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Speaker 1: Your home for college football Saturdays is live with CBS Sports Analyst Rick Neuheisel, powered by Taco Time.
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Speaker 2: Hungry?
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Speaker 1: At Taco Time, it's easy to create exactly what you're craving, and we wouldn't have it any other way. How do you Taco Time? Customize your meal and order ahead on the Taco Time Northwest app. Taco Time, time for something different. Now with Rick Neuheisel, here's Sathi and Dick.
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Speaker 3: All right, big thanks to our friends over at Taco Time for sponsoring this weekly chat with our friend from CBS, former Husky head coach, and still, still, guys, the last man at UW to win a Rose Bowl 26 years ago. Peterson went there. Others have gone, but they have not won the way Rick Neuheisel did, and he still owns that title, joining us right now on the show.
00:00:46
Speaker 2: How are you, man?
00:00:48
Speaker 4: I am fantastic. How about you, boys? Congratulations on the naming rights. That's a little money in the coffers, right? Yes.
00:00:57
Speaker 2: Dick and I get 10%, by the way. So, yeah, we'll be throwing a big party to celebrate that. And we'll be retiring.
00:01:02
Speaker 1: I figured you.
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Speaker 4: Guys would have you. I figured you guys were involved somehow, someway.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we pushed it through, man. It was our doing.
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Speaker 3: But, I mean, talk about that for a little bit because you're still a dog. You're a Husky fan, obviously. Ten years, $ 70 million. $ 7 million a year is the biggest in the history of college football. But it comes at a little bit of a cost to tradition. Husky Stadium officially will no longer be called Husky Stadium. It's now Columbia Bank Stadium. What do you say to people that are a little bit heartbroken about that realization?
00:01:36
Speaker 4: You know, there are going to be those who are going to call it Husky Stadium no matter what because they've been going their whole lives, right? But it's going to be announced on television and referred to as Columbia Bank Stadium. And I think we just say thank you to Columbia Bank in this day and age. at least for the foreseeable future, until 2031 rolls around and we redo this whole thing, whether it's 24 teams at that time or we go back. this whole college football paradigm will be rethought. Because I believe, in my heart of hearts, that there'll be a collective bargaining agreement that will accompany the 2031 season. I think until then, we just have to kind of keep up. And right now, Columbia Bank, with their deal, has given the Huskies a chance to do just that.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, Softy referred to it last segment as a necessary evil. I would rephrase it and just say it's necessary.
00:02:35
Speaker 4: Period.
00:02:36
Speaker 5: In 2026 and beyond. Rick, in this era of college football, how much more important is a deal like this as far as direct correlation with winning than it was 15 or 20 years ago?
00:02:48
Speaker 4: No, it's a huge portion of winning because what we're watching right now is, you know, just rampant free agency. And we're seeing all sorts of guys kind of shut it down. And Camario Taylor shuts it down. And not to say they weren't really hurt. Kiwan Lacey just announced he's shutting it down. But this is all because their agents want them to be completely on the mend so that they can be back in the market and be getting top dollar. Obviously, Camario Taylor has already kind of signed that deal. But that's what's going on. In the old days, everybody was wondering if you're going to go off to the NFL. Well, now freshmen are off to the NFL because the NFL is college football, and everything is trying to preserve for the next year. You remember when... Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette opted out of bowl games and it was a giant story yes but the NFL said that yeah that the NFL said they no problem they went number four and number eight in the first round the bottom line is now we're getting some opt-outs here because they're protecting themselves for the riches of the next year.
00:03:56
Speaker 3: Yeah well Jackson Smith and Jigba because of injury played like two games this last year of college football and became a first-round draft pick so The.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: Talent's the talent.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: But you mentioned Kamario Taylor, who could make up.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: To $ 9 million. That's not over the life of it.
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Speaker 3: That's one year at Mississippi State he could make up to $ 9 million. I mean, Jalen Milrow was a late third-round pick, and his total deal was worth like $ 6 million.
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Speaker 2: So he's making.
00:04:20
Speaker 3: Way more than he would be if he went to the NFL and was not a first-round draft pick, which he probably would be. But there's this new phenomenon, right, Rick, of– Coaches signing players to deals for the next year. If you were still coaching and you were on Motlake, for example, and you're Jed Fish, would you be approaching, you know, Ramzak Fruin, Derek Coleman-Brusa, Jaron Jones, who are all freshmen that are playing and starting, and say, hey, I want you back.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: I don't want to lose you. Let's lock you in right now.
00:04:53
Speaker 4: I think you're having those conversations after every week. not necessarily the financial decision, but you're certainly re-recruiting them every week to make sure that they're happy, they're looking forward to what's coming, and feel the excitement of so many young players that this is going to be really good next year. And there's no question, you've got to be recruiting. And then the best scenarios are where the money conversation happens in another office, rather than with the head coach. But certainly the head coach has got to be encouraging as to, hey, this is where it's all going to happen for you.
00:05:34
Speaker 2: Rick, what'd you make of what you saw on Saturday with the Dogs?
00:05:38
Speaker 5: I mean, their
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defense couldn't have been worse in the first couple of quarters and then couldn't have been better. And the offense was rolling in the second half. I mean, what do you take into that game against Michigan State?
00:05:48
Speaker 2: The bad you saw or the good you saw?
00:05:51
Speaker 4: Well, I think obviously Michigan State's coming off an emotional victory having beaten Michigan. So you better go in there not thinking you're playing a team that's got one win in conference play. You better go in there ready to play because that was a giant springboard for Pat Fitzgerald and his program. So there's going to be some momentum when you go into the stadium. and there's still stuff to play for this year. You've still got to get yourself a winning record. You've got to get yourself into position for a bowl game that you're going to be proud of as you get ready for the next season, and you can have those conversations with the kids on the team about coming back and what the plans are. This is a giant game for Washington. I know it doesn't look so when compared against some of the others on the slate, but I promise you from a program standpoint, This is a big opportunity for the Huskies to get another win.
00:06:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it feels to me like there's more to lose than there is to gain. I mean, if you lose this one, you've got to beat Indiana or Oregon to get to a bowl game. You lose this one, you're in danger of the vibes going right down the toilet. I mean, if you win it, you're supposed to win it, right? I mean, Michigan State, Rick, there's only one power four team in college football. That doesn't average 300 yards a game on offense, and it's Michigan State.
00:07:09
Speaker 2: That's it. So does it.
00:07:11
Speaker 3: Feel like one of those games where there's just way more to lose, honestly, than there is to gain?
00:07:17
Speaker 4: I think that's the precarious situation that coaches find themselves. You can't look at it that way. This has got to be exciting for us to go win. We're going against one of the blue bloods of the game from yesteryear. This is where Bubba Smith– and you can teach a little history– You can talk about Duffy Doherty. You can talk about George Perlis. You can talk about these guys that built this program at Michigan State and the tough guy mentality. And you can certainly tell a story about Pat Fitzgerald and what he's been through, both as a player, as a coach, and then after getting released by his alma mater. You've got to understand the mindset of what's going on on the other side, and if that doesn't get you fired up for the fight, then you're just going to go in there and be Jerry Corey and have a bloodied face. You better find a way to get yourself ready to fight.
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Speaker 5: Rick, still a lot of drop-back passing in Jed's offense for DeMond, and you've talked about remind us of what you've talked about as far as kind of altering what Jed expects DeMond to do. I've seen guys like You know, like the Texas A & M offense last year with Marcel Reed, where it was just one read, take off, you know, zone read, that type of thing. I mean, is it too late to institute something like that?
00:08:39
Speaker 4: Well, let's remind everybody, Marcel Reed's on the struggle bus right now in a big way. You know, they're in a precarious situation as to whether or not they're going to make a bowl game. No, what has to happen in Jed's offense, which is a pro model offense and has a lot of, you know, the Bill Walsh West Coast schemes, it has a lot of, you know, what we call, you know, drag routes, which are, you know, shallow crosses and things of that nature. It requires a quarterback to hit the fifth step and having a great idea where that ball's going. This ball should be out, whether he's doing it on his hitch step or his second hitch step. The ball should be out in under three seconds. You'd like it out more often than not by 2.4. What happens to DeMond is he gets back there and he can't see. And he ends up having to shuffle up in there. And all those shuffle steps while getting sight lines are also now delaying what was open and now is no longer open. So he ends up looking for more and more help. To me, DeMond, you've got to get him out on some edges. You've got to use his legs. The yards per attempt are what is most important to me. And if you look at his yards per attempt, in the last game, it was 5.2 yards per pass. That's not good enough. You're looking for something in the 8 to 9. Joe Burrow in his magical year with LSU was 11 yards per attempt. And it's getting out of his hand. That's what you're looking for. And when DeMond gets control of that and understands that, that's when you're going to start cooking with oil.
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Speaker 3: Well, he's 56th in the nation in passing efficiency, and you mentioned when he starts understanding that. This will be his 23rd start on Saturday versus Michigan State. Are we starting to get close to a point where he may never figure it out?
00:10:40
Speaker 4: Well, it begs the question. It begs the question. And I know there's a lot of frustration in Seattle about his play. And there's no question he's not living in a vacuum. He feels that. The question is, will DeMond want to come back? And therein lies, can Jed keep him at the same price tag? And if he doesn't, then I guarantee there'll be an agent say, I can get you that somewhere else. And therein lies, how do you finish this season? How do you finish? How do you want, do you want this guy to be your guy? Because to me right now, it's trending that he won't be. And I think that that calls for Elijah Brown to get back in the game.
00:11:21
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:11:22
Speaker 5: You mentioned the Michigan State win last week. The victim being Kyle Whittingham and Michigan. His offense scored six points for the second game in the last three. Is this a one-and-done season for Kyle?
00:11:36
Speaker 4: It's possible. I mean, he was at the end. He was
ready to drive a Harley to Sturgis two years ago when he thought he was going to have a really good year with Utah and Cam Rising in his final year, and it just went to hell in a handbasket. They won four games, so he came, won 10, said, hey, this is fun. I'll stay, and they wouldn't keep him. Then all of a sudden, he gets this deal at Michigan, but he took the wrong guy to Michigan with him. He took Jason Beck. his offensive coordinator, he should have taken Devin Dampier. And they don't have a guy right now. And so Beck is out. He's going to get paid handsomely. I think somewhere around $ 8 million to say goodbye. I don't think Kyle leaves on this note. I think he comes back for one more year. But I do not think he'll coach pass next year.
00:12:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, the rankings, we haven't even talked about those that came out. And, again, it just feels like the clown show continues. I mean– Notre Dame gets a win over Miami without their best receiver, and they go up six spots. Miami falls six spots without Malachi Toney. Indiana doesn't even play, and they fall five spots from four to number nine. What'd you make of the latest iteration of the CFP rankings?
00:12:51
Speaker 4: Well, let's start with Indiana. Every team that they had on their resume as at least close to a quality win, lost. And so all of that quality went right out the door. I thought they were a little over-ranked in the first ranking. This probably is a little closer to where they should be. The Miami-Notre Dame flip-flop, I guess, is understandable. I agree that the Notre Dame victory was a little bit tarnished because Tony wasn't on the field. But that's happening all over the place. Georgia and Utah at the top are good. Alabama is still getting a bump because of the brand. UCLA, it just keeps winning. We're going to find out more about the Bruins down the stretch. Much ado about very little right now. We'll get into the brass tacks of it here in the coming weeks.
00:13:42
Speaker 2: All right, well, let's get to it.
00:13:44
Speaker 3: Your Taco Time pick of the week, and you nailed it last week, Georgia minus the points against Ole Miss because they won by 1,000. over the Rebels last Saturday. So good work there. Taco time pick of the week. I'm going to go with my favorite, the crisp beef burrito, natural chicken soft taco, and a large Coke Zero.
00:14:01
Speaker 2: Make it easy.
00:14:01
Speaker 3: Who do you like this week, man?
00:14:04
Speaker 4: We're going to go. There's a team in the Mountain West that's trying to keep up with New Mexico, and it's Wyoming. Wyoming goes to UTEP this week. I think they're a 10-point favorite, but they're hot. Is it 10-and-a-half?
00:14:20
Speaker 2: Eight and a half now, yeah, eight and a half.
00:14:21
Speaker 4: Oh, eight and a half. We'll take the Cowboys. We'll take the Cowboys in El Paso, and we'll see if we can get ourselves another win.
00:14:29
Speaker 2: I love it.
00:14:30
Speaker 3: Wyoming giving eight and a half at UTEP on FS1 on Saturday night.
00:14:34
Speaker 2: All right, Coach, you're the best. Great stuff, and we'll talk in a week.
00:14:37
Speaker 1: Thanks, Rick.
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Speaker 4: Always a treat, boys. Talk to you soon.