder. It was a locker room that said, clearly the year's over for them. So yeah, at least I get a free trip to Florida, even though Jacksonville kind of isn't that and it's raining. That's how it looked. But I was going to go and say Shane Steichen, they undercut him. They took the juice away from him because of the message they sent. So I was curious to see what he would say after the game. And then I heard it. And it was this.
01:36:40
Speaker 7: All start off, open up. Flat out wasn't good enough. Got outplayed, got outcoached in all three phases. We have a lot to fix. I've been saying that for a while. But I understand that in this league, it's freaking hard. And you've got to find ways to win games. And you've got to find ways to get out of holes. And right now, we're not doing that good enough. And we've got to be better at that.
01:37:00
Speaker 1: You can't see me right now because it's radio, but you might be able to hear.
01:37:06
Speaker 6: Hands over eyes.
01:37:07
Speaker 1: I've got my hands over my eyes. What are we doing here? I am so tired of hearing about how we've got to fix things and clean them up and we've got to do it quickly. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. Do you have a DeLorean? Do you have a DeLorean, please? Shane Steichen? Ed Dodds, do you got a DeLorean? You got a large cable that goes to the clock tower? Because we need 1.21 gigawatts because the only way that you're going to turn this around and do it quickly is to go 88 miles an hour and go back in time because it's too late, brother. It's over. It's over. You can't sit here and tell me over and over and over. And I like Shane Steigen. I think he's a nice guy and I think he's a very good offensive football coach.
01:37:50
Speaker 3: But.
01:37:52
Speaker 1: Even though I think they undercut him, the reality is don't sit here and tell me you got to get this fixed and you got to get it fixed now. No, it's over. You needed to get it fixed in like 2023. It's the same old crap over and over and over. At the very least, if we're going to go back and party like it's 1985, can we play BTO and give out Johnny Coach Kroger posters? Because that's where we are. Hey, are we going to go out and put out our veteran quarterback that we thought was going to be the answer and then we found out that we actually overpaid and gave him an inflated contract?
01:38:29
Speaker 4: Or.
01:38:30
Speaker 1: are we going to go out and put out the young guy that we drafted that everything was hinged upon and then we pulled the plug probably too early or never gave him resources because we want to blame it on one helmet tap and now here we are and we're stuck and what is the path going forward? What is it? Now, Maybe, maybe it was just a matter of effort. And if it comes to effort, if the coach can't inspire anybody, and if the message from the general manager or interim thereof can't inspire anybody, and if the owner's moves can't inspire anybody, maybe the leader, maybe the leader of the team can inspire them. And there's no more important position of leadership in sports than an NFL quarterback. And maybe the NFL quarterback, the guy that you gave $ 88 million to, the guy that's $ 35 million a dead cap if you decide to release him, maybe that guy is the one that can get him inspired. So I'll ask him, I'll ask Daniel Jones, Daniel, was there effort on this team? If not, what can you do about effort? You're the leader. You're the quarterback. You're the most important position in sports. Daniel Jones, please tell me, was there an issue in your overall observation on effort?
01:39:40
Speaker 13: Yeah, I think, um, obviously any effort issue is, is unacceptable and, and, um, Wherever that is or wherever we see that will certainly be addressed and corrected.
01:39:53
Speaker 5: We certainly can't have any effort issue.
01:40:00
Speaker 1: We can't have any effort issue. We should have an um-gong. When you say um four times in 19 seconds, what that means is I'm fishing for words because I have no clue what I'm supposed to say here, even though I'm the veteran quarterback of this team and the leader. Because you know what? When you're the quarterback, what that means is that you're supposed to be able to think quickly on the fly. Why is he in that position? Why did he get a two-year deal that Chris Ballard inked him to even though he was coming off an Achilles injury? Because everything about the Colts has been in Achilles, right? Everything, every decision they've made for the last eight years, 10 years has been an Achilles in the end. And in that situation, you gave the money to that guy because he was the one when he was on the field and the arrows were flying past and the decisions were being made and audibles had to be called. He was the extension of the brain of Shane Stike and the quarterback whisperer. And he was able to think quick on his feet. But yet, when you ask him about lack of effort in a game where you got embarrassed by NFL terms, embarrassed, humiliated, run off the field, in that situation, all he can come up with is four ums in 19 seconds. Because he doesn't know what he's supposed to say. Because he knows as well as you, there was no effort. It was non-existent. And it was non-existent because everybody on that team now is playing individually for themselves.
01:41:36
Speaker 5: I know.
01:41:37
Speaker 1: We heard about it. It's character. It's guys that play for the shoe. It's guys that have faith and belief in the shield. And I'm not saying it makes them bad people. But as of right now, it makes them bad teammates. Because there's no pride.
01:41:54
Speaker 3: None.
01:41:55
Speaker 1: There's no belief.
01:41:56
Speaker 3: None.
01:41:57
Speaker 1: There's no vision.
01:41:58
Speaker 3: None.
01:42:00
Speaker 1: It's over. And when they made those two trades, everyone knew it was over. And for that reason, there now, seemingly, is no choice but to continue doing what they sent the message that they'd started to do. And that's tear the whole thing down. It's rebuild though.
01:42:19
Speaker 4: It is.
01:42:21
Speaker 1: It's not even open. It's on fire.
01:42:23
Speaker 3: Right? 100% start over.
01:42:26
Speaker 13: Rebuild.
01:42:30
Speaker 1: Now, I looked it up yesterday and I mentioned it earlier. To put in perspective how badly they were beaten yesterday, the golden era and the gold standard and the benchmark in this town for football, without a question, is that of the Peyton Manning era. And I know it's unfair and I know it's ridiculous and I know it's antiquated. To sit here and constantly go back, get back, get back. I remember Peyton played. I get it. But that's the standard. You go right now. You probably walk around right now and there's somebody walking around rocking the Marion County tuxedo. You know what I'm talking about. Lee jeans and a tucked in Peyton Manning jersey.
01:43:15
Speaker 3: Right?
01:43:17
Speaker 1: You go to the grocery store on a Sunday night. You go to a game on Sunday and what are people wearing? Quentin Nelson jerseys? He's gone. Alec Pierce jerseys, let me know if you can see where he is. Also gone, right? Not literally, but at least for the year, I'd be surprised if he plays again.
01:43:40
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's the changer going out there, the battery.
01:43:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, right? So who are the players that you see the jerseys being worn? Peyton Manning jerseys still to this day, Reggie Wayne jerseys, Marvin Harrison, Edgerton James, Bob Sanders, Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, Dallas Clark, excuse me.
01:43:59
Speaker 6: The other teams.
01:44:00
Speaker 1: The other teams. You know, and the reason why is because that's the gold standard. And in Peyton Manning's time as an Indianapolis Colt, they had two victories.
01:44:14
Speaker 3: Two. Two.
01:44:16
Speaker 1: That were as resounding as what Jacksonville did yesterday. They beat the Houston Texans in the Texans' third year of existence by 35, and they beat New Orleans down there by 36. That's it. In NFL terms, it's literally like dog years. A 35-point defeat in the National Football League is literally like losing by 70 points. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won a game yesterday where they did not complete a pass. And they won by 16. The Colts go out there and that play at 7-0 totally, symbolically typified everything of this year. You're running back who's trying to still execute. but is completely oblivious and unaware of the fact that they're in the middle of a rebuild and says, no, we're going out there to try to play the game. And he's running around, getting ready for the big bag of tricks. And the quarterback, who's done about all that he can do on that play by simply dropping like 10 yards off the line of scrimmage because he can't move anywhere, and now he can do nothing but watch. And a fumble and a lack of execution and the wide receiver... who wants out, showing how badly he wants out by quitting on that play. And maybe he lost his footing, but diving for a loose ball in the wrong direction. Because this franchise and this team right now, all of the directions they choose are the wrong one. Indiana made the right decisions down the stretch, although there appear to be a couple of red flags for Indiana football. But a win is a win. But what can you learn from it, and where do they go now into a bye week? And Indiana basketball getting underway tonight. Don Fisher, the voice of the Hoosiers, to talk about both those angles of it next.
01:46:20
Speaker 5: It's Monday.
01:46:21
Speaker 6: It's 1230.
01:46:22
Speaker 5: It's fish.
01:46:23
Speaker 12: This is entertainment, so we thought we'd put some entertainment value into this game.
01:46:28
Speaker 1: The snapback is Drew Claussen.
01:46:30
Speaker 6: The man who'll hold it will be Quinn Warren and Patty McAteer. Here it is. Kick is on its way.
01:46:36
Speaker 1: Got plenty of leg into it. And is it good?
01:46:38
Speaker 6: Yes!
01:46:40
Speaker 1: It is good!
01:46:41
Speaker 6: And Patty McAteer ties the ball game!
01:46:44
Speaker 1: Here's the snap to Grant. And Will fires it down to the end zone.
01:46:49
Speaker 4: Touchdown!
01:46:56
Speaker 5: And Indiana, on the first play in overtime, hits Hayter.
01:47:01
Speaker 6: This team just finds a way.
01:47:03
Speaker 1: The voice of the Hoosiers, Don Fisher, joining Query and Company on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan. That's how it sounded with Don Fisher and Indiana getting their win over Minnesota on Saturday late afternoon, early evening with... And Don, I'm sure you are aware of this by now. He joins us now on the Game Day Men's Health guest line. You know, in all of the times that you, me, anybody, it is, can watch and or broadcast sports, I guess you can always see something that's never been seen before. But having two guys hit 60-yard field goals, back-to-back possessions of one another has never been done collegiately or professionally and was unbelievable. Which of the two did you find yourself more in shock that it went through?
01:47:54
Speaker 8: Well, the truth of the matter is I didn't think the first one was going to go in. And I just thought it was, you know, a 60-yarder, that's going to put in pressures on, and you're at 19 seconds to go in the game. But the Minnesota kicker hasn't missed a field goal this year, and he didn't miss that one. So it went 60-plus yards, and then Patty McAteer comes right back and does exactly the same thing right down the middle, just like the preseason.
01:48:20
Speaker 1: Kick.
01:48:21
Speaker 8: It was just astounding that that happened in a football game, but I got to broadcast it. I am so happy about it because I'm, I'm celebrating a year or two or three of firsts at Indiana.
01:48:33
Speaker 3: Yeah. No.
01:48:33
Speaker 1: And you know, another one, Don, let's be honest here. I, If I'm calling the Indianapolis 500 and some car comes around that has blown an engine and it looks like the entire field's about to catch him, and then I look down and realize that Charlie Becker's the one driving the car, I'm going to say to myself, you know, this thing's probably still going to win the race. Because honestly, like that guy, every time, seemingly, Don, for the last two years, every time they need a play, that guy seems to deliver for them. And considering that he was not a marquee recruit, it just seems, does it not, to typify Indiana football under Kurt Cignetti?
01:49:13
Speaker 5: It does.
01:49:13
Speaker 6: There's no question about it.
01:49:16
Speaker 8: Charlie Becker has been the find of the century as far as Indiana football is concerned. To have that kid not be heavily recruited out of high school, for him to come to Indiana, play all three years that he's played under Kurt Cignetti, And under Mike Shanahan, who's obviously the offensive coordinator and the receivers coach, I mean, it's just amazing what that kid's been able to do, what he has done, and what he continues to do. And, you know, some people would have said, well, maybe last year was a bit of a flash in the pan. It's not a flash in the pan. The kid's as good as anybody in the country as a receiver, and that includes Jeremiah Smith. And I'm not putting Jeremiah Smith down in any way, shape, or form. I know he's a tremendous talent. But Charlie Becker is just as talented in my mind.
01:50:07
Speaker 1: I think the thing that is, Don, like take for example the play that set up the 60-yard field goal. It was a great play and a great connection. But I mean, what was almost overlooked about it because it's become the norm was how he was able to kind of contort himself. And if it's in area of that guy, not only does he find himself how to get open, but I thought he made a great play twist of the body to be able to make that catch. And that to me is what separates him as a receiver, right?
01:50:40
Speaker 8: There's no doubt, and the fact that he is that athletic to do that, but on top of that, that's what they practice all the time, and they practice that back shoulder catch all the time, and it comes in a variety of ways. You may have to turn the other way, too. It's just an amazing process that they go through. These kids work at it every day, and Charlie Becker is as hard a worker as anybody on this football team in regards to being a receiver, so there's It's a combination of things. It's coaching, but it's also the pure talent of a player and his ability to be the great athlete that he is.
01:51:18
Speaker 1: Don Fisher, the voice of the Hoosiers, is my guest here on the Game Day Men's Health Guest Line. Indiana with a bye week now. We'll get to basketball here in a second, Don. I know that today is usually when you get a chance to hear from Kurt Cignetti, so maybe he has yet to address this, but knowing Josh Hoover... and clearly there's an injury to the shoulder. I know that they still went with him, and then he got kind of knocked out of the game, and they went with Grant Wilson, who played well. But has Cignetti given any indication as to, with the bye week, A, whether or not Hoover's injury is one that can be a one-week recovery and it gets better injury, or what is the thought process right now as where it stands at quarterback?
01:52:00
Speaker 8: Well, that's the question everybody's having because we don't have a press conference today because of the bye week. Therefore, there's no press conference, so we did not go to Bloomington today. I just listened to the Big Ten Network guys, the talking heads on there, talking about Indiana and the situation with Grant Wilson and Josh Hoover. And they made it sound like that. In fact, I called my wife just to see because I'm not on social media, as you know, and I called my wife to see if what they were saying was accurate, because the host of the show, I think it's Rick Pizzo, but I don't know that. That's not Rick Pizzo.
01:52:37
Speaker 1: It's the other guy.
01:52:38
Speaker 8: But at any rate, whoever is hosting the show actually made a statement like Kurt Cignetti had made the change to Grant Wilson. And that's what it was going to be for the USC game. And I and I I went.
01:52:51
Speaker 3: What?
01:52:52
Speaker 8: What are you talking about? Because that's what he intimated. So at any rate, nothing has been said in that regard. I don't know that there's going to be a change or that there's even the thought of that happening if Josh is healthy. We'll just have to wait and see on that. But again, we won't get anything this week. I doubt that we would hear anything about that. I don't know why Kurt Cignetti or the coaching staff or anybody around Indiana football would put that out there right now because they wouldn't want the opponent to know that.
01:53:20
Speaker 3: Right.
01:53:21
Speaker 1: No, for sure on that point, Don. And, you know, you've seen it. Grant Wilson is obviously a veteran player. I mean, it goes without saying. Yeah. And he played very well when the keys were handed over to them there in that situation. But that's different than in totality of a game. You have obviously seen him. If in fact, and we're speaking in hypotheticals, if Grant Wilson, if Josh Hoover is not able to go and Grant Wilson starts against USC and Does it change at all schematically plays that Indiana would run offensively? How is he a different quarterback than Hoover?
01:53:54
Speaker 8: Well, I would argue the one thing that I do know about the difference in the two is that he's a much bigger player.
01:54:01
Speaker 6: Obviously, he's taller.
01:54:03
Speaker 8: He's also bigger thick-wise and all that kind of thing physically, and he can run the football. He did that at Old Dominion when he played there before he came to Indiana. He was a very good runner of the football in addition to being a good thrower. I haven't seen enough of Grant in play-by-play situations at this point. I saw him in the first three games of the year. He came in in mop-up duty in all three ballgames. I don't think he played as much in the North Texas game as he did in the other two. But at any rate, he did run the ball one time, and one of his opportunities, I think the first play that he ran... against, I can't remember which team in the first three games, but he ran a 46-yard run and set up a touchdown. So he is really a good runner of the football because he's big and physical. And he's also, obviously, he showed on Saturday, he's got a good arm, and he also can put it where it's supposed to go. So there's no doubt he's a good quarterback. He wouldn't be on the All I can tell you is I think we've got a guy that can handle that backup situation if, in fact, it comes to fruition.
01:55:10
Speaker 1: If, in fact, it is him, could that open up? Because the one area, Don, that has really, and you and I have talked about this, I loved it the first part of the year, and certainly last year, the way Indiana was able to run the football. But I think because of Hoover's limitation due to the injury or the perceived injury, teams are kind of loading the box a little bit there. If it's Wilson, does that have potential to open up their running game? Because you've got to drop back a little bit and be mindful of it.
01:55:38
Speaker 5: Exactly.
01:55:39
Speaker 8: There's no question. I don't think there's any doubt about that, if that in fact comes to fruition. But again, there's so much speculation on it now, and there will be until we probably play the ball game or Curt Cignetti comes out and says, this is what I'm doing, which I.
01:55:53
Speaker 6: Don't think he's going to do.
01:55:55
Speaker 8: So all I can tell you is it's up in the air at this point. I hope Josh is not hurt significantly because they're going to need him too. Both these guys are capable, but there's a reason Josh Hoover's been the starter all season long.
01:56:09
Speaker 3: You know what that is.
01:56:11
Speaker 8: He's obviously the best quarterback. At least that's the perception of the coaching staff.
01:56:16
Speaker 1: Obviously, coming into it, he has the track record of passing efficiency everywhere. and just being able to run that offense. We'll see where things stand on that. We'll keep an eye on it. Again, Indiana a bye week football-wise. Basketball tonight, Eastern Illinois, 7 o'clock. Our sister station, WIBC pregame. at 6. Don, I know that, and I heard you on with John, I had to chuckle about it on Friday, when you said you got a chance to talk to Marty Simmons and the former Hoosier, who is now the head coach at Eastern Illinois. Apparently realistic about his options tonight, right?
01:56:47
Speaker 8: I think he thinks he's got a better roster than he had a year ago, or maybe the last couple of years at Eastern Illinois. But when I talked to him and I know he was talking in jest, but at the same time, it was kind of funny because I did. I said, how are you doing? Marty says, I'm not doing good at all. He says, I think we'll get the crap kicked out of us.
01:57:06
Speaker 1: He's honest, right?
01:57:07
Speaker 8: So he was quite honest in that context, there's no doubt about it. But he was also being.
01:57:12
Speaker 6: Funny, too.
01:57:12
Speaker 8: So I get it, and I understand why he said what he said. But I do think Indiana will win the game tonight, and they'll probably win it going away if they play like they did in the first three exhibition games.
01:57:23
Speaker 1: Don, just out of curiosity, Marty Simmons was, and a lot of people maybe forget, That he came in in that same recruiting class along with Steve Alford and Daryl Thomas, Todd Meyer. Really good era. And he is one that obviously ended up transferring and finishing and having a great career at Evansville. But yet it's interesting to me because in the world of IU basketball in that era... When players would transfer, to a lot of Indiana fans, it was like they were out of sight, out of mind then. And Marty Simmons, to me, seems like one that is still thought of as the classic IU basketball player. You know what I mean? What's your relationship been with him, if at all? Because it seems like he has a good relationship with Indiana basketball.
01:58:05
Speaker 8: Well, and he should, because Marty is still revered in the state of Indiana. He played for the University of Evansville after he left IU. He played for Jimmy Cruz. He was a great player at Evansville, and obviously he was a really good player at Indiana. Bob Knight and he did not get along famously, probably because Marty had a tendency to get a little overweight during the offseason.
01:58:27
Speaker 4: Yep.
01:58:28
Speaker 8: And it was always an issue with Coach Knight, and Knight didn't like that. But the fact of the matter is that Marty Simmons is a guy– I've had a great relationship with him because we played Evansville when he was the coach there. We played him at other places too. I think he was down at Clemson for a year. I think a year in which Indiana played Clemson. And he wasn't the head coach there. He was an assistant. But my point is I've got a really good relationship with the guy. He's a great guy to talk to. He loves basketball. He loves coaching. He's been at Eastern for six years now. This is his sixth season, and he hasn't left there. And I said, Marty, are you looking at any place else or anything like that? And he goes, you know what? I really love coaching ball, and I really like Charleston, where Eastern Illinois is located. So I think the guy is a very happy guy right now because he's doing what he loves to do.
01:59:17
Speaker 1: Seven o'clock tonight is the tip and the pregame six over on our sister station, WIBC, Eastern Illinois and Indiana and a team that from the basketball standpoint, I think Darren DeVries has a versatile roster and we'll see which way and which style they begin in playing tonight and where their points come from. Cause I think it can come from a lot of different areas, but that's one of the fun things to watch about this team. Now we'll be listening tonight. Appreciate the time as always and enjoy the bye week as well.
01:59:44
Speaker 6: Jake, can I add one thing here?
01:59:46
Speaker 1: Yep.
01:59:47
Speaker 8: And we're going back to football here. I am sick about what our fans did on Saturday in regard to booing Josh Hoover, booing Niko Radicic, booing period. In two and a half years at Indiana University, nobody has ever seen anything like what this program has provided them. And there is no reason at all at this point with a ball club that has lost one time this year to be booing anybody on the field, whether it be coaches, whether it be players. Indiana football is at a precipice that they've never been at in the history of the school.
02:00:21
Speaker 1: So please stop booing. Totally agree. And Don, on top of that, I mean, not that it would be justified either way. But he's hurt. I mean, clearly he's hurt, right? I mean, people are upset because he's sailing balls. And I'm like, well, yeah, but he can't get the proper rotation on the arm. I mean, clearly he is fighting through something there. Totally agree, Don. Completely agree. I mentioned it earlier. Totally agree with you. So I appreciate you saying that.
02:00:44
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks for the soapbox.
02:00:46
Speaker 6: Appreciate it.
02:00:47
Speaker 1: As always, Don Fisher, the voice of the Hoosiers, joining us on the program. All right, JMV is lined up for his show at 3 o'clock. We'll find out what he's got cooking. We'll do it as part of, of course, our crossover brought to you by the good guys at Love Heating and Air. Love-HVAC.com is the website. 317-353-2141. We made it the whole way, Eddie, without you playing Burning Down the House. By talking heads. But Josh Downs wants to break free, and apparently with that trade request, started early yesterday, right? He was like, nah, I'm good. I don't need to jump down and get on that loose ball.
02:01:31
Speaker 4: I'm good.
02:01:32
Speaker 2: And then doesn't have the stones to stay in the locker room in front of the media and answer any questions. Dips out before the media is allowed in. So he has the trade request go public. Minutes after talking with the media last week has not made his face present since.
02:01:50
Speaker 1: JMV just made his face present. The crossover brought to you by Love Heating and Air. John, that was yesterday, a rough day of sport viewing here for Central Indiana, whether we're talking about the Colts or the Pacers, right?
02:02:02
Speaker 15: I'm telling you what, you talk about two professional events that sucked for different reasons.
02:02:08
Speaker 6: But suck nonetheless.
02:02:10
Speaker 4: I know.
02:02:10
Speaker 6: I haven't checked.
02:02:11
Speaker 15: I just walked from one studio to the others. Is the coach still in place?
02:02:16
Speaker 1: We keep refreshing.
02:02:17
Speaker 6: Lord have mercy, guys.
02:02:19
Speaker 15: And if it doesn't matter, well, it doesn't make much sense to move on. You might as well keep him here. Then why is it okay? Why can't you just go ahead and move along?
02:02:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
02:02:31
Speaker 6: Does it matter at this point?
02:02:32
Speaker 1: The only thing I can think is because She has talked about how she doesn't want timelines of general manager and coach to be the same, but you're kind of going to be in that position anyway because unless you wait, if you fire the coach, you bring in a GM, and then you let him make the coach selection, but you still are along the same timelines here. With everything, John, seemingly, as I talked about, all of the decisions that for the last couple of years have been made turn out to be the wrong one, right?
02:03:04
Speaker 3: Yeah.
02:03:04
Speaker 1: I hate to say it that way, but that's just the reality.
02:03:06
Speaker 6: So Chris Ballard, he got fired. The last draw was that embarrassment of Tennessee. I would argue that yesterday was more embarrassing than Tennessee.
02:03:15
Speaker 1: Well, that was a locker room that is– I mean, they got the memo, right? They got the message that it's over.
02:03:20
Speaker 3: Yeah.
02:03:22
Speaker 15: And then start sending you Daniel Jones. And I don't care if I don't see Daniel Jones. I don't want to see Anthony Richardson. I really don't care who quarters quarterbacks at this point. Is anybody else?
02:03:31
Speaker 1: Riley Leonard. And then they're going to bring back Ricky Turner as the backup.
02:03:35
Speaker 6: Whatever you want to do.
02:03:36
Speaker 15: I'm just I'm kind of done with it because they look done with it. So why shouldn't Iowa, why shouldn't everybody else be done with it?
02:03:42
Speaker 1: Totally checked out, right? Matt Painter today, is that right?
02:03:45
Speaker 15: Matt Painter's going to be here, Gonzaga and Purdue later on tonight, and go back-to-back with the Pacers. You talk about a dismal performance. Hey, it's one thing to be down dudes, and they certainly are, but that was the Nets. I mean, come on, the Nets at home. You've got to be able to cobble something together with the personnel you have to beat the Nets at home. Do you ever wonder why Jay Huff plays?
02:04:06
Speaker 1: Last night was, I mean, listen. Does he do anything? He hits his first three in every game, although he didn't last night. He did not attempt a two-point shot last night. He had three rebounds.
02:04:16
Speaker 6: I don't think he did anything.
02:04:17
Speaker 1: He fouled out with three rebounds. He did not attempt a two-point shot, and he had, I think, three total points.
02:04:24
Speaker 15: I know it's really early. And I'm just specific to last night. But these are games you need to win when you're injury compromised because, again, it was the Nets at home.
02:04:34
Speaker 6: You got to take care of that. The normal Sunday night routine they have, too.
02:04:39
Speaker 1: The thing that worries me, it is early. But it's one thing if it's early and you know that you have the guys that need to acclimate with one another playing, and you don't. You've got to get Zubats, Halliburton, and even Toppin. Toppin would have helped him last night. I mean, I know he's hurt, but he would have helped him last night just because at the very least you could have gone small but had a center there that could get some rebounds for you.
02:05:03
Speaker 6: Do you think Spaz is ever going to get into this thing, or how long is it going to take?
02:05:07
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, right?
02:05:10
Speaker 15: Well, I see so Spastic. Is he just trying too hard to fit in and do things?
02:05:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
02:05:18
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, they've got– John, they have like three guys that seemingly haven't yet fit in, right? Just trying to find– one thing I noticed is Larry Nance Jr., like there were like two different times when he was called into the game and like I don't know if he couldn't hear him or what, but it's like, dude, you're getting the number called. Like get in there, you know?
02:05:38
Speaker 15: The other thing about it is their pace of play last night was just god-awful slow.
02:05:43
Speaker 6: It looked like some old man half-court lead.
02:05:46
Speaker 1: You know the guy on the floor when they try to play fast that to me looks like he's not acclimating with it is Oubre. Yeah. Oubre doesn't look like he can get it going.
02:05:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, Siakam said after one of the recent games that it's going to take him a minute. Siakam was like, yeah, it's really hard at first because.
02:06:01
Speaker 6: About spaz?
02:06:02
Speaker 3: Yeah.
02:06:03
Speaker 6: Okay. Yeah, because you play like.
02:06:04
Speaker 2: 5 basketball, so you're just trying to get the understanding on where everyone's going to be.
02:06:08
Speaker 15: Can you just not run to like a spot on the break or something? Maybe not try to out-rebound your big man and then get him injured?
02:06:15
Speaker 3: Yeah.
02:06:16
Speaker 15: Nobody's around you? That's the spaz that I'm talking about right here. I hope that he fits in, but he doesn't look like he fits into anything.
02:06:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree.
02:06:23
Speaker 15: I guess it would take a little bit longer. I knew that I would be uncomfortable in being patient.
02:06:29
Speaker 1: I knew it.
02:06:30
Speaker 2: You have to realize he's not playing the role that they signed him for yet. So he's trying to figure everything out at the same time.
02:06:37
Speaker 6: He's playing basketball, Eddie. This is not rocket science here, pal. I get it.
02:06:41
Speaker 3: I get it.
02:06:41
Speaker 6: Jesus Christ.
02:06:41
Speaker 2: I get it, but you assigned him to do one specific thing. It's like Jairus Walker. Jairus Walker looks great when he knows what his role is going to be.
02:06:49
Speaker 1: Jairus Walker.
02:06:49
Speaker 15: No, it's just a roll of the dice. He looks good one every five times out. Jairus Walker did hit a three yesterday that brought rain. And then you're like, oh, here it is. And then it's Anthony Richardson. You're like, we're back.
02:07:00
Speaker 3: I know.
02:07:00
Speaker 6: I got to be more patient. I'm trying, guys. I'm trying to practice patience.
02:07:05
Speaker 4: All right.
02:07:05
Speaker 1: Matt Painter with John later today. We're back at 10 tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Now, Eddie, it's a Monday. It's somewhat befitting outside of the sport day we had yesterday from a professional standpoint. And I thought to myself on the drive in today, I thought, OK, so we could talk about the rarity and the the first time. unprecedented event that we got to witness in the state of Indiana over the weekend from a sports standpoint that we may never see again. Or we could talk about the complete debacle that took place in Jacksonville or the complete debacle that took place at Cambridge field house. And we can preview tonight. We can do a number of things. And I thought I need a little more time to balance this all out. And then I, and then it hit me, it dawned on me and I said, Oh, I'll have a little extra time to prepare for, my thoughts and clear the table because Eddie will have a fabulous show intro that is all set for me. And that will allow me an extra 90 seconds or so. Now, are you boycotting?
00:01:04
Speaker 2: Well, see, Jake, if a team's going to go out there and play like they did yesterday for the Colts and the Pacers, quite frankly, why the hell would I give the effort.
00:01:13
Speaker 1: In giving them attention like that? Well, so here's the thing. Can we compromise on this? If you had to think of a song, did you at least contemplate like a song that would work to be able to play for today?
00:01:29
Speaker 3: Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: So you have a song fired up.
00:01:31
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:01:31
Speaker 1: So let's do this right here, okay? Because everybody wanted to do this yesterday with the Colts, right? I'm holding up my notepad here. I'm shaking it like an Etch-A-Sketch. Start the whole thing. Just blow the whole thing up and start all over again. That's what the Colts are about to do. So in honor of that, why don't we just go ahead and we're going to do this over again. No intro. You just play music and your little computer dealio and the intro and we'll start all over again.
00:01:57
Speaker 3: You ready?
00:01:58
Speaker 1: You want the intro or you just want the song? No, we're going to start the whole thing over again. The intro and then the song and then we'll just go from there.
00:02:04
Speaker 4: You ready?
00:02:05
Speaker 1: Here we go. And this is, there we go. Three, two, and one.
00:02:09
Speaker 5: It's Query and Company. I'm going to be keeping you company for the next few hours. You are not going to believe the company. This company.
00:02:15
Speaker 6: You're going to bankrupt your mama's company. At least I have the radio to keep me company. On 93.5 and 107.5. The Fan.
00:02:19
Speaker 5: The roof, the roof, the roof.
00:02:25
Speaker 1: Is on fire. We don't need no water, let the mother f * * * ing burn. Burn, mother f * * * ing burn.
00:02:35
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:02:36
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's what we're doing. The roof isn't even, the roof is probably open, right? I mean, let's be real, because every other decision that's been made has been the wrong one, so what the heck. Good morning to you on a Monday, and it is a gloomy-looking Monday, but we're going to get through it nonetheless. My name is Jake Query. Eddie Garrison, the other voice you heard on this program, and his querying company here on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan. And I don't know whether or not we are going to see or hear about changes on West 56th Street today. Certainly the precedent is set there for that. And if so, we will get you to the Gandalf Financial Services breaking news sounder immediately. When you hear it today, that probably means that something big is happening. Although, to be fair... there has not been any sort of inside scuttlebug to tell us that that is imminent. But what we know is this. We knew last week it's over. I knew it was over. You knew it was over. Jim Nance knew it was over. Seth DeFlo knew it was over. Everyone knew it was over. But What we saw yesterday was a locker room telling you that they also got the memo. It's over. If there was any hope in maybe making a trade of two players would send a message and gosh darn it, guys are gritty and they're professionals and they're out there to win games. Jonathan Taylor, this isn't a rebuild. What are you talking about? This isn't a rebuild. We're out there to win games. That was a team yesterday. that knows it's a rebuild. And we'll get into that aplenty. And let me begin with this. I think the common thought would be that I should open the microphone today and sit here and spend the next three hours criticizing, railing on, calling for the job of, throwing under the bus, Shane Steichen. Because Shane Steichen, when he came out for his opening statement yesterday, I'll let you hear it, Shane Steichen made no bones about the fact that he's right there on the front line as well. And probably what was the longest winded rant that he had yesterday, a full, I think, 18 seconds. This is Shane Steichen taking the podium yesterday after seeing the Colts get completely humiliated in Jacksonville.
00:05:17
Speaker 7: Yeah, it wasn't good enough. Flat out wasn't good enough. Like I said, we got outcoached. We got outplayed. And we got to freaking learn from our mistakes in a hurry. And like I said, the effort and the energy has got to be there every week. If it's not, you're going to get beat like that.
00:05:30
Speaker 1: Now, I had prepared to come in here and actually kind of take the other side and not have the back of Shane Steichen, but be explanatory as to why I think he gets somewhat of a pass. But then I hear that, and it again reawakens in me this incredulous, not anger, but frustration. We got some things we got to clean up. We got to clean them up in a hurry.
00:06:03
Speaker 3: Bro.
00:06:06
Speaker 1: I get that that's what the Teddy Ruxpin robot that you pulled a little ripcord is programmed to say. Remember when you were a kid and somebody gave you a Teddy Ruxpin and you pulled the ripcord and it said, I love you.
00:06:18
Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
00:06:20
Speaker 1: Talking teddy bear loves me. Let's play. Unbelievable. And what you didn't know is there actually was some guy at Hasbro that just recorded that and went into an audio box and it was inside and it was programmed to just say the same five things over and over. I am sick and tired of hearing the same things over and over. I'm sick of it. I'm tired of it. And this market is tired of it. And every one of you that have paid your hard-earned money to go watch this football team and have them play in the most highly subsidized building in American sports should be tired of it. Don't sit here and tell me that you got to quickly turn things around. You got to get things fixed. Hogwash. It's all bleeping talk. It's all air filler. And enough is enough. And if you didn't get the memo from that when your owner sat there on the sidelines with her notes, you know what her notes said? Everybody wants to know what she's been writing on the side of it. What her notes said is, I'm tired of hearing the same freaking thing. That's exactly what her notes say. Because what did she do? She said, let's trade the two pillars and send the message to everybody that no one is safe. And if that didn't get through to you at that point, and you went out there and absolutely humiliated yourself and wet yourself yesterday, if that didn't get the message to you, then burn the whole thing down. Done. Over with. Over with. That's the reality. All of it. Burn it down. Now, now that I've gotten that angst out, The roof, the roof is on fire. We don't need no water. Let the mother.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: F * * * er burn.
00:07:57
Speaker 8: Let it.
00:07:58
Speaker 1: Burn, mother f * * * er. Let it. Now, here's the other thing, though. In this circumstance, in this situation, I'll actually, for this game, give Steichen a pass. I don't give him a pass in the totality of his tenure as the head coach of the Colts. And I do think that there are people that have a lot of respect for him around the league. And I mean, as an offensive coach and a quarterback guru, sure. I think to some extent, what we saw yesterday, and I wish Shane Steichen would have said this. I wish instead of the pull the rip cord and Teddy Ruxpin comes out with the same thing, I love you, let's play. Instead of hearing that same thing, I wish he would have been an honest Teddy Ruxpin. I'm not going to go with the recorded answer that they tell me that I'm supposed to say that a guy at Hasbro programmed inside of me robotically. I wish he would have said what he really felt. And what he should have said was he should have come out there and said, look, you want to know how bad this was? I'll tell you how bad it was. I went back as the head coach of the Colts and I looked. And the glory years of this franchise and the one that everybody talks about still to this day is the Peyton Manning era. You can't go into a Kroger on a Sunday and not see somebody walking around with either a Freeney, a Wayne, a Sanders, an Edge, a Mathis, a Peyton, a Clark, a Stokely Jersey. That's the glory years, that's the standard, and that's the benchmark. And I went and looked at it, and you know what I found as the head coach of the Colts? I found that in the entire tenure of Peyton Manning, in the entire era of the greatest golden years in Indianapolis Colts football history, they won two games, two, by 35 or more points. They beat the Houston Texans in the Texans' third year of existence by 35 points. And they beat the New Orleans Saints in Peyton Manning's big return back home when they scored 55 points by 36 in a game. That's it. The greatest era of Colts football in their decade only managed to beat the drums out of somebody as badly as the Colts were beaten yesterday twice. And one of them was an expansion franchise with a quarterback that could tell you exactly how many lights were at the top of Reliant Stadium because David Carr spent all his time on his back because they never protected him. A foreshadow for how the Colts handled the post-Payton Manning era with their next quarterback. But I digress. Even with all that, I would have actually admired it if Shane Steichen would have come out and said, you know what, here's the thing. We thought we had some things to clean up, but I got completely neutered last week. I got completely undercut last week because what we saw, and I was as curious as the rest of you. I was as curious as the rest of you as to how this team was going to react, but how this team is going to react was this. They went out there despite every game plan that we had and every motivation that we had and every speech that I had, and I made them watch Hoosiers, and I made them watch Miracle, and I made them watch Rocky and all these movies and everything else. I don't know if he really did. I'm just saying. All of that. I tried everything in the book, but you know what? Above me this week, they traded our two captains and pillars that are most representative. And maybe they did that to send a message to the rest of the locker room that nobody is safe. But you know what the memo actually received was by my locker room? Was a bunch of guys that went, eh, it's over. They are literally going to let this burn. So, you know, I'm not going to give too much burn into it, to be honest with you. The most significant play yesterday in that game, the most significant play in the National Football League yesterday was not Baker Mayfield not completing a pass and winning a game. It was not.
00:12:02
Speaker 9: A.D.
00:12:03
Speaker 1: Mitchell going for over 100 in New York. The most significant illustration yesterday of any team and any mindset in the National Football League was when The Indianapolis Colts, the lowly, hapless, laughing stock Indianapolis Colts, going down to a place that has been a house of horrors in general, tried some trickery. They tried to do something new, like trading their pillar players earlier in the week or firing their general manager. They tried to do something new to catch everybody off guard. We're going to do some trickery. We're going to hand the ball to Jonathan Taylor, who claims this isn't a rebuild. And we're going to have him sweep and then try to do a little fun little toss to Josh Downs, who wants to be traded. And we're going to do all of this by starting the play with our quarterback that we're going to tell everybody is still healthy because maybe somebody will be dumb enough to give us a seventh round pick and inherit his 20 plus million dollars next year, even though everybody knows that's never going to happen. 40 million or whatever it is, but we're going to do this and we're going to do trickery and catch everybody off guard because we're sneaky and it's Halloween time and we're going to play some tricks and try to treat the fans. And you know what happened? Like everything else since Chris Ballard walked into that building, every plan they came up with right before our very eyes became a huge flipping joke. Jonathan Taylor bobbled it. Josh Downs was supposed to get it. Josh Downs looked at it and thought, yeah, I'm good. I actually think he kind of lost his footing, but nonetheless, did he make every effort to get that loose ball?
00:13:58
Speaker 3: Nah. Why?
00:14:00
Speaker 1: Why make the effort? Because even though the guy that was throwing it to me says this isn't a rebuild, I know better. And the whole time Daniel Jones is watching it and he's thinking to himself, this seems symbolic of the opportunity I was given. This seems symbolic of the opportunity the Indianapolis Colts gave me, and I'm watching right now Jonathan Taylor play out exactly the way I handled my opportunity. Fumbled and watched it just dribble away.
00:14:32
Speaker 3: Now.
00:14:32
Speaker 1: I personally think Daniel Jones is not 100% healthy, but that's on the Colts as well because they had no backup plan. And what do I always say? It wasn't raining when Noah built the arc, which takes us then to the other thing. And why not when your season is circling the drain and it's burning down, then why not go ahead and give yourself a storyline like, hey, guess what? Welcome back to 1986 Indianapolis. We've got a quarterback controversy.
00:15:00
Speaker 10: Great.
00:15:01
Speaker 1: We got a backup quarterback that was a top five pick that basically had one general manager. And I remember when Anthony Richardson was drafted, I remember specifically a person from within the Colts organization saying to me the next year at the combine, the next year after his rookie year, someone said to me, this kid is the kind of quarterback that gets people fired.
00:15:25
Speaker 6: Pretty sure Bruce Arian said the same thing.
00:15:27
Speaker 1: I think he did. Correct. And guess what? Profit. But, and I don't mean FIT. But Anthony Richardson now, I get it and I understand it. You would like to see him play. Okay. But for what?
00:15:47
Speaker 6: For what?
00:15:49
Speaker 1: Nobody's trading for this guy. Nobody. When's the trade deadline, Eddie? A week from now?
00:15:54
Speaker 6: A week from tomorrow?
00:15:56
Speaker 4: No.
00:15:56
Speaker 11: Boss man, I was thinking, let's make a trade for that Anthony Richardson kid in Indianapolis, even though we can get him as a free agent here in a couple of months. But let's go ahead and send out a fifth rounder for him because he looked pretty decent in the eight snaps he took.
00:16:09
Speaker 1: Come on. There's nothing to be gained for the Colts in playing him because he's not in their future. There's nothing to be gained, really, in playing Daniel Jones because he's not in their long-term future, and if he is, then you want him to get healthy because I don't believe he's fully healthy. You are so stuck at that position, and yet that's okay because when it comes to the quarterback position, then you just, we'll draft one this year.
00:16:42
Speaker 6: Oh, that's right.
00:16:44
Speaker 1: We can't even go out there and intentionally suck Because our first round pick goes to the New York Jets. It is so, if you've ever had one of those dreams where you're walking down a hallway and every door that you grab is the one that's locked, then welcome to the 2026 Indianapolis Colts. And as for Shane Steichen, who is the easiest guy to come out there and point the finger towards, I actually, in this case, not in totality, but as for yesterday, I actually give him the benefit of the doubt. I give him a pass, and I know that that's probably totally unexpected. Now, the things that he says and the going through the motions have worn me out. Worn me out. But what's he supposed to do? When the message was sent to the locker room during the course of the week, it's over. That's the message they got. You traded our one promising defender in terms of an edge rush, and they've got some guys that are showing a little flash, but you get what I'm saying. Our literal leader of the locker room. The stalwart of the locker room that just keeps everything professional. And then on the other side of it, even though Quentin Nelson, to us, meaning the media, fans, whatever, is a pretty stoic, like Stone Mountain, quiet kind of dude, players will tell you in the locker room that he is an absolute leader that just kind of keeps things where they need to be, keeps things light a little bit, but there's just a trusted, there's just those Simple moments where you look over and you think, when that guy's in the locker room, you're like, I think we're going to be okay because there's a leadership without even having to speak, even though I think he's more vociferous and gregarious around his teammates than he is publicly. You send both those guys out? You send the two guys that are on the JW, the two guys that are pictured outside the building? What is Shane Steichen supposed to do at that point? What was he supposed to game plan? What was he supposed to come up with? What possibility could he get of motivation to wake these guys up when they're professional players? They get it. They know it's over. And that message was sent in subtlety last week that the 2026 season is over. It's all about now. The chance for people that don't normally go to games to maybe go to games because people that have season tickets. And I understand why people are going to hold on to them. But are you really going to go down and watch them play the Dolphins? You really going to go like late November and watch them play the New York Giants?
00:19:50
Speaker 6: You know what I think of when I hear Colts, Dolphins?
00:20:00
Speaker 1: You know, that guy's playing that through a vacuum, right? Which is only fitting because there's nothing that could have more suck to it than the Colts-Dolphins game. But I will tell you this. You know what they should do? Here's my marketing brilliance. If the Indianapolis Colts are listening right now, and I'm sure they don't have anything better to do, here is my marketing tip for the Indianapolis Colts. Eddie, can you please pull up for me the Colts' actual schedule in terms of dates? When do they play... What is their final home game? Their final home game?
00:20:32
Speaker 5: Yes.
00:20:33
Speaker 6: TBD.
00:20:34
Speaker 1: Oh, that's against Jacksonville, right?
00:20:35
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:20:35
Speaker 1: The reason it's TBD is not because they're trying to determine the date or time. It's because the NFL may just say, to hell with it. We don't even need to play this game. Jacksonville wins the game.
00:20:47
Speaker 5: Done.
00:20:48
Speaker 1: That's not really the case. They're waiting to see if they were going to have to flex it or whatnot. It's going to be a 1 o'clock game on Sunday. What's their penultimate home game? TBD. That's also TBD?
00:20:59
Speaker 6: It's either Saturday or Sunday.
00:21:01
Speaker 1: Who's that against?
00:21:01
Speaker 6: Cincinnati.
00:21:02
Speaker 1: There's zero chance that's on a Saturday. There is no way that the NFL is going to say, hey, you're doing your holiday shopping? Be sure to stop at the TV section of H.H. Gregg where all the guys stand with their shopping bags while the wives are doing holiday shopping. That sounds misogynistic, not intended to. I'm just referencing the way it used to be in the 80s. And watch the Colts and Bengals. Come on. When do they play the Giants?
00:21:33
Speaker 6: The Giants?
00:21:34
Speaker 1: Yes, the New York Giants. The New York football Giants.
00:21:37
Speaker 6: They don't play the Giants. Sorry, yeah, they do.
00:21:39
Speaker 1: The 29th. The 29th of November, right?
00:21:42
Speaker 6: Right before the bye week.
00:21:45
Speaker 5: Okay.
00:21:46
Speaker 1: That's a Sunday?
00:21:47
Speaker 2: Boy, look at this upcoming stretch. Sunday against Dallas. The following Sunday, home against Miami. Short week, Thursday night football. Colts, Texans, and then the Giants.
00:21:59
Speaker 6: At home again.
00:22:00
Speaker 5: Okay.
00:22:02
Speaker 1: Here's my tip for the Colts.
00:22:04
Speaker 6: That's a whole lot of guh.
00:22:05
Speaker 1: Let's make this interesting.
00:22:07
Speaker 6: That's a whole lot of throw up.
00:22:08
Speaker 1: Let's make this interesting.
00:22:10
Speaker 6: Gosh.
00:22:11
Speaker 1: When the New York football giants come on November 29th, this is my one-man pilgrimage. On November 29th, when the New York football giants come to Lucas Oil Stadium to take on the Indianapolis Colts, Let's open the roof and open the window. And I know if there's a snowflake in Terre Haute, you can't do it because when they put $ 720 million into that stadium, they decided to only make two elevators, one escalator of death, and wait for it, no drainage system. But nonetheless, assuming that it's going to be arid dry across the Midwest and there's no chance of precipitation, then let's do this. On November 29th, at the very least, let's open the window, open the roof, and let people enjoy outdoor football. Because if that team is not going to look like it's football, and if that game plan doesn't look like it's football... And if there is no semblance of actual old school John Facinda talking about the New York football giants coming into Lucas Oil Stadium and the old grit feel of it, of seeing your own breath and watching and hearing the pads pop, at the very least, let's have that. At the very least, let's let people totally enjoy and explore what it's like to be the old school football environment. Because the only old school right now the Colts are doing are partying like it's 1985. Is it going to be Mike Pagel or Art Schliester? Or maybe we can bring back Gary Hogeboom and just wait until Owen Gill gets uncorked. That's where we are. Pacers last night was disappointing to say the least. And I realize that they are ravaged with injury. And I realize that some of that is also being a little bit of preventative or erring on the side of caution in the case of the timelines of the return of Halliburton or McConnell and then Toppin's injury yesterday. I mean, lower back. I think some of these probably, if this were the playoffs, for example, it's different.
00:24:19
Speaker 6: It does sound like, though, that Obi could be back tonight.
00:24:22
Speaker 2: Carlisle said pregame that he seems to have taken a turn And that depending on how he feels this morning, he could be available against Atlanta.
00:24:32
Speaker 1: See, my thing is simply this. I understand why they're erring on the side of caution. But without Zubats, it's irrelevance the wrong word, but you need Zubats and Halliburton, mostly the timing of those two, and Siakam. I've always said 35 games. But we're losing games quickly here. And I don't mean losing on the scoreboard. I mean, we're losing time here quickly. Time's moving quickly on when they need to get this acclimation period underway and begin going. The problem is simply, even though I can appreciate the effort put forth by Slauson and the way he plays, Larry Nance Jr. at times looks like, I mean, he is one that is the slowest to acclimate to where he's supposed to be all the time. But When you are going out there and you're playing and you have Jay Huff fouling out of the game while not taking a single two-point attempt and getting, what do you have, three rebounds and zero points and fouling out? It is making, it is too much PTSD from a year ago. And the habits of a year ago of, yeah, but there's optimism in why we're losing and we all get it. That pass is gone now. And while I understand... And I totally am on board with the precaution of injury and bringing people back. At some point, you got to start fighting through it and get it going because you are going to lose time on that acclimation period. You just are. But when we come back, more into the one big area of question for the Colts that has nothing to do with how in the world you get embarrassed that bad in Jacksonville and history in college football. We'll get to all of it as we roll along here on a burn, blank burn. That's the Violent Femmes on that song, is it not, Eddie?
00:26:34
Speaker 6: I'd have to come back and look and remember.
00:26:36
Speaker 1: You know what? Maybe it's not the Violent Femmes. Either way, the message is the same. And we'll continue it next. Bloodhouse Gang, is that what we determined?
00:26:45
Speaker 6: Bloodhound Gang?
00:26:46
Speaker 1: Bloodhound Gang, sorry. I knew that. I'm a little tired. Because I was up until like 3.48 in the morning just sitting there contemplating, like, what in the world did I just see?
00:26:58
Speaker 2: Now, I'm curious of this. Wait, are you talking about the Colts? You're talking about the Pacers or the string of text messages that you got?
00:27:12
Speaker 1: Little of all of the above, right? I had an interesting weekend of I've always been. People ask me all the time, hey, do you ever regret giving out your cell phone number on the air?
00:27:27
Speaker 4: No.
00:27:28
Speaker 3: I don't.
00:27:28
Speaker 1: I love it.
00:27:29
Speaker 6: The warden called you an idiot last week.
00:27:32
Speaker 3: He did.
00:27:33
Speaker 1: He did. Warden Farnsworth was not on board. You think the warden's going to call us again? We recommended to him Philly and Washington, right?
00:27:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, we did.
00:27:42
Speaker 1: It wasn't a terrible game.
00:27:44
Speaker 6: I think the other game that I suggested was Tampa, Atlanta.
00:27:49
Speaker 1: I think that one the inmates would have wanted to watch just because the anomaly of it, right? To have an entire.
00:27:56
Speaker 6: I guess.
00:27:56
Speaker 1: It's only the second time, I believe, did I read correctly, the second time in NFL history in the first 50 years where a team won without completing a single pass?
00:28:05
Speaker 6: I think 74 was the most recent time.
00:28:07
Speaker 1: I mean, that's kind of like, and I mean, everybody knows this by now, but the second that Indiana hit their field goal against Minnesota, I sent a thing on the Expos Twitter that said, that has to be the first time that you have seen 60-yard field goals in back-to-back possessions, right?
00:28:28
Speaker 6: In college football?
00:28:29
Speaker 1: Well, it turns out it's never been done in football. It's never been done by two teams in the same game. It's been done by Tony Franklin, who was a barefooted kicker, hit two 60-yarders in the same game. But in terms of it happening on back-to-back possessions, it's never happened in college or pro.
00:28:43
Speaker 2: I need to know how the heck McAteer controlled that football to get it through the uprights.
00:28:48
Speaker 6: Did you see that thing? It was like.
00:28:49
Speaker 1: I mean, it was... Both those kicks were amazing. And we can get into Indiana. Don Fisher is going to join us, I think, later in the show. We'll get into it later. But, you know, there have been times in this town where we've had quarterback controversies. The narrative has always been that the most popular person on a franchise or on a roster is the backup quarterback. Unless your quarterback is... definitively and undeniably, you know, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, a little different. But if you go back in the history of the Colts and Indy, and you take out Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning, virtually every other quarterback that has come through this town came through either dealing with calls and outcry for the backup or ascended to to the starting position because at one time they were the backup and there were calls and outcry about giving them a shot. You've heard me mention all the names. Pagel and Sleaster and Shane Matthews and Kelly Holcomb and Don Makowski and Jeff George and Jack Trudeau and Ricky Turner and Craig Erickson and Steve Walsh. On and on and on. Browning Nagel. Ryan Lindley, Josh Freeman, on and on and on. But we kind of took pride in the fact that it was a franchise that had found stability at that position. And then once you found stability at it, everybody understood because of the circumstance. And I don't know if you know this or not. They should do a better job of talking about it. Andrew Luck retired and they weren't expecting it. And so everybody understood that. that that was a process where you were going to have to wait through until the right opportunity to go out and get your franchise quarterback. And this is a franchise, and the ultimate irony, the ultimate irony is right now the Indianapolis Colts are in the situation that they're in because they swung and missed at the most important draft pick in the recent history of the franchise. And Now the irony is, because they swung and missed and they found themselves just stuck in this, not LA, but Indy tar pit, this vat of suck, the answer to a lot of people is, at least let's give Anthony Richardson another shot. And I understand that there is some intrigue there that is of slightly more curiosity than what we've seen out of Daniel Jones. And again, I do believe that Daniel Jones is not 100% healthy. But even if he is, I also think that a 100% healthy Daniel Jones, at this point we can safely say, is probably a lot more likely to be New York Giant Daniel Jones than first 10 game a year ago Daniel Jones. But what is the benefit? What is the gain of now turning the keys back over to Anthony Richardson? As a matter of fact, and I don't mean this to be confrontational, But I am curious, if you are somebody who wants to see Anthony Richardson back on the field, if you want them for the rest of the year for Anthony Richardson to be your starting quarterback, then I want you to call right now at 239-1070. And I'm not setting you up like, tell me why because I'm going to tell you you're wrong. It's not it at all. I don't think there's a wrong answer here. Now, we may have an open dialogue. We may have an open dialogue. And the open dialogue that I'm going to present is not one that I'm doing to be counterproductive or to counterpoint you, but rather to illuminate the situation that they put themselves in. Because I think they painted themselves into a corner here to a great extent. 239-1070 is the telephone number. Overall thoughts on the Colts, but notably on the quarterback situation. Matt will lead us off.
00:33:17
Speaker 3: Hi, Matt.
00:33:18
Speaker 1: How are you?
00:33:21
Speaker 5: Hey, I'm doing good.
00:33:22
Speaker 12: Thanks a lot for taking my call. Yeah, I just wanted to, my reasoning for giving AR the keys at this point, you know, we're in the midst of selling the whole team, right? We're breaking it all down to the bones. We're selling everything. So from my perspective, if you're going to do that, you might as well for sure, without a doubt, 100% find out if you have anything at all in AR. And if you don't, then that's just another guy on the team that you're selling along with.
00:33:51
Speaker 4: The rest of the team.
00:33:52
Speaker 1: And, Matt, I understand that.
00:33:54
Speaker 10: There is a chance.
00:33:55
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, though.
00:33:56
Speaker 12: There is a chance he's something different without Ballard, another year under his belt, he's more mature, and maybe he's not.
00:34:04
Speaker 4: But at this point, what do we have to lose?
00:34:06
Speaker 3: Totally.
00:34:07
Speaker 1: Here's my thing, Matt. And, Matt, I don't disagree with that, but here's my area of concern, okay? What reason do we have to believe that Anthony Richardson would be a Colt next year? Let's say he, as the kids say, let's say he goes and balls out, right? Let's say that he's all of a sudden it's like, holy cow, that he flipped, you know, he turned the page and he's, he's playing phenomenal football. Why would he be here next year? I mean, that's my question, Matt. I appreciate the call. I believe it's Tawan who is next. Eddie, I'll let you scan him through here. Tawan joins us next on the program. Eddie, go to line three, to Tawan. Matt, I appreciate it. Did I say it right? Is it Tawan? Is that right? Are we having problems with the phones, Eddie? There we go. Tawan, you there?
00:35:00
Speaker 3: Yes, sir. I'm here.
00:35:00
Speaker 1: Sorry about that. All right, your thoughts.
00:35:03
Speaker 3: My thoughts is... The Colts are a bad franchise, and they're boring. You throw A.R. in there, at least it'll bring a little bit of excitement to the games, because nobody wants to go to the games and watch a snooze fest. A.R. isn't the greatest, but he will bring a little bit more excitement to the game.
00:35:22
Speaker 1: I don't disagree with that. He does have a little more... Here's the thing, Tuan, I think you'll agree with this. Even if he hasn't shown the.
00:35:31
Speaker 1: The regularity, the consistency, or the level of pop or juice that was thought of when he was such an intriguing prospect, there still is that intrigue, right? Yes, sir. It's very similar. I keep saying, and they wear the same jersey number. Are you a Pacer.
00:35:50
Speaker 3: Fan, Tuan? Oh, yeah, you can say that.
00:35:54
Speaker 1: So Jairus Walker to me is Anthony Richardson. Like you can see it. Like you look at his body, you look at the occasional flashes, and you're like, oh, my gosh, look at that. And then it just goes back into hibernation for long enough where it is super frustrating and you keep waiting for it. But you want to see him out there because you never know when he might hit that pretty three or have a good defensive play or whatever else, and you're like, man, I'd hate to pass on this if there isn't something there because he's still young enough. But in Richardson's case, I appreciate the call, Tawan. My thought simply is that, like Matt was saying, I get it. You want to see if there's something there because before you completely burn it down, you want to cross-check every reference. But if you're Anthony Richardson and you play well and you use this time period to finally show that, yes, you've learned it, you're mature, you've got a better hold of the system, and the skill set is there, or the raw materials are there, he's already requested a trade. And to my understanding, he's never rescinded that trade request. And while I think he appreciates the fact that he's been a good, you know, for the most part, he seemingly has not been vocally inside the locker room, a bad apple. But if he shows something, some other franchise is going to make him an offer, and he's gone. Because they did not pick up his contract. So he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, free to go wherever he wants. And if your girlfriend tells you, you know, I just, the more that we've gone along here, I think maybe we should start seeing other people. Then the second that somebody else comes up and starts talking to you, you're probably like, you know what? It doesn't seem like my girlfriend's completely into this. Paul, what's up, Paul?
00:37:48
Speaker 10: What's up, Jake? How you doing?
00:37:50
Speaker 1: I'm well. I know you're the director of giddiness. What's your level of giddy today?
00:37:58
Speaker 10: I'm giddy that I have a great job that I enjoy. And that you pulled it out on Saturday.
00:38:05
Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough. All right, Colts thoughts?
00:38:09
Speaker 10: I would love to see Anthony Richardson back there. One, he showed yesterday that, you know, when the pocket collapsed and they were coming in on him, he could get away from a the rush and actually do something with his legs. I think he's matured. I think he's grown up, and I think that him sitting back watching and getting humbled beyond belief is going to do great for his career after this, whether it's here or somewhere else. I just think he deserves another chance because he's He's been through it.
00:38:44
Speaker 6: He's sat.
00:38:44
Speaker 10: He's gotten humbled. And I think he's ready to take on this role and show not just the coach but the rest of the league what he can be as a starting quarterback.
00:38:54
Speaker 3: All right.
00:38:55
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, Paul. I don't disagree. I appreciate it. And, yeah, the legs are there for certain. Now, the other thing, too, there's one other aspect of this that we've got to consider. But there are a lot of curveballs that come with it, and I'll explain what I mean next. This is what everybody's yelling to Chris Ballard right now. You did. You started it. You know, the situation that they're in, it's very easy in life in general to always point the finger towards the departed person. And I don't mean somebody who passed. I mean in business. Somebody who's moved on to another job or been fired or whatever else. It's like, has anybody seen, by the way, that, I mean, what is going on? We just overlooked it, and we're looking at the numbers here in the books, and what is going on with our finances in terms of our spending outgo last year? You've got to blame John. He was the one that was supposed to be in charge of budgets, and he left. Even though everybody knows that it was Brian's fault, but we're going to blame John because he's the guy out, and he's not here to defend himself and explain. So that's an easy and perhaps at times even lazy narrative to just automatically point everything at Chris Ballard and be like, his fault, his fault, his fault. There are places of blame all over the place. But you have a situation right now and a large reason why the Colts are in this spot. Think about this. They gave.
00:40:41
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones. A two-year contract for $ 88 million. I think $ 60 of which is guaranteed. Now, of that $ 60 guaranteed, and I just looked this up again to make sure that I'm clear here, he's a $ 19 million cap hit this year. He becomes a $ 46. 8 million cap hit if he's released before the end of next year.
00:41:06
Speaker 3: $ 46. 8.
00:41:06
Speaker 1: Now, That contract, and I understand it. When your owner comes out and says, we're just going to unpause this movie, I'm going to bring back Shane and Chris because they were 8-2, and I liked the way the movie was playing, and then the projector broke, so we just hit pause, and we got the projector fixed, and we're going to unpause it. As soon as she said that, Then Ballard knows, okay, well, I've got to take whatever it's going to take. I've got to get this guy back because he was our quarterback when we were 8-2 and the owner loves him and the way that we were playing and whatever else. But they gave him that money without totally understanding and knowing whether or not he was going to be 100% healthy. And I do believe. Now, like I said, there's no guarantee that if he's healthy that he is automatically back to that rhythm that he was in when they were 8-2. I personally felt last year that the injury, the injury a year ago to Daniel Jones allowed us to not to be spared seeing what we're seeing. And that is that I think he started regressing before the injury happened. And we were on the path for a real disappointment. And then the injury happened. It's like, okay, well now there's reason for why they're going to struggle. But what, nobody seemed to take note of a year ago was you removed the quarterback out of the equation and found out your roster's not very good. So you thought that just like the one quarterback was going to come back and that was going to be the difference, not coming off an Achilles? So that number is really hard to move on from. People that I have no choice but to respect in terms of their placement and understanding of football, and being around it and covering it a long time, are mentioning Daniel Jones as a trade possibility for contending franchises like Minnesota, for example. And I'm like, am I missing something here? What incentive is there to go out and get a guy that you're going to pick up for next year a $ 46 million cap hit if somebody else is to take on that contract? for a guy that I think is still playing through and not 100%. And with an Achilles, you just never know. I don't think the mobility's there. Certainly the speed isn't there. And the sliding and moving around that allowed him to be who he is is not there. Will it come in time?
00:43:54
Speaker 4: Maybe.
00:43:55
Speaker 1: But that's a big investment. But the other thing, the other two aspects that put them in the spot they're in right now, the Alec Pierce contract, which we almost have forgotten about, They gave Alec Pierce that money knowing at the time that he signed the contract, it literally was like, hey, we're going to run by Kinko's and print out this contract so you can sign it. And then it's perfect because there's actually an outpatient surgery place down the street. So once we sign the contract, then we'll go and do your surgery and get the ankle taken care of.
00:44:26
Speaker 13: What?
00:44:29
Speaker 1: Who knows when we see him again? We've completely forgotten about it. And then the last aspect, which is the Anthony Richardson aspect of it, because yes, there might still be intrigue there, but you denied and it was the right decision. I get it. There was no reason to go ahead and pick up the option on his contract. And you had to send that message as well. But I think they really thought when they did that, that they were going to end up trading him. and that it was going to be an intriguing trade for somebody because, hey, we can send you this guy for this year, and he's in the last year in his deal, and then you can re-sign him. And when nobody called, now you're in a position where I understand that everybody wants to see him play, but you didn't pick up the option on his contract. So all you are doing, theoretically, is getting people excited to let him audition to whoever the next franchise is going to be that's going to take on the finalization of that project. the group project. You're doing all the work for the group project so that somebody else can come in and potentially then turn it in for a B. That's where you are. But I guess at the very least, it's like, hey, Anthony Richardson's plan, guess what? Spike those secondary ticket prices up to 28 bucks for Colts Dolphins.
00:45:46
Speaker 5: Right?
00:45:49
Speaker 1: But, and several people, and I'll read the text on the other side here, have another option that seems to be the popular one. I'll explain that, and we'll get into college football next. Busy, busy day in the world of sports here in Central Indiana. Butler and Lafayette tonight, college basketball. 7 o'clock on our sister station, Fuego, pregame at 6.30. It is Indiana and Eastern Illinois in college basketball. That would be Marty Simmons, by the way, the head coach for Eastern Illinois. 7 o'clock over on our sister station, WIBC, pregame at 6. Purdue and Gonzaga getting underway tonight. That is on TNT television and Matt Painter on with J & B. You just heard Caleb mention that in that 38-second promo that he did. And then the Pacers and Hawks tonight, 7.30 start. 7.30 because it's a back-to-back pregame at 7 o'clock here on this radio station.
00:46:44
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:46:45
Speaker 1: Nobody says that.
00:46:47
Speaker 4: Now.
00:46:48
Speaker 1: For the Colts, before we get into college football and the weekend that was, and something I think is interesting on the horizon in college football, I have seen plenty of this. And I agree, by the way, 100% with whoever it is that wrote in and said, Daniel Jones broke his leg three weeks before they announced it.
00:47:09
Speaker 4: Again.
00:47:09
Speaker 3: Again.
00:47:12
Speaker 1: I don't know about three weeks. I think something happened in the Atlanta game overseas last year. But I thought Pittsburgh, when they brought the house at him defensively, exposed his inability to handle heat and pressure. And then Atlanta carried and piggybacked off that. And that's where I think it was his fibula initially. that was compromised, and then that led to the Achilles in Jacksonville. But several people have pointed out that Riley Leonard is their answer. Why not see what's there in Riley Leonard? Let's see what's there in Riley Leonard. I think, and I get it, but that to me feels like, and we see this a lot with the Pacers, and I'm totally victim of this when it comes to the Pacers. Like last year. There are guys that played well, and you're like, you know what? I really like this guy. And we've seen it over the years when there are situations where a guy gets in and gives you quality minutes for a game or two stretch. Micah Potter comes to mind. And I like Micah Potter, right? I'm like, boy, they should really. But then you realize that in big boy, when it matters, in the trenches, stuff. You're like, yeah, that was a nice fill-in piece. O'Shea Brissett. Guys like that. And at the quarterback spot, we've seen that over the years here. Paul Justin.
00:48:47
Speaker 3: Oh, man.
00:48:48
Speaker 1: They went out and played well against Green Bay. Paul Justin. There's your guy. Lindy Infante says, Paul Justin, rest of the year. They're going to hand the keys over to Paul Justin. Kelly Holcomb. Came in and played well against Cleveland. Kelly Holcomb's the guy. Let's just start Kelly Holcomb. But there's a reason why in the beginning of the year, nobody sees these guys more than whether you trust them or not, the coaches, the execs, whatever else. I think Riley Leonard, just from an arm standpoint, is is really limited. And that's the challenge. I think he is the proverbial donut tire. Perfectly sufficient if you need to get to the next exit, but I don't think that he is the long-term solution or answer. And I think that if you try to go that route with it, you find out pretty quickly where things are. Jim joins us at 239-1070. I want to get into college football as well, but let's continue the Colts conversation for the moment. Jim, what's up?
00:49:52
Speaker 9: Hey, I'll be brief. I appreciate everything you do for us, man. You're great at your job. Real quick, I didn't know that the Colts were a farm team because if you look at the performance... Of these players, I'll name five names. Adonai Mitchell, 178 yards, 12 targets. That's last week. Zaire Franklin, leads tackles. Then you have Quinny Paye, six tackles, four QB hits, two sacks in one game. Nick Cross has lean tackler on one game. That's a couple times over the year they've done well. And, you know, we've got all these players that are going to our places. And let's go all the way back to Tom Brady's last year in New England when they won the Super Bowl. They had four traveling guys for the Colts who were their backups, like a John Simon, and they won. So have we turned into a farm team, or do we know yet?
00:50:48
Speaker 1: Here's what's funny about that, Jim. And by the way, Jim, just so we know, are you working today? You got the day off? What's going on today in Jim's life?
00:50:55
Speaker 9: I'm retired, man, so I can do some things or not, but I wanted to listen to you this morning.
00:51:00
Speaker 1: Well, and I very much appreciate that, but based on your kind words about me, I wondered if you weren't day drinking. But it is very much appreciated, right? I do appreciate it. And you make a really good point, Jim, that I've thought a lot about myself, because when you look at those players, then you wonder, In fact, were they properly assessed coming out when they were acquired by Indianapolis and then just not developed? Or is it not that they weren't developed, but rather they were miscast and they were trying to utilize them in a system totally different than what would be advantageous for them here? Because you are correct that we are now seeing repeated examples of players that as soon as they get out of here, they blossom.
00:51:45
Speaker 3: Now, A.D.
00:51:45
Speaker 1: Mitchell's case, to be fair, everybody in town after multiple boneheaded plays were done with him. And, you know, maybe he just needed time to grow up a little bit. But yes, Quiddie Paye is a good example. I mean, there are others, right? There are certainly others. Who is the one? Eddie, help me out here. I can't believe I just spaced on the name. Who was the defensive tackle that went to the Titans that suddenly became a player as well, like three or four years ago?
00:52:14
Speaker 6: Danico Autry, the defensive lineman?
00:52:16
Speaker 1: Thank you. Danico Autry. That's another one, right? They kind of gave up on him. Then he goes there, and it's like, oh, man, there's something there. Jay, 239-1070. What's up, Jay?
00:52:29
Speaker 14: Oh, yeah. What's going on? I just want to say this, man. A lot of people don't realize that Anthony Richardson has actually had a winning record, and he hasn't played since 2024, so.
00:52:43
Speaker 14: You know, I think between that time, like one of your callers said, he had time to sit back, watch the game, you know, mature. And I do believe strongly that if he's given the opportunity to finish out the season as the co-starting quarterback, man, that he's going to raise some eyes, you know, and people are going to be like, wow, man. And like what you said, he could just– decide to say, hey, man, I got a whole lot of teams interested in me, and Indianapolis, the way they did me, I think I can do them now.
00:53:16
Speaker 1: And that's the one thing, right, is, listen, I would love to see it for him. I'd love to see him get an opportunity to show that he's grown up and he's learned and all of those things. The question is, in the business aspect of it, in a personal aspect of it, you'd be happy for the guy. From a business aspect, and this is a business, DeForest Buckner is in San Francisco and Quentin Nelson is in Seattle because this is a business. And in the business aspect of it, if he comes out and plays well, it helps the Colts long-term?
00:53:50
Speaker 3: None.
00:53:52
Speaker 1: Because if you're Anthony Richardson, assuming that if he plays well that there are going to be teams that have interest in him, then you would be best served to basically follow what we were just talking about previously. what Jim was saying, and that is, hey, I'll just join the list of players that go and leave here and blossom elsewhere. Rounding us out on the phone call segments here will be Ray. Ray, what's up?
00:54:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, you there with me?
00:54:25
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:54:25
Speaker 1: What's up?
00:54:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is Brian. My name is Brian, not Ray, but that's all right.
00:54:29
Speaker 1: Oh, that's all right. Sorry about that.
00:54:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think our problem is our business acumen, man. You know, we give away Quentin Nelson for, and if they say a third and a fourth round pick, it's not a third and a fourth round pick. It's a fourth and a fifth round pick. And we give away DeForest Buckner for a fifth round pick. Those are two teams we're going to draft last and they say we wouldn't do anything about it. Anthony Richardson is the youngest quarterback in the NFL still today. He never got a chance to develop. We spent– now, not only did we spend $ 80 million on Daniel Jones, not only did we spend $ 50 million, made him the highest-paid wide receiver Alex Pierce, not only did we give two number-one draft picks away for Saltz Gardner, we have a management problem. We have an ownership problem. Forget the players. Fire all of our management. Have Kyle Hersey sell the team to somebody else. That's our problem. Time after time again, we're asked to pay premium prices for a subpar product. Anthony Richardson, the number four overall draft pick, never had a chance in hell to do anything in Indianapolis. So we just not only forget about it because we're going to give him away anyway, give the kid a chance to prove that at least we were right drafting number four.
00:55:47
Speaker 1: Ray, let me ask you something.
00:55:49
Speaker 4: Yes, sir.
00:55:50
Speaker 1: What line of work are you in?
00:55:51
Speaker 4: I run a construction company.
00:55:55
Speaker 1: Because here's the thing. Now, when you say a construction company, are you building buildings, roads, bridges?
00:56:01
Speaker 4: I run a company called Leaf Filter. I install gutter protection on people's homes.
00:56:06
Speaker 1: Okay. Because you could, and I don't need gutter protection, but if you told me that you were going to build patios and decks, I would have you come tomorrow and do it. And I'm being serious when I say this. Clearly, I think you have an understanding how to build things. Clearly. Because I totally, totally, totally agree with everything you just said. And in terms of Richardson, the one area, Ray, where if I'm doing it on a pushback here, there is some of the Richardson misstep I think that we have to say was on him, right? I do think that I don't disagree with you that they pulled the plug maybe too early on it, but some of that was precipitated by his own action or inaction. But everything else you said in terms of the way that they have handled their money, the way that they've handled their selections, the way that they have basically just put eggs in baskets before they even knew if the basket was strong enough to hold the eggs, I totally agree with everything you said. And for that reason, Ray... I think it's entirely possible that Carly Ursae Gordon is going to treat the front office the way you treat gutters, and that is cleaning all the way through until it is spotless.
00:57:26
Speaker 3: Right?
00:57:27
Speaker 4: It would be her best thing that she could do. How does Shane Steichen still have a job? And that's the question. I know we're getting off topic, but how does he still have a job?
00:57:38
Speaker 1: I think Shane Steichen still has a job at this point because, and it's a great question, Ray, and I appreciate the call. Certainly appreciate it. If you go back and you look at when Carly Orsay Gordon did an interview when she first kind of ascended into the primary owner, I mean, after the passing of her father, and she said, based on precedent, that the one thing that she learned in observing, remember the notepad, was that it doesn't work when you get a general manager and a head coach that are starting at the exact same timeline. And I think what she was referencing there, people are going to think she's talking about Ballard and Steichen. I think what she's referencing is she witnessed the dysfunction that took place with Ryan Grigson and Chuck Pagano and her father's decision to extend both of them at the same time. They both came in at the same time. And so because they were supposed to, by design, work step by step, The proper chain of command, I think, was not necessarily there in place because literally there were two guys that bounced into each other in the hallway carrying in their boxes and sat them down and said, oh, hi, nice to meet you. And they started at the same time. And so everything was supposed to work, quote, attached at the hip. And for that reason, I think for her, she is looking at it saying, if I fire Shane Steichen right now, then whatever general manager I bring in, theoretically, It's going to be seen as the general manager and the head coach, same thing all over again. And I think it's very important for her to bring in a GM and let that GM then organically make those moves so it is very clear the proper pecking order and chain of command. And I realize rhetorically you're asking the question, but I do think that that goes a long way. Now, we may find out between now and when John's on the air that Shane Steichen's out of a job. But I do think it's possible that Shane Steichen rides out the year because I look at it the same way I do with Anthony Richardson. And that is, what is the gain for this season right now? Even though, when you look at it, you're like, wait a minute. You keep thinking in the back of your mind. I guess at this point, you're better off just playing for the draft pick. And they're like, oh, that's right. It goes to New York. Every possible scenario that the Colts are facing right now They're in that position because when it came time to prepare, they made the wrong decision. And therefore, every scenario you look at, whether it's quarterback, whether it's head coach, whether it's general manager, whether it's draft picks, all of it, every single one of them, they're in that situation because the previous chess move, they made the wrong move and checkmated themselves. I mean, that's kind of where they are. College football over the weekend, Did you watch, Eddie, the Indiana-Minnesota game? I'll ask again. Eddie, did you happen to watch the Indiana-Minnesota game?
01:00:34
Speaker 6: Yeah, sorry. I was working on something.
01:00:36
Speaker 1: That's okay. Am I the only one that thought it? First off, let's go back to this. I know that there's a lot of talk about Kurt Cignetti and the timeout at the end of that game and where he may have erred. And it's not often. I mean, a year ago with Indiana, a year ago with Indiana, Indiana made literally zero mistakes. You didn't see timely or untimely penalties. This team, from a coaching standpoint and from an X's and O's standpoint, Indiana hit everything correctly a year ago. They pushed every correct button. And it feels to me like this year, even though they are winning because they're very talented and they're very good, some of the areas where they seemingly were always having the right answer a year ago, they're starting to show a little bit more self-inflicted vulnerability. And that includes from a coaching standpoint. And I know that's probably blasphemous to say about Kurt Cignetti, who is clearly the elite of the elite in coaching. But he started to make a couple of questions that they've survived, but in tighter games or bigger moments, even though there's not much bigger moment than when you're at a home game and homecoming and you're on national television. Yeah, I get all that, but you get what I'm saying. I thought they dodged a couple of bullets is what I'm getting at, and they are bullets that if they're playing in, say, a playoff game, you're not going to survive that. But that's part of why you go through the– the schedule and everything in general, and you survive those things and you move on. But I thought, and I heard no one mention this, and maybe I'm, I mean, it wouldn't be the first time I've been a moron, but when Minnesota hit the 60-yard field goal to presumably win the game, the one area that surprised me is that they didn't squib it.
01:02:43
Speaker 2: Because then all you do if you're Indiana is you fall on it. You don't try to return it.
01:02:49
Speaker 1: No, but if you.
01:02:52
Speaker 1: No, but you fall on it until you're touched, right? No, you're down in college. Once one knee's down, you're down. Okay. Because... But they kicked it. If I'm not mistaken, Indiana took the touchback, right? Either way?
01:03:06
Speaker 4: Yes.
01:03:07
Speaker 2: So no time would have come off the clock.
01:03:10
Speaker 1: So I guess, where did he kick it? I can't recall. Where did he kick it to? Was it a flat-out touchback or was it a non-return?
01:03:17
Speaker 6: It was a touchback.
01:03:20
Speaker 1: So, okay, at that point, so then don't you kick it? You see what I'm saying? Like, why would you not kick it then to, like, the 10 and force Indiana to try to either return it or take a knee and then have to go that way?
01:03:31
Speaker 6: So a shorter kick, not a squib kick.
01:03:34
Speaker 1: No, a long– yes, a shorter kick as opposed to through the end zone, yes. What I'm saying is I thought that they just went through the routine on a touchback there without– forcing Indiana the possibility to burn because as it turns out three seconds was the difference or two seconds was the difference right I thought Minnesota kind of misplayed at the end there because they were under the assumption the game was over and when you have Charlie Becker the game's not over because I mean it was a great catch that he made now I also believe from Indiana's standpoint.
01:04:11
Speaker 2: They also did not kick to Indiana at any point in the game. I think they were worried about the return game for Indiana.
01:04:17
Speaker 1: But in the end, though, on that last play, I mean, I get you want Indiana to have to do some return and burn clock, right?
01:04:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I haven't watched enough Minnesota Golden Gopher football to tell you if they're good or not in coverage on kickoffs.
01:04:31
Speaker 1: Well, but I mean, what are the odds you're going to give up?
01:04:33
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, if it's been an issue for you all season long on kickoff coverage, I would probably avoid it because that's something that Indiana has had success in in the one area on special teams is their kickoff returns.
01:04:45
Speaker 1: But again, I will maintain it. I thought Minnesota played too conservative, if you will, there towards the end as if to assume that Probably like most of us did. I mean, you saw plenty of people that were like, oh my gosh, Indiana just got beat on a 60-yard field goal because what are the odds that you're going to see back-to-back 60-yard field goals? I mean, like I said, it's never happened in the history of football, collegiately or professionally, either one. But now for Indiana, what time do they play on Saturday? Do you know, Eddie?
01:05:19
Speaker 6: They're off this week. They're idle.
01:05:21
Speaker 1: They're idle and then they've got USC, right?
01:05:23
Speaker 6: Correct.
01:05:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's okay. So, So USC, with that game on Saturday, and I watched the very end of it with USC and Ohio State, I thought USC, I really did think to myself, Indiana is now in position where they're going to win out, right? And I thought Minnesota played very well. And for Indiana, the real advantage they have here with the bye week is the fact that And I was uncomfortable with people that were booing Josh Hoover. And I get you're not booing necessarily the person individually, but just the disappointment of what you're seeing. I don't know this. I'm not telling you something that someone told me. But just in watching it, I'm like 99.9% certain in saying this. He's hurt. It's not that he forgot how to throw or that he's just a wildly inefficient quarterback. I think he has. Now, I'm going to make a comparison to a 50-year-old guy, and I'm not a leading the country and passing efficiency level Division I quarterback. But I'll never forget, last May, I was in a park, and there was a guy hitting tennis balls, like against the wall. And one of his tennis balls went errant, and it came down towards where I was, and I picked it up to throw it back to him. And I haven't thrown a baseball or a football or anything, and it's not like I regularly go out and play pitch and catch. But I went to throw the ball, and I'm like, oh, my gosh. I threw the tennis ball 20% the distance I used to be able to throw a tennis ball, and I felt this really bad pain. Well, since then, I've learned that I had basically scarring in my rotator cuff. For that reason, I could not move my arm in a full rotation without my body naturally stopping, and that's why I couldn't throw the ball to the level of velocity that I've been used to my entire life. I think if you look at Josh Hoover and the reason that he is sailing the ball over, he is overthrowing or he's throwing high, it's because his release point is earlier because I think he has a shoulder injury where he cannot oscillate his arm all the way through. And so maybe, and I have no idea if that is a season-long injury or something that like with a week of rest and ice comes back. I have no idea. And I don't even know definitively that's what he has, but it certainly looks that way to me. And then he got obviously hit, and that's when they made the change in the move. But I think he's hurt. I think he's hurt, and we'll see whether or not they go back to him. And I think the reason Kurt Cignetti was slow in making that change is because Cignetti also, I think, knew that he was hurt and knew what the limitation was, but felt that was still their better option. And then the other question becomes... By USC beating Ohio State, I'll ask you this real quick, Eddie. Is Ohio State out?
01:08:23
Speaker 6: I think so.
01:08:24
Speaker 1: Do they have to play their way back in?
01:08:26
Speaker 6: Well, it would take a miracle.
01:08:28
Speaker 2: They would be needing a loss from Indiana because they would need to be tied with IU in the Big Ten standings.
01:08:34
Speaker 6: Right now it's Indiana and Ohio State.
01:08:38
Speaker 1: Or UCLA. Yeah, I know. Ohio State has the tiebreaker over Indiana.
01:08:43
Speaker 2: That's why I said that they need to be tied with Indiana in the Big Ten standings to make it to the Big Ten championship, and they would have to win.
01:08:49
Speaker 1: See, I think they're still in. I think they're still in because they have one conference loss and two total losses, but both of those were against teams that were at the time of loss in the top five on the road.
01:09:00
Speaker 4: Jake.
01:09:00
Speaker 2: Well, I'm sorry, USC's not top five. Without Julian saying, Jake, I think they have to win the conference. They have to win the Big Ten championship in order to get in.
01:09:09
Speaker 1: So you think if they get to the Big Ten title game and lose that game, they're out. That's probably realistic.
01:09:15
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:09:16
Speaker 1: But then again, nobody else is necessarily season control, right? I mean, every week, like, there is so much parity right now amongst the top 12. Like, who's the best team in the country? Is it Miami?
01:09:28
Speaker 2: I think the Big Ten is a two-bid league if Indiana makes it to the Big Ten championship. If Indiana does not, then it's a one-bid league.
01:09:36
Speaker 1: Okay. But Indiana, assuming that if Indiana, UCLA, and Ohio State all went out, Indiana does not go to the Big Ten title game, right? If Indiana and Ohio State both have one loss, Ohio State gets in over Indiana and takes on UCLA.
01:09:52
Speaker 6: I think it would depend on Julian Sand.
01:09:56
Speaker 1: If Ohio State wins out and gets, all I'm saying is this, regardless of the college football playoff, if Ohio State wins out up to the Big Ten title game, then they go to the Big Ten title game, correct?
01:10:08
Speaker 13: Yes.
01:10:10
Speaker 6: Same for Indiana.
01:10:12
Speaker 1: No, not accurate. If Ohio State and Indiana both.
01:10:16
Speaker 6: That's what I said. If they both went out, Ohio State's in over Indiana, yes.
01:10:19
Speaker 1: Oh, in over. I thought you said same for Indiana. Yeah, you're correct. Mike Chappell, by the way, back to the Colts conversation, joins us next. Colts yesterday, and again, if you're just joining the program... Where have you been? I looked it up yesterday. In the totality of Peyton Manning's time as an Indianapolis Colt, they had two wins. Two-a. By 35 points or more. They had a 36-point win over the recently expanded Houston Texans. I think in year three for the Texans. That was a 35-point win. And they had a 36-point win over the New Orleans Saints down in the Superdome. That should tell you how lopsided that was yesterday in every way, shape, or form. Mike Chappell joins us now from CBS4 and WXA on Fox 59. On the Game Day Men's Health guest line, Chap, I will begin with this. If you had to forecast it, will we hear any sort of breaking news regarding the Colts and front office and or coaching decisions? Not front office, I guess, because we've already had that. But will there be changes between now and their next outing?
01:11:40
Speaker 5: I would say no because it normally happens first thing Monday because as much as people don't want to think about it, there are still games to be played. And if you're going to fire your head coach, well, you've got to start the preparation for Sunday. So the same for the defensive coordinator if you want to go that route. Also, let's be honest. It's not going to matter. Changing anybody is not going to matter. It'll appease people. I don't know whether we've reached the point that the players have tuned out Shane Steichen. If they have, shame on them. They've done nothing to earn turning people off. So never say never. But it's funny, as I say that, I keep glancing at my phone, refreshing, because you never know. But they normally meet. Jim sometimes, when he was really PO'd, they would meet Sunday night because he wanted to let everybody know that he wasn't happy. I get the impression now they meet in the morning and, you know, they met with Shane last week and he was okay. So, yeah, I think we're okay, but I keep refreshing as we talk.
01:13:02
Speaker 1: Chap, give me an area– with this franchise right now. This year's over. And it was over the second that they made those two trades because the rest of the locker room, what we saw yesterday, what we saw yesterday was the players themselves took those trades with the same messaging as the rest of us. And they know it's over. Okay? Give me the one area, if any. If I'm a Colts season ticket holder and I'm putting my hard-earned money into it, to go down to games, and I'm looking forward to it, and I'm like, you know what, I get that this year's a wash, but now there's next year. Give me the area where I should be optimistic. What's the one area where they seem to have covered that base and they're in good shape?
01:13:52
Speaker 5: Special teams. Rigo's still a quality punter, and Luke Rhodes is a quality snapper, and until two weeks ago, Schrader was perfect, and I'm reaching. No, I don't know where. Offensive line, well, you got rid of Quentin, which made sense on every level.
01:14:12
Speaker 1: I would agree.
01:14:14
Speaker 5: And it's a young offensive line. You don't go to games to watch the evolution of the offensive line. You don't. Defensive line, I thought Shane really had to reach to credit. I think he did it for a reason. When he praised Caden Curry for playing his frigging balls off, I think that was the case of him saying, this guy's out there laying it on the line. What are you doing? So C.J. Allen, I thought he played well and he's going to play more and more and more. But I don't know what else. And people have to understand that, I mean, don't you think Jonathan Taylor is gone? I don't understand. I've never understood. It's never made sense to me that you want him to be part of your rebuild.
01:15:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, there is not a single– I hate to say this, Chap, because he's a wonderful player and seemingly a really nice guy. But when it comes to Jonathan Taylor, he's a victim of circumstance around here, and that is that their circumstance is if they're moving forward– This is not a team that's moving forward of, Hey, next year we'll get everybody healthy. No, this is a complete rebuild. It's not a reset. It's a rebuild. And in that capacity, based on timelines, he brings you no value. And that's crazy to say.
01:15:40
Speaker 5: And you've wasted his career anyway.
01:15:42
Speaker 1: Right.
01:15:43
Speaker 5: I'm still, I always point to, you know how hard it is to have a running back rush for 1800 yards and 20 some touchdowns and you not make the playoffs, which they did. Uh, So, yeah, I don't know. You know, desperation and as a deadline nears, his price will go up, I suppose. But if you can get a two and a, what, four? I don't know. I would take it. I don't think you're going to get a one for Jonathan Taylor. And if they do, kudos. Kudos for that. And I don't understand what they did yesterday with Taylor. He had eight carries and a couple of catches. And I don't understand why, yes, the game got out of hand. I understand that. But either play him or don't play him. I didn't understand how they used him like they did. And every time a running back's on the field, there's a chance of getting hurt, which every player runs at risk. But this is your one commodity that can, and I hate to sound like a cold-hearted NFL type, but he's an asset and you risk that asset by playing him. So I don't understand what they were doing.
01:16:57
Speaker 1: Chap, I would even say yesterday's game didn't even get out of hand because to make that statement would indicate that it was in their hand at some point.
01:17:05
Speaker 5: It was 7-0 until they did that funky thing with Taylor and Downs and whatever that play was going to be.
01:17:12
Speaker 1: That play, listen, that play, there is no– remember back in the day, Chap, when they used to come out with a DVD of like the Colts season in review and it was like the highlight season that they'd sent out– They don't need to do that anymore. Just send that play. Here is your 2026 Colts encapsulated in one moment. You got the guy that requested a trade with a football on the ground and he decides to dive in the opposite direction. You got the running back they've completely overused that didn't know exactly what he was supposed to do on the trickery. And you got Daniel Jones that wonders what the hell he's even doing out there to begin with, watching and observing all of this with an offensive line that's breaking down in general and can't get back over the football line. When they tried trickery and it didn't work. It was the perfect encapsulation of their year.
01:17:57
Speaker 5: Well, once JT stumbled, the play's over.
01:18:00
Speaker 3: Right.
01:18:00
Speaker 5: Go down and all that.
01:18:03
Speaker 1: But they can't even execute the cover-up of a screw-up correctly.
01:18:07
Speaker 5: Right.
01:18:08
Speaker 3: Well, yes.
01:18:10
Speaker 5: And the more players they get rid of, JT, Josh Downs, I mean, when a player so obviously doesn't want to be here, I don't know whether I want to trade him or make him endure the rest of the season. I don't know. But I tell you, and one thing that's kind of under the radar, Jacksonville lost a really good run-stuffing tackle yesterday. Grover Stewart, I'd just leave you down in Jacksonville and have them send me a draft pick. I would do that in a heartbeat. I don't care.
01:18:44
Speaker 1: If it isn't... Because he's on a contract here as well, right?
01:18:47
Speaker 5: He's done what... He's expiring contracts.
01:18:49
Speaker 1: So he could be their Booger McFarlane, right? You just get him and.
01:18:52
Speaker 3: Right.
01:18:52
Speaker 1: Now, Jack, for what reason? Because I've heard this a lot. Mike Chappell's my guest, CBS4 and WXA and Fox 59 on the Gain Day Men's Health Guest Line. I keep hearing, and I don't know where this is coming from.
01:19:04
Speaker 4: All of.
01:19:04
Speaker 1: Like, Minnesota supposedly has this interest in Daniel Jones, and I'm going... what am I missing here? What, why would you a take on that contract and B what has he possibly shown other than they're looking at it? They're going, maybe he's 80 Mitchell. Maybe he's quitty pay. Maybe he's Danico Autry. Maybe he's a player like all of them that seemingly once they get out of here, they find this new juice of life in the fountain of youth. What possibility would there be of intrigue for somebody to save the Colts from Daniel Jones?
01:19:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's, uh, like Washington did with Carson Wentz. Uh, Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Again, Kevin O'Connell, he's the quarterback whisperer, and they just traded J.D. McCarthy. So I don't know what's going on there. I think Kyler Murray's a problem there, but I don't even remotely see Daniel Jones being part of the solution. And if he is, you can drive him up there in, what, eight hours, ten hours? So I would do that in a heartbeat, and I don't care what the compensation is because they're taking the contract. Yeah, that's why, again, I've always said there's four or five guys I trust nationally, the insiders. Some are just throwing spaghetti on the wall and see if it sticks. So that's one that's crazy. We're going to get Shane Steichen at 220 or whatever. That's the plan. And the only question, I guess two questions, in retrospect watching the video, did your team quit yesterday?
01:20:42
Speaker 1: No, they never started.
01:20:44
Speaker 5: Well, I'm talking effort. And doggone effort, you play 17 games. Effort is like signing your name to your test score. At least do that. But also, what are you doing at quarterback? And I don't know that he's going to give us an answer. I won't be surprised if they stick with Daniel Jones but say, really stress he's got to play better.
01:21:10
Speaker 1: Okay, what benefit is there for the Colts for Anthony Richardson to take over the reins and play well?
01:21:16
Speaker 5: Entertainment value? I don't know. It makes more sense to start Riley Leonard to see what you've got. But to do that, you've got to elevate him to number two and demote somebody to three. So it's, it's, it's a bunch of bad options. And I think Joel Erickson might've mentioned this yesterday. I wasn't in Minneapolis, but he apparently like these last nine games, these are preseason games.
01:21:46
Speaker 6: Yeah.
01:21:47
Speaker 5: That's what the fan base is going to be watching. And it's, it's, that's, that's the issue when, when Carly Ursae Gordon pulls the plug, which she did. When she traded Buck and Nelson.
01:22:00
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, here's my one-man pilgrimage. And if you want in on it, we can make it a two-man effort, okay?
01:22:05
Speaker 5: I don't know if I want to be side-by-side with you.
01:22:09
Speaker 1: But listen, I think you'll like this one. You ready?
01:22:11
Speaker 5: All right, I'm ready.
01:22:13
Speaker 1: Now, we have to make sure, by the long-range forecast, that there is no precipitation between here and Boise, because we know there's no drainage system inside Lucas Oil Stadium. But November 29th, when the New York Giants come calling... You got, you know, it's festive weekend. It's the end of the month. Let's make it interesting. Let's make it interesting. Roof and window open, baby. Outdoor football. Get John Facinda to narrate it, talking about the frigid temperatures of Lucas Oil. And you get the Giants and the Colts, and let's slug it out, baby. Let's go for win number three, and let's do it while rocking it old school like we're at Riverfront Stadium watching Ken Anderson hand off to Pete Johnson. Let's go, right?
01:22:58
Speaker 5: God, if they're going for their third win, wow. Because you've got Miami in there coming up. Of course, Miami's got this game circle on their calendar, too. That's a sad. Philly?
01:23:09
Speaker 1: Miami might tank it just because Miami actually does have a first-round position to play for, right?
01:23:15
Speaker 4: I know.
01:23:16
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's why everything is– they're in such a bad way. That's why whatever I can get drafted. I'll tell you one thing. I don't care if I get like six round draft picks. I don't care. I think past the fifth round, you're just throwing darts. Now, if you want to get a bunch of draft picks to move up, fine.
01:23:37
Speaker 1: We don't even know who's going to be drafting for them. We don't even know who's going to be coaching who they draft.
01:23:42
Speaker 5: I don't care who's drafting. I don't want 15 draft picks if seven of them Or in the sixth and seventh round. I really don't.
01:23:51
Speaker 1: Outdoor football, baby. That's the answer. Outdoor football. Colts, Giants, old school. I'm telling you right now.
01:23:59
Speaker 5: I was wondering where you were going when you mentioned Boise, Idaho. I didn't think we were going to walk to Boise and protest.
01:24:05
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you. I'm telling you. All right, chap. We'll see what happens over the course. Keep refreshing that phone. And if something breaks, if something happens, I know you'll be there for us. Appreciate it.
01:24:16
Speaker 5: Be well, guys.
01:24:17
Speaker 1: All right, Mike Chappell joining us, CBS4, WXAN, Fox 59. We come back. Did you say Don's in or out, Eddie? Do we know yet?
01:24:23
Speaker 4: He's in.
01:24:24
Speaker 1: Don Fisher will join us about 40 minutes from now, recapping not only Indiana in football as they get ready for a bye week, but basketball season, Hoosiers in action. Tonight, we'll do that in 40 minutes. Now, I'd like to announce the disclaimer here that it's a little bit gloomy out. It's kind of a rough weather start to November here. But that's not to say that there's not a ton to be thankful for in the month of Thanksgiving. We can be thankful that Indiana is 8-1 after surviving what was a fabulous finish against Minnesota. We can be thankful that.
01:25:12
Speaker 3: The....
01:25:14
Speaker 1: Even though Purdue football has kind of come up the rails here a little bit, at least offensively they played well and that their basketball program starts tonight against Gonzaga. We can be thankful that Indiana basketball gets underway tonight. You can hear that beginning of pregame, 6 o'clock here on our sister station, WIBC, against Eastern Illinois. Or that the Pacers get a chance tonight to bounce back after last night's total debacle in keeping with the sports theme of Indianapolis teams yesterday. against the Hawks at 7 o'clock, 7.30 tonight, pregame at 7, because it's a back-to-back, so they start at 7.30, or that Butler is playing tonight against Lafayette, 7 o'clock on our Cistertation Fuego with pregame at 6.30. But at the same time, we can also have, with all of that, even though with this gloom in terms of the weather and the bright spots... At least we have something to talk about today in terms of just getting things off our chest. And I got fired up about it at the beginning of the show earlier, and I'm going to do my best to, in a more succinct and calm fashion, reiterate to you some of my frustrations of both franchises in this town.
01:26:35
Speaker 4: Next.
01:26:37
Speaker 3: Hi there.
01:26:37
Speaker 1: Good afternoon to you. My name is Jake Query. Eddie Garrison, the other voice you hear on this program.
01:26:41
Speaker 4: Hello.
01:26:42
Speaker 1: We call it Query and Company here on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan. And certainly all of you within the company, I appreciate each and every day you are listening to this program. I appreciate the messages over the course of the weekend and interacting with everybody. It is truly, it is a privilege. Especially that fella.
01:27:03
Speaker 6: About the Pacers game.
01:27:05
Speaker 1: What's that?
01:27:05
Speaker 6: Especially the fella asking you about the Pacers game.
01:27:08
Speaker 1: There was a guy that was very concerned as to why Shannon was not with me at the Pacer game last night. She was feeling... Last night or Friday? This was last night. Last night's game. She was with me on Friday at the game. But she opted out yesterday. But it is a privilege to be able to discuss sports each and every day here in my hometown.
01:27:32
Speaker 4: And.
01:27:32
Speaker 1: I am well aware.
01:27:38
Speaker 1: Of the passion that people in this town have for sports. Matter of fact, I look forward to speaking about exactly that in the introduction for a program with the Indiana Sports Corps coming up on Wednesday. And so because I have this incredible passion about sports here and wanting to see this city succeed in so many ways, I may be like this hopeless romantic about the teams here. Not in the way of being a homer, but I try to limit my vocal frustration so that it doesn't just become... If you did it all the time and you didn't try to navigate your way through and be reasonable about things, then it loses its oomph when you as a listener can say, okay, this moment, be really bad because this isn't the typical form, so to speak. So I try my hardest, even when times I'm frustrated, to not let it show all the time because I try to have a level of objectivity. And for that reason, I went into yesterday's Colts game not optimistic, but curiously realistic. I thought to myself, you know what? Maybe the Colts sent a message. Maybe this was 6-D chess. Maybe the Colts are actually far smarter as an organization than I have given them credit.
01:29:32
Speaker 6: Have you attempted to play that game?
01:29:35
Speaker 1: 6D chess?
01:29:35
Speaker 6: Yeah.
01:29:36
Speaker 1: You know, chess, just even the 1D chess, I tried to play it once in Washington Square Park in New York City and it was over before it began. I'm sure the 6D is probably six times the degree of difficulty, right?
01:29:51
Speaker 6: Probably.
01:29:52
Speaker 1: And I went into the game saying, okay, Let's see where the chips fall. Show me what you can do. They traded DeForest Buckner. They traded Quentin Nelson. Two pillars of this franchise. Maybe that sent the message. Maybe they were really smart because they knew they were going to rebuild anyway, and so they were sending the message to the rest of the roster. If these guys can be traded, then what does that mean for you? And maybe that meant that they were going to go out there and play at a level with an intensity that none of us could have possibly imagined. Maybe that's what they were thinking. That's what I told myself. And then it happened. They secured, they justified, and they finalized all thoughts anybody could have had That they were trying to stave in the sake of being optimistic. That yesterday was a joke. That was a joke. That was an embarrassment. That was a shame. And it was a sham. That was a franchise that indeed got the message. They got the message loud and clear from the owner. They got the message loud and clear from the interim general manager. And the message was simple that they received. That entire locker room got the message that we all knew in the back of our minds but didn't want to admit because we were trying to talk ourselves into the excitement of being able to go and have to watch this team every Sunday from here on out. And the message they received was, it's over. It's over. Professional athletes aren't dumb. Professional athletes are not only competitors, but they also have a pride about it. But at the same time, when they see that message of the two pillars of the franchise being traded, then what they know is this is not a retool. They are blowing this thing up. They're blowing it up. And if that's how they feel about this team and if this organization has already punted on this season, and it's their right to do so, and I'm not saying it's the wrong approach, but for right now, for the rest of this season, it's over. It's over. Welcome, welcome to nine games of exhibition football. Welcome to it. And the encapsulating play, for me, happened when the Colts were down 7-0. They were down 7-0, and you thought, you know what? It's Halloween weekend. Let's reach into the bag of treats, and let's try to trick them. We're going to try to trick Jacksonville, and we're going to treat the audience to an exciting play of sweeping around and having our running back, who's our one bright spot, and a guy that's capable of running for 1,800 yards in a non-playoff season. Let's have him sweep around, and then what we'll do is we'll do a little trickery, and we'll get it to our open space guy, the guy that said he wants to be traded, that has no interest in being here, but we'll have him make a play for us. And we'll do all of that with our non-mobile quarterback that we're putting out there, even though everybody can tell now that he's still injured and he has no mobility whatsoever and has no accuracy at all and is starting to look actually like, once we took the mask of Halloween that he's wearing, that he's actually the same quarterback that New York gave up on. This will be exciting. And you know what? Like everything else they've done for the last half dozen years, they fumbled it and they screwed the whole thing up and wet themselves. And when they did, Josh Downs, the wide receiver that wants out, his last name might be Downs, but guess what? When the ball's on the field, guess where he ain't going? Down after it. Because why would you? That means that you have effort. That yesterday was an abomination of everything that you ask out of your fans. You've been asked, dig a little deeper, show a little more heart, be there for the shoe. And everybody in this town has given up on that team. Everyone. We didn't talk about it. And we still were pretending that maybe there was a full-size candy bar within the remaining nine games. But no. What we know is actually it's just a big, huge bag of that black and orange wax, whatever it is, peanut butter toffee candy that nobody wants. That's what's in the remaining bag for the Colts this year. And that effort was abysmal. And then afterwards, I thought to myself, you know what? I'll give Shane Steichen a little bit of benefit of the doubt here because they completely undercut him. If Shane Steichen feels like he can rally the troops, if he can get out there and give that Normandale speech, I don't care what the scoreboard says in my book, we're going to be winners. Or maybe he was going to go in and give his very best. Miracle speech. You were born to be players. Your time is now. Maybe that's what he was going to do. But he looked over that locker room and he had to be, in the back of his mind, aware that he was looking over a locker room of a bunch of guys that were looking around and they were seeing the captains on both sides of the football that had commanded that locker room jettisoned out to greener pastures. And instead of saying, gosh, if they can get rid of them, what are they going to do for me? I'm going to play harder. It was a locker room that said, clearly the year's over for them. So yeah, at least I get a free trip to Florida, even though Jacksonville kind of isn't that and it's raining. That's how it looked. But I was going to go and say Shane Steichen, they undercut him. They took the juice away from him because of the message they sent. So I was curious to see what he would say after the game. And then I heard it. And it was this.
01:36:40
Speaker 7: All start off, open up. Flat out wasn't good enough. Got outplayed, got outcoached in all three phases. We have a lot to fix. I've been saying that for a while. But I understand that in this league, it's freaking hard. And you've got to find ways to win games. And you've got to find ways to get out of holes. And right now, we're not doing that good enough. And we've got to be better at that.
01:37:00
Speaker 1: You can't see me right now because it's radio, but you might be able to hear.
01:37:06
Speaker 6: Hands over eyes.
01:37:07
Speaker 1: I've got my hands over my eyes. What are we doing here? I am so tired of hearing about how we've got to fix things and clean them up and we've got to do it quickly. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. Do you have a DeLorean? Do you have a DeLorean, please? Shane Steichen? Ed Dodds, do you got a DeLorean? You got a large cable that goes to the clock tower? Because we need 1.21 gigawatts because the only way that you're going to turn this around and do it quickly is to go 88 miles an hour and go back in time because it's too late, brother. It's over. It's over. You can't sit here and tell me over and over and over. And I like Shane Steigen. I think he's a nice guy and I think he's a very good offensive football coach.
01:37:50
Speaker 3: But.
01:37:52
Speaker 1: Even though I think they undercut him, the reality is don't sit here and tell me you got to get this fixed and you got to get it fixed now. No, it's over. You needed to get it fixed in like 2023. It's the same old crap over and over and over. At the very least, if we're going to go back and party like it's 1985, can we play BTO and give out Johnny Coach Kroger posters? Because that's where we are. Hey, are we going to go out and put out our veteran quarterback that we thought was going to be the answer and then we found out that we actually overpaid and gave him an inflated contract?
01:38:29
Speaker 4: Or.
01:38:30
Speaker 1: are we going to go out and put out the young guy that we drafted that everything was hinged upon and then we pulled the plug probably too early or never gave him resources because we want to blame it on one helmet tap and now here we are and we're stuck and what is the path going forward? What is it? Now, Maybe, maybe it was just a matter of effort. And if it comes to effort, if the coach can't inspire anybody, and if the message from the general manager or interim thereof can't inspire anybody, and if the owner's moves can't inspire anybody, maybe the leader, maybe the leader of the team can inspire them. And there's no more important position of leadership in sports than an NFL quarterback. And maybe the NFL quarterback, the guy that you gave $ 88 million to, the guy that's $ 35 million a dead cap if you decide to release him, maybe that guy is the one that can get him inspired. So I'll ask him, I'll ask Daniel Jones, Daniel, was there effort on this team? If not, what can you do about effort? You're the leader. You're the quarterback. You're the most important position in sports. Daniel Jones, please tell me, was there an issue in your overall observation on effort?
01:39:40
Speaker 13: Yeah, I think, um, obviously any effort issue is, is unacceptable and, and, um, Wherever that is or wherever we see that will certainly be addressed and corrected.
01:39:53
Speaker 5: We certainly can't have any effort issue.
01:40:00
Speaker 1: We can't have any effort issue. We should have an um-gong. When you say um four times in 19 seconds, what that means is I'm fishing for words because I have no clue what I'm supposed to say here, even though I'm the veteran quarterback of this team and the leader. Because you know what? When you're the quarterback, what that means is that you're supposed to be able to think quickly on the fly. Why is he in that position? Why did he get a two-year deal that Chris Ballard inked him to even though he was coming off an Achilles injury? Because everything about the Colts has been in Achilles, right? Everything, every decision they've made for the last eight years, 10 years has been an Achilles in the end. And in that situation, you gave the money to that guy because he was the one when he was on the field and the arrows were flying past and the decisions were being made and audibles had to be called. He was the extension of the brain of Shane Stike and the quarterback whisperer. And he was able to think quick on his feet. But yet, when you ask him about lack of effort in a game where you got embarrassed by NFL terms, embarrassed, humiliated, run off the field, in that situation, all he can come up with is four ums in 19 seconds. Because he doesn't know what he's supposed to say. Because he knows as well as you, there was no effort. It was non-existent. And it was non-existent because everybody on that team now is playing individually for themselves.
01:41:36
Speaker 5: I know.
01:41:37
Speaker 1: We heard about it. It's character. It's guys that play for the shoe. It's guys that have faith and belief in the shield. And I'm not saying it makes them bad people. But as of right now, it makes them bad teammates. Because there's no pride.
01:41:54
Speaker 3: None.
01:41:55
Speaker 1: There's no belief.
01:41:56
Speaker 3: None.
01:41:57
Speaker 1: There's no vision.
01:41:58
Speaker 3: None.
01:42:00
Speaker 1: It's over. And when they made those two trades, everyone knew it was over. And for that reason, there now, seemingly, is no choice but to continue doing what they sent the message that they'd started to do. And that's tear the whole thing down. It's rebuild though.
01:42:19
Speaker 4: It is.
01:42:21
Speaker 1: It's not even open. It's on fire.
01:42:23
Speaker 3: Right? 100% start over.
01:42:26
Speaker 13: Rebuild.
01:42:30
Speaker 1: Now, I looked it up yesterday and I mentioned it earlier. To put in perspective how badly they were beaten yesterday, the golden era and the gold standard and the benchmark in this town for football, without a question, is that of the Peyton Manning era. And I know it's unfair and I know it's ridiculous and I know it's antiquated. To sit here and constantly go back, get back, get back. I remember Peyton played. I get it. But that's the standard. You go right now. You probably walk around right now and there's somebody walking around rocking the Marion County tuxedo. You know what I'm talking about. Lee jeans and a tucked in Peyton Manning jersey.
01:43:15
Speaker 3: Right?
01:43:17
Speaker 1: You go to the grocery store on a Sunday night. You go to a game on Sunday and what are people wearing? Quentin Nelson jerseys? He's gone. Alec Pierce jerseys, let me know if you can see where he is. Also gone, right? Not literally, but at least for the year, I'd be surprised if he plays again.
01:43:40
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's the changer going out there, the battery.
01:43:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, right? So who are the players that you see the jerseys being worn? Peyton Manning jerseys still to this day, Reggie Wayne jerseys, Marvin Harrison, Edgerton James, Bob Sanders, Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, Dallas Clark, excuse me.
01:43:59
Speaker 6: The other teams.
01:44:00
Speaker 1: The other teams. You know, and the reason why is because that's the gold standard. And in Peyton Manning's time as an Indianapolis Colt, they had two victories.
01:44:14
Speaker 3: Two. Two.
01:44:16
Speaker 1: That were as resounding as what Jacksonville did yesterday. They beat the Houston Texans in the Texans' third year of existence by 35, and they beat New Orleans down there by 36. That's it. In NFL terms, it's literally like dog years. A 35-point defeat in the National Football League is literally like losing by 70 points. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won a game yesterday where they did not complete a pass. And they won by 16. The Colts go out there and that play at 7-0 totally, symbolically typified everything of this year. You're running back who's trying to still execute. but is completely oblivious and unaware of the fact that they're in the middle of a rebuild and says, no, we're going out there to try to play the game. And he's running around, getting ready for the big bag of tricks. And the quarterback, who's done about all that he can do on that play by simply dropping like 10 yards off the line of scrimmage because he can't move anywhere, and now he can do nothing but watch. And a fumble and a lack of execution and the wide receiver... who wants out, showing how badly he wants out by quitting on that play. And maybe he lost his footing, but diving for a loose ball in the wrong direction. Because this franchise and this team right now, all of the directions they choose are the wrong one. Indiana made the right decisions down the stretch, although there appear to be a couple of red flags for Indiana football. But a win is a win. But what can you learn from it, and where do they go now into a bye week? And Indiana basketball getting underway tonight. Don Fisher, the voice of the Hoosiers, to talk about both those angles of it next.
01:46:20
Speaker 5: It's Monday.
01:46:21
Speaker 6: It's 1230.
01:46:22
Speaker 5: It's fish.
01:46:23
Speaker 12: This is entertainment, so we thought we'd put some entertainment value into this game.
01:46:28
Speaker 1: The snapback is Drew Claussen.
01:46:30
Speaker 6: The man who'll hold it will be Quinn Warren and Patty McAteer. Here it is. Kick is on its way.
01:46:36
Speaker 1: Got plenty of leg into it. And is it good?
01:46:38
Speaker 6: Yes!
01:46:40
Speaker 1: It is good!
01:46:41
Speaker 6: And Patty McAteer ties the ball game!
01:46:44
Speaker 1: Here's the snap to Grant. And Will fires it down to the end zone.
01:46:49
Speaker 4: Touchdown!
01:46:56
Speaker 5: And Indiana, on the first play in overtime, hits Hayter.
01:47:01
Speaker 6: This team just finds a way.
01:47:03
Speaker 1: The voice of the Hoosiers, Don Fisher, joining Query and Company on 93.5 and 107.5 The Fan. That's how it sounded with Don Fisher and Indiana getting their win over Minnesota on Saturday late afternoon, early evening with... And Don, I'm sure you are aware of this by now. He joins us now on the Game Day Men's Health guest line. You know, in all of the times that you, me, anybody, it is, can watch and or broadcast sports, I guess you can always see something that's never been seen before. But having two guys hit 60-yard field goals, back-to-back possessions of one another has never been done collegiately or professionally and was unbelievable. Which of the two did you find yourself more in shock that it went through?
01:47:54
Speaker 8: Well, the truth of the matter is I didn't think the first one was going to go in. And I just thought it was, you know, a 60-yarder, that's going to put in pressures on, and you're at 19 seconds to go in the game. But the Minnesota kicker hasn't missed a field goal this year, and he didn't miss that one. So it went 60-plus yards, and then Patty McAteer comes right back and does exactly the same thing right down the middle, just like the preseason.
01:48:20
Speaker 1: Kick.
01:48:21
Speaker 8: It was just astounding that that happened in a football game, but I got to broadcast it. I am so happy about it because I'm, I'm celebrating a year or two or three of firsts at Indiana.
01:48:33
Speaker 3: Yeah. No.
01:48:33
Speaker 1: And you know, another one, Don, let's be honest here. I, If I'm calling the Indianapolis 500 and some car comes around that has blown an engine and it looks like the entire field's about to catch him, and then I look down and realize that Charlie Becker's the one driving the car, I'm going to say to myself, you know, this thing's probably still going to win the race. Because honestly, like that guy, every time, seemingly, Don, for the last two years, every time they need a play, that guy seems to deliver for them. And considering that he was not a marquee recruit, it just seems, does it not, to typify Indiana football under Kurt Cignetti?
01:49:13
Speaker 5: It does.
01:49:13
Speaker 6: There's no question about it.
01:49:16
Speaker 8: Charlie Becker has been the find of the century as far as Indiana football is concerned. To have that kid not be heavily recruited out of high school, for him to come to Indiana, play all three years that he's played under Kurt Cignetti, And under Mike Shanahan, who's obviously the offensive coordinator and the receivers coach, I mean, it's just amazing what that kid's been able to do, what he has done, and what he continues to do. And, you know, some people would have said, well, maybe last year was a bit of a flash in the pan. It's not a flash in the pan. The kid's as good as anybody in the country as a receiver, and that includes Jeremiah Smith. And I'm not putting Jeremiah Smith down in any way, shape, or form. I know he's a tremendous talent. But Charlie Becker is just as talented in my mind.
01:50:07
Speaker 1: I think the thing that is, Don, like take for example the play that set up the 60-yard field goal. It was a great play and a great connection. But I mean, what was almost overlooked about it because it's become the norm was how he was able to kind of contort himself. And if it's in area of that guy, not only does he find himself how to get open, but I thought he made a great play twist of the body to be able to make that catch. And that to me is what separates him as a receiver, right?
01:50:40
Speaker 8: There's no doubt, and the fact that he is that athletic to do that, but on top of that, that's what they practice all the time, and they practice that back shoulder catch all the time, and it comes in a variety of ways. You may have to turn the other way, too. It's just an amazing process that they go through. These kids work at it every day, and Charlie Becker is as hard a worker as anybody on this football team in regards to being a receiver, so there's It's a combination of things. It's coaching, but it's also the pure talent of a player and his ability to be the great athlete that he is.
01:51:18
Speaker 1: Don Fisher, the voice of the Hoosiers, is my guest here on the Game Day Men's Health Guest Line. Indiana with a bye week now. We'll get to basketball here in a second, Don. I know that today is usually when you get a chance to hear from Kurt Cignetti, so maybe he has yet to address this, but knowing Josh Hoover... and clearly there's an injury to the shoulder. I know that they still went with him, and then he got kind of knocked out of the game, and they went with Grant Wilson, who played well. But has Cignetti given any indication as to, with the bye week, A, whether or not Hoover's injury is one that can be a one-week recovery and it gets better injury, or what is the thought process right now as where it stands at quarterback?
01:52:00
Speaker 8: Well, that's the question everybody's having because we don't have a press conference today because of the bye week. Therefore, there's no press conference, so we did not go to Bloomington today. I just listened to the Big Ten Network guys, the talking heads on there, talking about Indiana and the situation with Grant Wilson and Josh Hoover. And they made it sound like that. In fact, I called my wife just to see because I'm not on social media, as you know, and I called my wife to see if what they were saying was accurate, because the host of the show, I think it's Rick Pizzo, but I don't know that. That's not Rick Pizzo.
01:52:37
Speaker 1: It's the other guy.
01:52:38
Speaker 8: But at any rate, whoever is hosting the show actually made a statement like Kurt Cignetti had made the change to Grant Wilson. And that's what it was going to be for the USC game. And I and I I went.
01:52:51
Speaker 3: What?
01:52:52
Speaker 8: What are you talking about? Because that's what he intimated. So at any rate, nothing has been said in that regard. I don't know that there's going to be a change or that there's even the thought of that happening if Josh is healthy. We'll just have to wait and see on that. But again, we won't get anything this week. I doubt that we would hear anything about that. I don't know why Kurt Cignetti or the coaching staff or anybody around Indiana football would put that out there right now because they wouldn't want the opponent to know that.
01:53:20
Speaker 3: Right.
01:53:21
Speaker 1: No, for sure on that point, Don. And, you know, you've seen it. Grant Wilson is obviously a veteran player. I mean, it goes without saying. Yeah. And he played very well when the keys were handed over to them there in that situation. But that's different than in totality of a game. You have obviously seen him. If in fact, and we're speaking in hypotheticals, if Grant Wilson, if Josh Hoover is not able to go and Grant Wilson starts against USC and Does it change at all schematically plays that Indiana would run offensively? How is he a different quarterback than Hoover?
01:53:54
Speaker 8: Well, I would argue the one thing that I do know about the difference in the two is that he's a much bigger player.
01:54:01
Speaker 6: Obviously, he's taller.
01:54:03
Speaker 8: He's also bigger thick-wise and all that kind of thing physically, and he can run the football. He did that at Old Dominion when he played there before he came to Indiana. He was a very good runner of the football in addition to being a good thrower. I haven't seen enough of Grant in play-by-play situations at this point. I saw him in the first three games of the year. He came in in mop-up duty in all three ballgames. I don't think he played as much in the North Texas game as he did in the other two. But at any rate, he did run the ball one time, and one of his opportunities, I think the first play that he ran... against, I can't remember which team in the first three games, but he ran a 46-yard run and set up a touchdown. So he is really a good runner of the football because he's big and physical. And he's also, obviously, he showed on Saturday, he's got a good arm, and he also can put it where it's supposed to go. So there's no doubt he's a good quarterback. He wouldn't be on the All I can tell you is I think we've got a guy that can handle that backup situation if, in fact, it comes to fruition.
01:55:10
Speaker 1: If, in fact, it is him, could that open up? Because the one area, Don, that has really, and you and I have talked about this, I loved it the first part of the year, and certainly last year, the way Indiana was able to run the football. But I think because of Hoover's limitation due to the injury or the perceived injury, teams are kind of loading the box a little bit there. If it's Wilson, does that have potential to open up their running game? Because you've got to drop back a little bit and be mindful of it.
01:55:38
Speaker 5: Exactly.
01:55:39
Speaker 8: There's no question. I don't think there's any doubt about that, if that in fact comes to fruition. But again, there's so much speculation on it now, and there will be until we probably play the ball game or Curt Cignetti comes out and says, this is what I'm doing, which I.
01:55:53
Speaker 6: Don't think he's going to do.
01:55:55
Speaker 8: So all I can tell you is it's up in the air at this point. I hope Josh is not hurt significantly because they're going to need him too. Both these guys are capable, but there's a reason Josh Hoover's been the starter all season long.
01:56:09
Speaker 3: You know what that is.
01:56:11
Speaker 8: He's obviously the best quarterback. At least that's the perception of the coaching staff.
01:56:16
Speaker 1: Obviously, coming into it, he has the track record of passing efficiency everywhere. and just being able to run that offense. We'll see where things stand on that. We'll keep an eye on it. Again, Indiana a bye week football-wise. Basketball tonight, Eastern Illinois, 7 o'clock. Our sister station, WIBC pregame. at 6. Don, I know that, and I heard you on with John, I had to chuckle about it on Friday, when you said you got a chance to talk to Marty Simmons and the former Hoosier, who is now the head coach at Eastern Illinois. Apparently realistic about his options tonight, right?
01:56:47
Speaker 8: I think he thinks he's got a better roster than he had a year ago, or maybe the last couple of years at Eastern Illinois. But when I talked to him and I know he was talking in jest, but at the same time, it was kind of funny because I did. I said, how are you doing? Marty says, I'm not doing good at all. He says, I think we'll get the crap kicked out of us.
01:57:06
Speaker 1: He's honest, right?
01:57:07
Speaker 8: So he was quite honest in that context, there's no doubt about it. But he was also being.
01:57:12
Speaker 6: Funny, too.
01:57:12
Speaker 8: So I get it, and I understand why he said what he said. But I do think Indiana will win the game tonight, and they'll probably win it going away if they play like they did in the first three exhibition games.
01:57:23
Speaker 1: Don, just out of curiosity, Marty Simmons was, and a lot of people maybe forget, That he came in in that same recruiting class along with Steve Alford and Daryl Thomas, Todd Meyer. Really good era. And he is one that obviously ended up transferring and finishing and having a great career at Evansville. But yet it's interesting to me because in the world of IU basketball in that era... When players would transfer, to a lot of Indiana fans, it was like they were out of sight, out of mind then. And Marty Simmons, to me, seems like one that is still thought of as the classic IU basketball player. You know what I mean? What's your relationship been with him, if at all? Because it seems like he has a good relationship with Indiana basketball.
01:58:05
Speaker 8: Well, and he should, because Marty is still revered in the state of Indiana. He played for the University of Evansville after he left IU. He played for Jimmy Cruz. He was a great player at Evansville, and obviously he was a really good player at Indiana. Bob Knight and he did not get along famously, probably because Marty had a tendency to get a little overweight during the offseason.
01:58:27
Speaker 4: Yep.
01:58:28
Speaker 8: And it was always an issue with Coach Knight, and Knight didn't like that. But the fact of the matter is that Marty Simmons is a guy– I've had a great relationship with him because we played Evansville when he was the coach there. We played him at other places too. I think he was down at Clemson for a year. I think a year in which Indiana played Clemson. And he wasn't the head coach there. He was an assistant. But my point is I've got a really good relationship with the guy. He's a great guy to talk to. He loves basketball. He loves coaching. He's been at Eastern for six years now. This is his sixth season, and he hasn't left there. And I said, Marty, are you looking at any place else or anything like that? And he goes, you know what? I really love coaching ball, and I really like Charleston, where Eastern Illinois is located. So I think the guy is a very happy guy right now because he's doing what he loves to do.
01:59:17
Speaker 1: Seven o'clock tonight is the tip and the pregame six over on our sister station, WIBC, Eastern Illinois and Indiana and a team that from the basketball standpoint, I think Darren DeVries has a versatile roster and we'll see which way and which style they begin in playing tonight and where their points come from. Cause I think it can come from a lot of different areas, but that's one of the fun things to watch about this team. Now we'll be listening tonight. Appreciate the time as always and enjoy the bye week as well.
01:59:44
Speaker 6: Jake, can I add one thing here?
01:59:46
Speaker 1: Yep.
01:59:47
Speaker 8: And we're going back to football here. I am sick about what our fans did on Saturday in regard to booing Josh Hoover, booing Niko Radicic, booing period. In two and a half years at Indiana University, nobody has ever seen anything like what this program has provided them. And there is no reason at all at this point with a ball club that has lost one time this year to be booing anybody on the field, whether it be coaches, whether it be players. Indiana football is at a precipice that they've never been at in the history of the school.
02:00:21
Speaker 1: So please stop booing. Totally agree. And Don, on top of that, I mean, not that it would be justified either way. But he's hurt. I mean, clearly he's hurt, right? I mean, people are upset because he's sailing balls. And I'm like, well, yeah, but he can't get the proper rotation on the arm. I mean, clearly he is fighting through something there. Totally agree, Don. Completely agree. I mentioned it earlier. Totally agree with you. So I appreciate you saying that.
02:00:44
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks for the soapbox.
02:00:46
Speaker 6: Appreciate it.
02:00:47
Speaker 1: As always, Don Fisher, the voice of the Hoosiers, joining us on the program. All right, JMV is lined up for his show at 3 o'clock. We'll find out what he's got cooking. We'll do it as part of, of course, our crossover brought to you by the good guys at Love Heating and Air. Love-HVAC.com is the website. 317-353-2141. We made it the whole way, Eddie, without you playing Burning Down the House. By talking heads. But Josh Downs wants to break free, and apparently with that trade request, started early yesterday, right? He was like, nah, I'm good. I don't need to jump down and get on that loose ball.
02:01:31
Speaker 4: I'm good.
02:01:32
Speaker 2: And then doesn't have the stones to stay in the locker room in front of the media and answer any questions. Dips out before the media is allowed in. So he has the trade request go public. Minutes after talking with the media last week has not made his face present since.
02:01:50
Speaker 1: JMV just made his face present. The crossover brought to you by Love Heating and Air. John, that was yesterday, a rough day of sport viewing here for Central Indiana, whether we're talking about the Colts or the Pacers, right?
02:02:02
Speaker 15: I'm telling you what, you talk about two professional events that sucked for different reasons.
02:02:08
Speaker 6: But suck nonetheless.
02:02:10
Speaker 4: I know.
02:02:10
Speaker 6: I haven't checked.
02:02:11
Speaker 15: I just walked from one studio to the others. Is the coach still in place?
02:02:16
Speaker 1: We keep refreshing.
02:02:17
Speaker 6: Lord have mercy, guys.
02:02:19
Speaker 15: And if it doesn't matter, well, it doesn't make much sense to move on. You might as well keep him here. Then why is it okay? Why can't you just go ahead and move along?
02:02:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
02:02:31
Speaker 6: Does it matter at this point?
02:02:32
Speaker 1: The only thing I can think is because She has talked about how she doesn't want timelines of general manager and coach to be the same, but you're kind of going to be in that position anyway because unless you wait, if you fire the coach, you bring in a GM, and then you let him make the coach selection, but you still are along the same timelines here. With everything, John, seemingly, as I talked about, all of the decisions that for the last couple of years have been made turn out to be the wrong one, right?
02:03:04
Speaker 3: Yeah.
02:03:04
Speaker 1: I hate to say it that way, but that's just the reality.
02:03:06
Speaker 6: So Chris Ballard, he got fired. The last draw was that embarrassment of Tennessee. I would argue that yesterday was more embarrassing than Tennessee.
02:03:15
Speaker 1: Well, that was a locker room that is– I mean, they got the memo, right? They got the message that it's over.
02:03:20
Speaker 3: Yeah.
02:03:22
Speaker 15: And then start sending you Daniel Jones. And I don't care if I don't see Daniel Jones. I don't want to see Anthony Richardson. I really don't care who quarters quarterbacks at this point. Is anybody else?
02:03:31
Speaker 1: Riley Leonard. And then they're going to bring back Ricky Turner as the backup.
02:03:35
Speaker 6: Whatever you want to do.
02:03:36
Speaker 15: I'm just I'm kind of done with it because they look done with it. So why shouldn't Iowa, why shouldn't everybody else be done with it?
02:03:42
Speaker 1: Totally checked out, right? Matt Painter today, is that right?
02:03:45
Speaker 15: Matt Painter's going to be here, Gonzaga and Purdue later on tonight, and go back-to-back with the Pacers. You talk about a dismal performance. Hey, it's one thing to be down dudes, and they certainly are, but that was the Nets. I mean, come on, the Nets at home. You've got to be able to cobble something together with the personnel you have to beat the Nets at home. Do you ever wonder why Jay Huff plays?
02:04:06
Speaker 1: Last night was, I mean, listen. Does he do anything? He hits his first three in every game, although he didn't last night. He did not attempt a two-point shot last night. He had three rebounds.
02:04:16
Speaker 6: I don't think he did anything.
02:04:17
Speaker 1: He fouled out with three rebounds. He did not attempt a two-point shot, and he had, I think, three total points.
02:04:24
Speaker 15: I know it's really early. And I'm just specific to last night. But these are games you need to win when you're injury compromised because, again, it was the Nets at home.
02:04:34
Speaker 6: You got to take care of that. The normal Sunday night routine they have, too.
02:04:39
Speaker 1: The thing that worries me, it is early. But it's one thing if it's early and you know that you have the guys that need to acclimate with one another playing, and you don't. You've got to get Zubats, Halliburton, and even Toppin. Toppin would have helped him last night. I mean, I know he's hurt, but he would have helped him last night just because at the very least you could have gone small but had a center there that could get some rebounds for you.
02:05:03
Speaker 6: Do you think Spaz is ever going to get into this thing, or how long is it going to take?
02:05:07
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, right?
02:05:10
Speaker 15: Well, I see so Spastic. Is he just trying too hard to fit in and do things?
02:05:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
02:05:18
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, they've got– John, they have like three guys that seemingly haven't yet fit in, right? Just trying to find– one thing I noticed is Larry Nance Jr., like there were like two different times when he was called into the game and like I don't know if he couldn't hear him or what, but it's like, dude, you're getting the number called. Like get in there, you know?
02:05:38
Speaker 15: The other thing about it is their pace of play last night was just god-awful slow.
02:05:43
Speaker 6: It looked like some old man half-court lead.
02:05:46
Speaker 1: You know the guy on the floor when they try to play fast that to me looks like he's not acclimating with it is Oubre. Yeah. Oubre doesn't look like he can get it going.
02:05:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, Siakam said after one of the recent games that it's going to take him a minute. Siakam was like, yeah, it's really hard at first because.
02:06:01
Speaker 6: About spaz?
02:06:02
Speaker 3: Yeah.
02:06:03
Speaker 6: Okay. Yeah, because you play like.
02:06:04
Speaker 2: 5 basketball, so you're just trying to get the understanding on where everyone's going to be.
02:06:08
Speaker 15: Can you just not run to like a spot on the break or something? Maybe not try to out-rebound your big man and then get him injured?
02:06:15
Speaker 3: Yeah.
02:06:16
Speaker 15: Nobody's around you? That's the spaz that I'm talking about right here. I hope that he fits in, but he doesn't look like he fits into anything.
02:06:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree.
02:06:23
Speaker 15: I guess it would take a little bit longer. I knew that I would be uncomfortable in being patient.
02:06:29
Speaker 1: I knew it.
02:06:30
Speaker 2: You have to realize he's not playing the role that they signed him for yet. So he's trying to figure everything out at the same time.
02:06:37
Speaker 6: He's playing basketball, Eddie. This is not rocket science here, pal. I get it.
02:06:41
Speaker 3: I get it.
02:06:41
Speaker 6: Jesus Christ.
02:06:41
Speaker 2: I get it, but you assigned him to do one specific thing. It's like Jairus Walker. Jairus Walker looks great when he knows what his role is going to be.
02:06:49
Speaker 1: Jairus Walker.
02:06:49
Speaker 15: No, it's just a roll of the dice. He looks good one every five times out. Jairus Walker did hit a three yesterday that brought rain. And then you're like, oh, here it is. And then it's Anthony Richardson. You're like, we're back.
02:07:00
Speaker 3: I know.
02:07:00
Speaker 6: I got to be more patient. I'm trying, guys. I'm trying to practice patience.
02:07:05
Speaker 4: All right.
02:07:05
Speaker 1: Matt Painter with John later today. We're back at 10 tomorrow.
