WEBVTT
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We got another bonus episode for you. Let you hear
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a little bit from some of the folks that we've
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gotten a chance to talk to here at Big ten
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Media Days, some stuff we just haven't had a chance
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to put in any other podcast speeds. Well, we have
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lots of great stuff for you all week long. I'm
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gonna give you some bonus coverage to let you hear
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from as many people as we possibly can. This week
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today's show, you're gonna get to hear from a little
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bit from USC head coach Lincoln Riley. And this is
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a big year for Lincoln Riley. Things have not necessarily
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gone as well or as quickly as he might have
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liked in his new job at USC, which is no
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longer a new job at USC, But you get the vibe,
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and you're gonna get to hear from him. You get
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the vibe that he thinks things might be on the
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upsling there for a whole lot of different reasons. But
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before we get into sort of the big picture stuff
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with USC, gonna drill down a little bit on the
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Ohio state specific stuff. There were just a couple questions
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about Ohio state. I'm gonna let you hear those first
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and then we can get into some of the broader stuff.
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But they are going up against Ohio State this ball.
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The Buckeyes visit the coliseum out in LA on Halloween
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this year. We don't have a game time. I think
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it is probably safe to say that's likely going to
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be a late afternoon game or potentially even early evening
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game out there in La. So a little bit of
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a personal history there as well between Lincoln Riley and
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the Buckeyes and a very very big game on tap
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for Halloween.
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Yeah.
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No, I mean, I you know, we competed against them
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two of the years at OU my last year's OC
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and then my actually my second game as a head
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coach was in Columbus.
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That was a fun one.
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Hopefully we can recreate that a little bit more. Yeah,
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a lot of respect for the program obviously, coach you
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know Meyer was there at that time, and then Ryan
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took over. I remember I was having a few discussions
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when he took over, because, like you said, there was
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a lot of parallels between his situation at Ohio State
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and mine at Oklahoma at the time. But no, listen,
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it's one of the best programs of all time. You know,
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they've they've invested in that program, They've had a lot
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of great coaches. You know, their talent level seems to
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just stay. It's one of the steadiest.
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I would say, there's.
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Talent levels a year in our sport, you know, great
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place to go play, I mean, it's it's yeah, I mean,
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I've utmost respect for it, and I'm glad, yeah, glad
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we probably finally get to play them. It's it's been
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a while. We've gotten to play some of the others,
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like Michigan a couple of times and all that, and
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so it'll be fun, you know, them being at the Coliseum,
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two of the best programs of all time going at it,
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you know, I mean at that venue.
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I mean, it's that's it's pretty damn cool.
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You don't necessarily think of a team from Ohio and
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a team from California being real longtime rivals, But the
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Buckeyes and Trojans have played twenty four times already, a
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lot of those happening in the Rose Bowl Game. So
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this is a very very traditional rivalry between these two schools.
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The two schools, two programs, These.
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Are two programs that played a lot of very high profile,
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high stakes games over the years, a lot of them
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on New Year's Day. So this now as Big Ten
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Conference rivals, this is the first time these two teams
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will meet. This is kind of a new chapter in
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the rivalry, a little bit of a renewal of the rivalry.
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Tony Gerdaman asked him about sort of is this sort
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of starting a new tradition usc playing Michigan previously previously
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and now Ohio State, sort of taking the old rivalry
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and renewing it in a new place.
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Yeah, it's some ways a renewal with some of the
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history of it.
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I think, uh, you know, and and and it's like
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maybe a renewal and a start at the same time,
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you know, and Michigan the last few years has kind
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of felt that way a little bit for us, you know,
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like this this one's.
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Got a little bit of juice behind it. You know.
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It's just those two, those two whether it's at the
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Big House or at the coliseum, those two programs walk
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onto the field and those two helmets walk on the field.
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It's like, damn, you know, like this is this is real,
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Like it's it's pretty cool. And I think everybody you know,
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kind of feels that. So I think we'll have that
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with several teams in the Big Ten, and obviously Ohio
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State's you know, a natural one because of the histories
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of both schools individually and together.
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All right, now, let's go to some of the other
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stuff that Lincoln Riley had to say, and he had
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some interesting soundbites. You're gonning to hear a bunch from
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him about a whole bunch of different topics. One of
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the things was the twenty four team college football playoff model. Now,
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it's easy to be cynical and look at Lincoln Riley
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and go, well, yes, the guy who has just barely
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missed the college football Playoff and who probably really desperately
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needs to make the college football Playoff. Yes, I'm sure
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he's in favor of letting more teams in the college
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football Playoff. But as you will hear him say here,
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he is definitely not the only one in the Big
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Ten who thinks that.
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Yeah.
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It's actually, you know, when you get a room of
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fifty coaches or whatever we have in this conference together, it's.
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Hard to get everybody to be like unanimous on something.
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This is something that our room has been unanimous on,
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and I think, you know, the Big ten has done
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a nice job of putting some facts in front of us,
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and I think for everybody out there that's maybe undecided
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or like, you know, trying to figure out where they
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stand on you know, how many teams should be in
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a playoff like and I know they put this out there,
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but like, look at every other major sport, right and
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look at the percentage of teams that have access, you know,
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to a playoff, and and I think it's it's an
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interesting lens to look at this at And I think,
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you know, college football is behind in that regard, like
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in any way, shape or form, and you're seeing some
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of the repercussions of that, especially the non conference scheduling
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being certainly the biggest, but I think there's others as well,
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And so I just think this is something that's not
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going to diminish the game, and in any way, having
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more teams in a tournament to determine a champion is
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not going to make it worse. You're gonna have more
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playoff games on college campuses, which are unbelievable. You're going
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to have better non conference matchups which preserve some of
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the traditions and rivalries and all the things that everybody
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loves about college football. Like I just I think it's
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time that that, you know, it should be the idea
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should be embraced. And I think more and more people
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are coming over to that, and I honestly believe it's
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just a matter of time.
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There is, of course, a trade off to everything. You
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get twenty four teams, you get more playoff teams, you
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get more playoff games. Sure, if you want that, that's great,
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but that means you're probably doing away with the conference
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championship games. That was something that Tony Petiti, the Big
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Ten commissioner, talked about on Tuesday here. So is that
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worth it? Is that a financially worth it trade off
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to potentially give away the conference championship games no longer
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have those in favor of bringing in all the other
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college football playoff games.
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Yeah, I mean that's definitely one of the discussions.
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You know, you lose, potentially lose the conference championship game.
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I know that.
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You know, obviously those are huge revenue drivers right now
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for these conferences, which matters in this day and age right,
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maybe a little bit more than it used to.
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But to think.
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That that could not be made up when you start
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to add in some of these playoff games. I know
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there's some mechanisms and that's easier than just you know,
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turning off one light switch and flipping on another. But
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I have a hard time believing that that couldn't be recruited,
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that these conferences can't just decide who the regular season
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champion is, you know, have your tiebreaker structure or whatever,
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and then let's get into the playoffs. And I think
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that I think when that happens, I think it'll become,
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you know, in some ways, like a little bit more
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like the NFL, right. I mean, people pay attention of
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who wins you know, the AFC this or the NFC this,
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but people really just pay attention to who wins the
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Super Bowl, right, who wins the big conference?
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Right? And I think we'll probably trend that way a
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little bit.
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This is definitely a year when USC needs to figure
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it out. They need to get over the hump for
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Lincoln Riley's long term job security. Obviously, getting to a
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twenty four team playoff would help him get into the playoff,
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but that's not going to happen this year, so they
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got to kind of figure that out on their own.
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So one of the what do they have to do well.
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You're gonna hear him talk about they got to win
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on the road. They gotta beat some good teams on
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the road. Here's the road schedule this year. They play
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at Rutgers, you figure they're probably okay. They're at Penn State,
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that might be a challenge, at Wisconsin, who knows what
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that's going to be this year, at Indiana that's going
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to be a challenge. And then they finish at UCLA,
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which that could be a tougher game than you think
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in the first year for Bob Chesney. So what do
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they have to do to get where they need to
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beat this season?
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Yeah, I think the biggest areas that that that we
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have to improve, you know, I would say, I mean
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I think holistically as a team for us, the biggest thing,
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the number one thing for us is the ability to
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go win big games against really good teams on the road.
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Like that's the hardest thing to do in college football.
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That's those games are actually easier to win or harder
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to win than championship games or playoff games. You know
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those are you're still playing good teams there, but those
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are neutral. It's the toughest thing to do in college football.
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Once you can do that consistently, you can beat anybody.
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And you know, I think that's we've we've we've come
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along ways in terms of our ability to win at
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home and and and I think the home field advantage
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of the coliseums has gotten better and better each year.
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And you really fit Al did a lot last year.
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But that's kind of the next step for us, and
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it's a big step, and we obviously have some great
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opportunities coming up.
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He was asked about nil the transfer portal, some of
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the changes in college football, maybe bringing some changes to
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the sport, maybe bring more parody to the sport. This
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is one of these great answers where you don't have
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to read very far between the lines to understand what
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he's saying here at the beginning of it, where he
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talks about how things used to be and maybe what
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has changed there.
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It's a good question because there's a lot of parody
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right now, like there really is. I mean, there's so
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much more parody than there was. I mean, for a
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lot of different reasons. I've never been afraid to say it.
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I mean, obviously, you know, ten years ago, there was
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you know, one side of the world that was way
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different from everywhere else. Everybody can pay Now everybody's using
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rev share. But yeah, it's hard to imagine it not
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increasing it more. But there's so much more right now
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than there was a few years ago. Like it's kind
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of defying, like how we all look at college bar
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right now.
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This is one of these questions that coaches tend to
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be a little bit cagy in answering. They don't want
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to get too committal on any one direction. But you know,
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would he be in favor of somebody maybe control costs
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in terms of player player salaries or player income, you know,
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And he will say the word salary cap here, So
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I'm not I'm not putting words in this word to say,
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you know, what does he think about the idea of
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a salary cap?
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Yeah, it probably depends on your you know, your own
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opinion of it, but I uh, I mean I would
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be in favor of it, I think, just to normalize it.
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I just h I've always been one like I just
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I don't want to have less.
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Than what somebody has, but I don't necessarily have to
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have more, Like you know, I just don't want to
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be as like some massive, massive disadvantage you know if
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you're trying to win a championship. But I will say this, like,
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despite maybe the perception outside, it.
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Has normalized a lot in the last few years.
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Now, let's not confuse that with being normal, but it
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has normalized, Like we there is a lot more structure,
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and there is a lot more process, and there's not
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so much crazy stuff going on. Like there's still some,
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but it ain't like a couple of years ago this
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thing people say everybody wants use the turn wild West.
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A couple of years ago it was like legit. Now
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it's it has steadied. A true salary cap would steady
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it even more.
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One of the things that you will learn at these
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events every year is coaches never want to set the
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expectations too high. Everyone's trying to manage their expectations a
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little bit because if you go out there and say
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we're gonna be the best team ever and then you're not, well,
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then you have sort of set yourself up for failure.
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Lincoln Riley, he was pretty confident about how things are
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looking for this year's team. He was asked to sort
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of put a comp on this year's team, maybe a
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team from his past that this one maybe reminded him
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of you're going to hear him talk about his twenty
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nineteen Oklahoma team. That was a team that had Jalen Hurts,
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the former Auburn or Alabama quarterback transfer. That team made
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the College Football Playoff, and that was in a four
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team college football playoff. So the fact that he was
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willing to put that comp on team and that tells
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you a lot about what he thinks. So here was
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his answer on that question.
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Yeah, I think you know there there's definitely there's definitely
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some parts of this team that kind of remind me
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a little of our our nineteen team at OU when
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we when we had we had an experienced quarterback, it
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was Jalen coming at the time. That was, you know,
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definitely one of the best defenses that we had there.
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We had a really good defense that year. Defensively kind
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of won a budd We won games a lot of
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different ways that year. And this team, again, it's you know,
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it's right here into July beginning of August, but like,
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this team feels.
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Like it's going to have that capability.
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You know that we're going to have some firepower on
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both sides, and I think I'm most interested to see
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is you know, our our lines of scrimmage, especially on
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the road in the big games, and then how our
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depth holds up. You know, we were just we had
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a pretty football team last year. We were just very different.
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Like if you look at us early season, mid season,
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and late season, it's almost especially from like early mid
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to mid late we were almost like two different football teams,
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like in a lot of ways. And when you get
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really good, that's not necessarily the case. Right, Injury, this
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or that happens, you're able that next guy's up and
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you just hardly even notice, right, And that's that's what
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you got to get to, especially with as long as
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these seasons are now and how long the playoffs are, Like,
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I mean, you may have I mean I saw some stats
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like Indiana's last year.
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I mean, you might have that one kind of generational.
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Year where you're just radically stay healthy and that's great.
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That typically does not happen, and I think how your
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roster is able to withstand that is like that's everything,
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And I you know, obviously I've sit up here hoping
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we stay healthy like crazy, but I feel like we
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can withstand a few and still be a pretty good
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team and not not change a lot.
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And then finally he was asked about his just level
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of confidence around the program on the whole, and you'll
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hear him talk about it. There's a lot of reasons.
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He feels pretty good about his program right now. Here
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or mentioned a new building. They just opened a new
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football facility about ten days ago. But it feels like
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the he feels pretty confident about his roster, feels pretty
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good about his program on the whole. This is a college,
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this is a coach who feels pretty good heading into
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the season.
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I mean, it's just a it's a culmination of all
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of it.
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You know. It's a culmination of knowing that our our
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leadership is steady. It's a culminator. It's knowing that our
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nil is in a good place. It's knowing that we
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now reside in maybe the best football facility in the country.
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It's knowing the staff we brought together and the talent
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we have. And like I did, it's not I want
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to paint this picture like it's perfect, but like it
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is just so much more well equipped to win consistently
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right now. It's so it's so different, and that just
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so with that, a lot of my time and energy
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now goes into just the team winning. And that's again,
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just like I said before, we're all a product of
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our own experiences and the place I've been where we've
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won a lot.
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That's what it's felt like, like.
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The main thing was the main thing, and everything else
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is kind of handled. Like you ain't worried about all
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this other crap, right, You're just it's not crap.
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You have to have it to win. And if it's
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not fixed, you have to fix it. You can.
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If you ignore it, you know you'll probably have you know,
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you'll have something. There were some things ignored at this
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place for years. I mean that's why I was in
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the position it was when we came here. Like when
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you ignore it and neglect it, it'll bite you. But
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if you can get it to a point where it's
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healthy and running and operating a high level, then you
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can just put all your energy into the team and
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winning and coaching. And right now, if you if somebody
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were to take like a snapshot of the percentage of
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my time and where it's going, there's more time just
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going into our team and coaching than at any point
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that I've been at SC and by a not a
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small margin and that's again my experience tells me that's
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typically a precursor to some pretty good things.
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So you go a little bit from Lincoln Riley about
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the US Trojans again. Ohio State will play out in
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USC play out at the Coliseum on Halloween this year.
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That is going to be a very very big game
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for both teams, two teams expected to compete for college
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football playoff. For US, that game will probably go a
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long way towards determining which one gets there or whether
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they both get there. So there you go, there's a
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little update from Lincoln Raleigh. We will have much more
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coming up all week long from Big Ten media Days,
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planning plenty of bonus coverage for you as well.
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We got another bonus episode for you. Let you hear
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a little bit from some of the folks that we've
3
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gotten a chance to talk to here at Big ten
4
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Media Days, some stuff we just haven't had a chance
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to put in any other podcast speeds. Well, we have
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lots of great stuff for you all week long. I'm
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gonna give you some bonus coverage to let you hear
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from as many people as we possibly can. This week
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today's show, you're gonna get to hear from a little
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bit from USC head coach Lincoln Riley. And this is
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a big year for Lincoln Riley. Things have not necessarily
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gone as well or as quickly as he might have
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liked in his new job at USC, which is no
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longer a new job at USC, But you get the vibe,
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and you're gonna get to hear from him. You get
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the vibe that he thinks things might be on the
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upsling there for a whole lot of different reasons. But
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before we get into sort of the big picture stuff
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with USC, gonna drill down a little bit on the
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Ohio state specific stuff. There were just a couple questions
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about Ohio state. I'm gonna let you hear those first
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and then we can get into some of the broader stuff.
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But they are going up against Ohio State this ball.
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The Buckeyes visit the coliseum out in LA on Halloween
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this year. We don't have a game time. I think
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it is probably safe to say that's likely going to
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be a late afternoon game or potentially even early evening
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game out there in La. So a little bit of
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a personal history there as well between Lincoln Riley and
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the Buckeyes and a very very big game on tap
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for Halloween.
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Yeah.
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No, I mean, I you know, we competed against them
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two of the years at OU my last year's OC
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and then my actually my second game as a head
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coach was in Columbus.
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That was a fun one.
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Hopefully we can recreate that a little bit more. Yeah,
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a lot of respect for the program obviously, coach you
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know Meyer was there at that time, and then Ryan
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took over. I remember I was having a few discussions
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when he took over, because, like you said, there was
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a lot of parallels between his situation at Ohio State
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and mine at Oklahoma at the time. But no, listen,
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it's one of the best programs of all time. You know,
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they've they've invested in that program, They've had a lot
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of great coaches. You know, their talent level seems to
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just stay. It's one of the steadiest.
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I would say, there's.
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Talent levels a year in our sport, you know, great
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place to go play, I mean, it's it's yeah, I mean,
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I've utmost respect for it, and I'm glad, yeah, glad
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we probably finally get to play them. It's it's been
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a while. We've gotten to play some of the others,
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like Michigan a couple of times and all that, and
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so it'll be fun, you know, them being at the Coliseum,
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two of the best programs of all time going at it,
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you know, I mean at that venue.
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I mean, it's that's it's pretty damn cool.
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You don't necessarily think of a team from Ohio and
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a team from California being real longtime rivals, But the
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Buckeyes and Trojans have played twenty four times already, a
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lot of those happening in the Rose Bowl Game. So
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this is a very very traditional rivalry between these two schools.
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The two schools, two programs, These.
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Are two programs that played a lot of very high profile,
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high stakes games over the years, a lot of them
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on New Year's Day. So this now as Big Ten
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Conference rivals, this is the first time these two teams
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will meet. This is kind of a new chapter in
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the rivalry, a little bit of a renewal of the rivalry.
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Tony Gerdaman asked him about sort of is this sort
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of starting a new tradition usc playing Michigan previously previously
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and now Ohio State, sort of taking the old rivalry
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and renewing it in a new place.
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Yeah, it's some ways a renewal with some of the
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history of it.
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I think, uh, you know, and and and it's like
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maybe a renewal and a start at the same time,
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you know, and Michigan the last few years has kind
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of felt that way a little bit for us, you know,
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like this this one's.
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Got a little bit of juice behind it. You know.
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It's just those two, those two whether it's at the
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Big House or at the coliseum, those two programs walk
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onto the field and those two helmets walk on the field.
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It's like, damn, you know, like this is this is real,
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Like it's it's pretty cool. And I think everybody you know,
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kind of feels that. So I think we'll have that
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with several teams in the Big Ten, and obviously Ohio
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State's you know, a natural one because of the histories
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of both schools individually and together.
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All right, now, let's go to some of the other
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stuff that Lincoln Riley had to say, and he had
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some interesting soundbites. You're gonning to hear a bunch from
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him about a whole bunch of different topics. One of
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the things was the twenty four team college football playoff model. Now,
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it's easy to be cynical and look at Lincoln Riley
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and go, well, yes, the guy who has just barely
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missed the college football Playoff and who probably really desperately
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needs to make the college football Playoff. Yes, I'm sure
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he's in favor of letting more teams in the college
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football Playoff. But as you will hear him say here,
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he is definitely not the only one in the Big
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Ten who thinks that.
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Yeah.
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It's actually, you know, when you get a room of
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fifty coaches or whatever we have in this conference together, it's.
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Hard to get everybody to be like unanimous on something.
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This is something that our room has been unanimous on,
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and I think, you know, the Big ten has done
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a nice job of putting some facts in front of us,
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and I think for everybody out there that's maybe undecided
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or like, you know, trying to figure out where they
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stand on you know, how many teams should be in
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a playoff like and I know they put this out there,
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but like, look at every other major sport, right and
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look at the percentage of teams that have access, you know,
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to a playoff, and and I think it's it's an
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interesting lens to look at this at And I think,
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you know, college football is behind in that regard, like
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in any way, shape or form, and you're seeing some
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of the repercussions of that, especially the non conference scheduling
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being certainly the biggest, but I think there's others as well,
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And so I just think this is something that's not
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going to diminish the game, and in any way, having
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more teams in a tournament to determine a champion is
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not going to make it worse. You're gonna have more
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playoff games on college campuses, which are unbelievable. You're going
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to have better non conference matchups which preserve some of
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the traditions and rivalries and all the things that everybody
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loves about college football. Like I just I think it's
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time that that, you know, it should be the idea
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should be embraced. And I think more and more people
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are coming over to that, and I honestly believe it's
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just a matter of time.
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There is, of course, a trade off to everything. You
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get twenty four teams, you get more playoff teams, you
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get more playoff games. Sure, if you want that, that's great,
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but that means you're probably doing away with the conference
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championship games. That was something that Tony Petiti, the Big
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Ten commissioner, talked about on Tuesday here. So is that
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worth it? Is that a financially worth it trade off
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to potentially give away the conference championship games no longer
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have those in favor of bringing in all the other
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college football playoff games.
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Yeah, I mean that's definitely one of the discussions.
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You know, you lose, potentially lose the conference championship game.
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I know that.
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You know, obviously those are huge revenue drivers right now
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for these conferences, which matters in this day and age right,
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maybe a little bit more than it used to.
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But to think.
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That that could not be made up when you start
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to add in some of these playoff games. I know
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there's some mechanisms and that's easier than just you know,
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turning off one light switch and flipping on another. But
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I have a hard time believing that that couldn't be recruited,
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that these conferences can't just decide who the regular season
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champion is, you know, have your tiebreaker structure or whatever,
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and then let's get into the playoffs. And I think
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that I think when that happens, I think it'll become,
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you know, in some ways, like a little bit more
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like the NFL, right. I mean, people pay attention of
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who wins you know, the AFC this or the NFC this,
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but people really just pay attention to who wins the
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Super Bowl, right, who wins the big conference?
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Right? And I think we'll probably trend that way a
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little bit.
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This is definitely a year when USC needs to figure
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it out. They need to get over the hump for
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Lincoln Riley's long term job security. Obviously, getting to a
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twenty four team playoff would help him get into the playoff,
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but that's not going to happen this year, so they
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got to kind of figure that out on their own.
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So one of the what do they have to do well.
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You're gonna hear him talk about they got to win
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on the road. They gotta beat some good teams on
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the road. Here's the road schedule this year. They play
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at Rutgers, you figure they're probably okay. They're at Penn State,
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that might be a challenge, at Wisconsin, who knows what
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that's going to be this year, at Indiana that's going
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to be a challenge. And then they finish at UCLA,
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which that could be a tougher game than you think
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in the first year for Bob Chesney. So what do
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they have to do to get where they need to
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beat this season?
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Yeah, I think the biggest areas that that that we
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have to improve, you know, I would say, I mean
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I think holistically as a team for us, the biggest thing,
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the number one thing for us is the ability to
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go win big games against really good teams on the road.
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Like that's the hardest thing to do in college football.
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That's those games are actually easier to win or harder
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to win than championship games or playoff games. You know
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those are you're still playing good teams there, but those
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are neutral. It's the toughest thing to do in college football.
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Once you can do that consistently, you can beat anybody.
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And you know, I think that's we've we've we've come
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along ways in terms of our ability to win at
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home and and and I think the home field advantage
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of the coliseums has gotten better and better each year.
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And you really fit Al did a lot last year.
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But that's kind of the next step for us, and
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it's a big step, and we obviously have some great
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opportunities coming up.
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He was asked about nil the transfer portal, some of
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the changes in college football, maybe bringing some changes to
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the sport, maybe bring more parody to the sport. This
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is one of these great answers where you don't have
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to read very far between the lines to understand what
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he's saying here at the beginning of it, where he
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talks about how things used to be and maybe what
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has changed there.
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It's a good question because there's a lot of parody
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right now, like there really is. I mean, there's so
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much more parody than there was. I mean, for a
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lot of different reasons. I've never been afraid to say it.
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I mean, obviously, you know, ten years ago, there was
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you know, one side of the world that was way
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different from everywhere else. Everybody can pay Now everybody's using
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rev share. But yeah, it's hard to imagine it not
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increasing it more. But there's so much more right now
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than there was a few years ago. Like it's kind
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of defying, like how we all look at college bar
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right now.
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This is one of these questions that coaches tend to
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be a little bit cagy in answering. They don't want
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to get too committal on any one direction. But you know,
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would he be in favor of somebody maybe control costs
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in terms of player player salaries or player income, you know,
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And he will say the word salary cap here, So
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I'm not I'm not putting words in this word to say,
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you know, what does he think about the idea of
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a salary cap?
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Yeah, it probably depends on your you know, your own
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opinion of it, but I uh, I mean I would
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be in favor of it, I think, just to normalize it.
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I just h I've always been one like I just
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I don't want to have less.
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Than what somebody has, but I don't necessarily have to
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have more, Like you know, I just don't want to
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be as like some massive, massive disadvantage you know if
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you're trying to win a championship. But I will say this, like,
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despite maybe the perception outside, it.
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Has normalized a lot in the last few years.
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Now, let's not confuse that with being normal, but it
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has normalized, Like we there is a lot more structure,
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and there is a lot more process, and there's not
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so much crazy stuff going on. Like there's still some,
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but it ain't like a couple of years ago this
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thing people say everybody wants use the turn wild West.
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A couple of years ago it was like legit. Now
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it's it has steadied. A true salary cap would steady
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it even more.
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One of the things that you will learn at these
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events every year is coaches never want to set the
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expectations too high. Everyone's trying to manage their expectations a
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little bit because if you go out there and say
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we're gonna be the best team ever and then you're not, well,
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then you have sort of set yourself up for failure.
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Lincoln Riley, he was pretty confident about how things are
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looking for this year's team. He was asked to sort
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of put a comp on this year's team, maybe a
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team from his past that this one maybe reminded him
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of you're going to hear him talk about his twenty
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nineteen Oklahoma team. That was a team that had Jalen Hurts,
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the former Auburn or Alabama quarterback transfer. That team made
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the College Football Playoff, and that was in a four
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team college football playoff. So the fact that he was
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willing to put that comp on team and that tells
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you a lot about what he thinks. So here was
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his answer on that question.
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Yeah, I think you know there there's definitely there's definitely
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some parts of this team that kind of remind me
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a little of our our nineteen team at OU when
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we when we had we had an experienced quarterback, it
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was Jalen coming at the time. That was, you know,
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definitely one of the best defenses that we had there.
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We had a really good defense that year. Defensively kind
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of won a budd We won games a lot of
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different ways that year. And this team, again, it's you know,
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it's right here into July beginning of August, but like,
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this team feels.
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Like it's going to have that capability.
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You know that we're going to have some firepower on
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both sides, and I think I'm most interested to see
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is you know, our our lines of scrimmage, especially on
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the road in the big games, and then how our
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depth holds up. You know, we were just we had
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a pretty football team last year. We were just very different.
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Like if you look at us early season, mid season,
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and late season, it's almost especially from like early mid
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to mid late we were almost like two different football teams,
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like in a lot of ways. And when you get
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really good, that's not necessarily the case. Right, Injury, this
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or that happens, you're able that next guy's up and
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you just hardly even notice, right, And that's that's what
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you got to get to, especially with as long as
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these seasons are now and how long the playoffs are, Like,
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I mean, you may have I mean I saw some stats
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like Indiana's last year.
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I mean, you might have that one kind of generational.
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Year where you're just radically stay healthy and that's great.
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That typically does not happen, and I think how your
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roster is able to withstand that is like that's everything,
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And I you know, obviously I've sit up here hoping
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we stay healthy like crazy, but I feel like we
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can withstand a few and still be a pretty good
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team and not not change a lot.
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And then finally he was asked about his just level
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of confidence around the program on the whole, and you'll
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hear him talk about it. There's a lot of reasons.
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He feels pretty good about his program right now. Here
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or mentioned a new building. They just opened a new
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football facility about ten days ago. But it feels like
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the he feels pretty confident about his roster, feels pretty
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good about his program on the whole. This is a college,
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this is a coach who feels pretty good heading into
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the season.
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I mean, it's just a it's a culmination of all
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of it.
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You know. It's a culmination of knowing that our our
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leadership is steady. It's a culminator. It's knowing that our
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nil is in a good place. It's knowing that we
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now reside in maybe the best football facility in the country.
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It's knowing the staff we brought together and the talent
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we have. And like I did, it's not I want
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to paint this picture like it's perfect, but like it
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is just so much more well equipped to win consistently
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right now. It's so it's so different, and that just
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so with that, a lot of my time and energy
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now goes into just the team winning. And that's again,
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just like I said before, we're all a product of
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our own experiences and the place I've been where we've
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won a lot.
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That's what it's felt like, like.
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The main thing was the main thing, and everything else
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is kind of handled. Like you ain't worried about all
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this other crap, right, You're just it's not crap.
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You have to have it to win. And if it's
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not fixed, you have to fix it. You can.
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If you ignore it, you know you'll probably have you know,
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you'll have something. There were some things ignored at this
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place for years. I mean that's why I was in
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the position it was when we came here. Like when
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you ignore it and neglect it, it'll bite you. But
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if you can get it to a point where it's
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healthy and running and operating a high level, then you
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can just put all your energy into the team and
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winning and coaching. And right now, if you if somebody
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were to take like a snapshot of the percentage of
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my time and where it's going, there's more time just
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going into our team and coaching than at any point
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that I've been at SC and by a not a
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small margin and that's again my experience tells me that's
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typically a precursor to some pretty good things.
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So you go a little bit from Lincoln Riley about
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the US Trojans again. Ohio State will play out in
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USC play out at the Coliseum on Halloween this year.
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That is going to be a very very big game
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for both teams, two teams expected to compete for college
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football playoff. For US, that game will probably go a
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long way towards determining which one gets there or whether
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they both get there. So there you go, there's a
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little update from Lincoln Raleigh. We will have much more
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coming up all week long from Big Ten media Days,
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planning plenty of bonus coverage for you as well.
