00:00:00
Speaker 1: Good morning to you. It's Hutton and Withrow presented by Hard Rock Bet. If you're looking to get going in the morning, look no further than Crockett Coffee. Started by Clay Travis, Buck Sexton, and Buck's brother Mason. Named after Davy Crockett. Hunter, storyteller, patriot, backwoods legend. Just look at the logo. Davy surfing on the backs of Crockett Isles. That tells you everything about the attitude right here. 100% pure Arabica, high altitude beans, small batch roasted right here in America. Tennessee, the heart of the country. It ships fresh roasted. It's not sitting on a warehouse shelf for six months. light, medium, dark, decaf, organic, even a mushroom blend, whole bean, ground, or K-cups, however you make it in the morning.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Based off our conversation yesterday about eliminating the unneeded Y at the end of the name, I would like to make a push to call this David Crockett as we talk about Crockett Coffee. In fact, if you search on Wikipedia, David Crockett appears and not Davy Crockett. It is David Crockett High School in East Tennessee and not Davy Crockett also. At least I'd like to make that change. Something I won't be changing is my subscription to Crockett Coffee. I've got the Blue Ridge blend right now.
00:01:03
Speaker 1: Delicious.
00:01:04
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00:01:28
Speaker 1: Chad, best I can tell, David Crockett did not have a middle name. Fascinating. I know. I find that.
00:01:37
Speaker 2: It was a simpler time, Hutton. It was a simpler people. And they said, why waste time with having a third name? Let's just go with David Crockett and roll with it. That's a strong enough name.
00:01:48
Speaker 1: I feel like he would want to go by David. David, Davey.
00:01:53
Speaker 2: I just, I don't prefer, I do not prefer Davey. Guys, are we good to go to Jason now?
00:01:59
Speaker 1: Yeah? Okay, perfect. Oh, great. Jason Foster joins us.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: I was doing research on David Crockett over there. I got lost in it for a second. I'm like, oh, there's Jason waiting on us.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: From the press box.
00:02:11
Speaker 2: From the press box at the Braves-Phillies game. Jason Foster, sportandstate.com. doing a great job covering Major League Baseball on with us right now.
00:02:20
Speaker 1: Jason, how are you, man?
00:02:21
Speaker 2: Appreciate you doing this while you're covering this series.
00:02:23
Speaker 3: I'm doing great.
00:02:24
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
00:02:26
Speaker 1: Are you a fan of this series format right now where you've got three at home and you don't have to– it feels like everyone's wanting a five-game series. Why won't Major League Baseball give that to us?
00:02:37
Speaker 4: Well, I think it just comes down to, like, not having the postseason go too far into November. I mean, there is a good case to have the wild card series be best three out of five, and then have the Division Series be a best of seven, like the Championship Series and the World Series. I know a lot of fans definitely want that. I'm kind of indifferent toward a five-game wildcard series, but it's a three-game best of three is definitely a lot better than what it used to be, which was the one game which anything can happen and really wasn't fair. So I'm okay with.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: The way it is. What do the players say about it?
00:03:14
Speaker 4: I think they have very similar feelings. They prefer anything other than just one game. And they also don't want the postseason to go too far into November. So I think they're okay with it. And they would probably tell you it's just more incentive to win your division and have one of the top two best records so you don't have to play the wildcard series.
00:03:32
Speaker 2: And that's where my problem arises. It's not about three-game series for wildcard teams. It's about the Braves winning 96 games and winning a division and a tough division and a record that would have got them in a great spot in the American League and being forced to play a three-game series to start it. We have got to do something in baseball. I don't know what you do with the numbers. You add a team or do this. Wildcard teams should play wildcard teams in the wildcard.
00:03:57
Speaker 1: Round, Jason.
00:03:58
Speaker 2: I cannot stand division champions being forced to play in the wildcard round and just taking the top two records of division champions to get the bye. Where do you stand on that? And do you feel like the Braves or another division champ would have the argument that, hey, it would be great if we got a buy to that best-of-five series for winning a division after a 162-game schedule.
00:04:22
Speaker 4: I would agree with that. I think there has to be a better way to reward division winners, and I think you'll probably see that as some component of the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. I don't know what that might look like. There's been ideas of having the top seed get to choose their opponent or the third division winner or the division winner with the lowest record to come in with one win already in hand like they do in Japan. So there's a lot of ideas out there. So I would not be at all surprised to see that addressed in the CBA.
00:04:54
Speaker 2: I'm watching the game yesterday. I'm a giant Braves fan. And what struck me was it was a great moment with Austin Riley that you saw live.
00:05:03
Speaker 1: And it was very loud in that moment.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: But I was at a series in late June against the Milwaukee Brewers that had better atmosphere and a better crowd on a Friday night in the regular season than what we saw for a mid-afternoon start on a Tuesday afternoon in Atlanta. And I know you wrote about this at Sporting State as well, Jason, but that is an issue. And this is not something new. You know, days during the week, during the middle of the day in Major League Baseball playoffs has been going on forever. But to have the Braves and Phillies in that time slot for possibly three straight days in this series, what do you make of that decision by Major League Baseball?
00:05:42
Speaker 4: Well, MLB says obviously someone has to have the first game slot and there's going to be fan bases unhappy no matter what. And they factor in things like the time zone of the teams and where the game is and the potential draw that it's going to bring. But like you said, when you have a marquee matchup like the Braves and Phillies, two huge rivals who have postseason beef not that long ago, there's just all kinds of narratives that kind of lend themselves to or lends the game to a more prominent time slot. Two o'clock in the afternoon is, is just bad on all fronts. You know, if you're in school, you can't watch it. If you're at work, you probably can't watch it and you can't come to the game in most cases, which is why it wasn't a sell yesterday. It was a little over 30,000, which was better than I expected because like 45 minutes before the game, I was looking out and it was, it was a skip carry used to say it was a partial sellout. And it was just, it was just not a, It was not a good look at that time, but the crowd did fill in nicely. And I saw something on X this morning that yesterday's crowd was actually, I think, the third highest game one crowd ever since they started the current wildcard format. And so it wasn't a terrible crowd, but I agree with you. It could have been better. And I think if it was even a five o'clock start, you would have seen a much better crowd.
00:07:06
Speaker 2: Well, one broadcast question for you, too, and I'll turn it back over to Hutton then. And I know you're not watching the broadcast while you're actually there in the building in the press box covering the game. But NBC's decision to bring the hometown announcers in to call the game with two color guys. And I know they had, I think Joey Votto was the third analyst.
00:07:25
Speaker 1: But C.J.
00:07:26
Speaker 2: Nikowski, who I think does a great job with Braves Vision covering the Braves. But I've watched and heard C.J. Nikowski all season with the Braves. John Kruk with the Phillies broadcast. And they're there together. I just feel like if you're going to be truly big time with Major League Baseball and your commitment, if you're NBC, you have a second broadcast crew, you know, for that secondary game or whatever it is. That's a national broadcast crew for that game.
00:07:51
Speaker 1: Am I off with that?
00:07:52
Speaker 2: Or do you agree with the decision to have the hometown color commentators call that game yesterday?
00:07:58
Speaker 4: I like having one of each team. I wouldn't be opposed to what you're suggesting as some sort of simulcast situation. But I think fans in general like to have a familiar voice on the broadcast because that's always been a complaint through the decades that you watch a broadcast team for 162 games and then the playoffs start and you don't get to hear them anymore. And so this at least addresses that a little bit. And I know they're supposed to be not exactly neutral. They're allowed to be a little bit Homer-ish. But I think overall fans like it. But I definitely understand the– desire to have a a big-time announce crew like some more prominent national announcers so i think i think maybe that's something else they could consider uh to broadcast a simulcast like espn used to do the regular broadcast and then they're like analytical broadcast i think you could do something similar with hometown announcers and then a big-time crew jason with.
00:08:53
Speaker 1: These start times i mean they're they obviously want yankees and red sox in the night gap right are they taking advantage of the Braves fan base that will actually show up to game one at this time and actually have 30,000 as opposed to another series where if they're in a different, you know, if they're, if they're in the, in the national league, they don't make the playoffs for, for instance. Yeah.
00:09:15
Speaker 4: I mean, possibly, like I said, MLB takes a lot, told me that they take a lot of factors into account when they schedule and they know that some fan bases are just going to be unhappy.
00:09:27
Speaker 3: Right.
00:09:27
Speaker 4: And, As far as the Braves-Phillies, they told me that it just came down to that they're the East Coast teams that weren't the Yankees and Red Sox. And so it was kind of by default they would get the early game. But on the one hand, you could say if a game's important to fans, they'll find a way to watch it. I don't necessarily agree with that because there's a lot of people who just can't afford to take time off work or can't afford tickets or whatever it might be. And so they're just out of luck. They have to sneak in on their phone during the work day or during the school day to try to watch what's happening. And that's no way to enjoy the postseason when you follow the team all season. And then especially in a short series like this where the first two games, it could be over after two games and you potentially don't get to see any of it. And so there seems like there's got to be a better way for MLB to schedule these things.
00:10:15
Speaker 1: So Chad's a Braves fan. He can chime on this as well. I've heard from a couple different Braves fans that did not want to see Philly in the postseason. What is it about the Phillies that has the number of the Braves when it comes to the big-time games that everyone's trying to avoid? And moving forward here, what's the gamesmanship now? What's the pitching matchups to be looking for?
00:10:36
Speaker 4: I think the Phillies are just one of those teams that has a collection of players that for whatever reason are able to step it up when the pressure's on. And maybe the Braves haven't had that type of collection outside of 2021 of late. But the Phillies are tough. And when you combine that with the postseason just being a different animal, the regular season just does not matter. A lot of fans just don't understand that. But the postseason, once it starts, the regular season just really doesn't matter. Everything starts fresh. You heard Walt Weiss and Austin Raleigh talk about that yesterday in terms of his heroics. But The Phillies have just had the Braves number, and I think a big part of that was that they had to play some games in Citizens Bank Park, which is one of the worst places for a visiting team to play in the postseason because those fans are crazy in a good way, and it's loud, and it's a tough place to play. Having it here for potentially all three games is a huge advantage for the Braves, and so I think that this is– Definitely the best opportunity for the Braves to, like, slay the Phillies demons that have haunted them for the past few seasons and try to make a deep run.
00:11:44
Speaker 2: And now they get that opportunity two games to win one at this point. Jason, it felt like getting that win with Chris Sale pitching was paramount for the Braves, and they found a way with Austin Riley's three-run homer in the eighth to.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: Get that done.
00:11:58
Speaker 2: How does it set up now with Malley on the hill for the Braves today? What does the pitching matchup look like? And how key was that for the Braves to have a chance to make sure they won that game that Chris Sale started?
00:12:10
Speaker 4: Well, that was huge to get the win with Sale on the mound. That was by far their best chance to win in the series on paper. And they were able to take advantage. And so being up 1-0 in a best three, obviously huge. Today's matchup on paper, I would say, favors the Phillies because Christopher Sanchez is another tough lefty. If not for Jacob Mizorowski and Sale, he would probably be the Cy Young frontrunner in the National League. So he's always tough. He's been a little bit uneven the past few weeks of the regular season. But like I said, none of that matters once the postseason starts. He's going to be tough on the Braves. Tyler Malley has been a godsend for the Braves. He has overperformed everyone's expectations. So if you can't have Chris Sale on the mound for a game two, Tyler Malley is definitely the best option. And piggybacking off that, it'll be even more of a key– for the Braves to win today, because if they, if they don't win today, I'm not even sure they know yet what their pitching situation is going to look like in game three. Uh, and that would a hundred percent favor the Phillies, um, almost no matter who they put out there, because the Braves would have to probably go with a bullpen game. And that's always less than ideal in an elimination game, but hopefully for them, uh, Mally can close it out today. Cause like I said, he's been great. He's, he's just really tough to hit, even though he doesn't throw that hard. He just has a good mix of pitches and, um, Braves will be looking for a key start from him today, not just in terms of limiting Philly, but also giving them length in case they do have to pitch a bullpen game tomorrow.
00:13:40
Speaker 2: Of the two lower-profile series, not Red Sox-Yankees, not Braves-Phillies, which one interests you the most between White Sox-Astros and Cubs-Padres?
00:13:51
Speaker 1: Definitely Cubs-Padres.
00:13:53
Speaker 4: Those two teams have a lot of interesting players. You've got Pete Crow Armstrong, the likely MVP. You got Fernando Tatis Jr., who was electric last night and is able to change the game in multiple ways. That's by far the best secondary series. The White Sox-Astros is just not interesting to me. Like I wrote in my column, they combined for 82.5 wins on average, and if they played in the National League, they wouldn't have even made the postseason. That's not to say they can't do some magic in the postseason because October is weird, but I can't get excited about that series, and it's going to have to prove me wrong to bring my interest in.
00:14:32
Speaker 1: Guys, Chad, chime in on this. If it comes down to a bullpen game in the third matchup against the Phillies, do you trust Atlanta's bats in that matchup? Go ahead.
00:14:45
Speaker 2: No, I was going to say, yeah, go ahead and jump in, but my confidence level would not be.
00:14:51
Speaker 1: High, Jason. Okay, okay.
00:14:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, the bats have been so weird for the Braves this season. In some ways, it doesn't make sense that they won the division because they've had long stretches where they are literally the worst performing offense in the major leagues. And yet they won 94 games and won the division. And at one point, we're up by 10 games. Yesterday, you saw more of the same with Lizardo shutting them down for the first few innings. They stranded some opportunities, stranded some runs in scoring positions. So I would not trust their offense in terms of like you go in and say, well, I'm confident that the Braves offense can make up for any bullpen deficiencies. That confidence just isn't there. The keys are going to be the top of the order. Acuna, Baldwin, Olsen, Harris, if those guys aren't performing, it takes a guy like Riley Jones. for all these yesterday also to have a big hit in a big situation, because if that doesn't happen, it's going to be really tough for the Braves to win a bullpen game.
00:15:52
Speaker 1: So today is massive. It is massive. Yeah. Jason, thank you for the time, man. This is a great insight and glad to have you on board with Sporting State. Yeah.
00:16:02
Speaker 4: Thanks guys.
00:16:02
Speaker 2: Anytime.
00:16:04
Speaker 1: Great. Thanks Jason. From Atlanta, Jason Foster, bringing us all the insight and analysis at SportingState.com when it comes to this. And the reward.
00:16:13
Speaker 2: Hunting the reward for whoever wins, if the Braves win today or the Phillies win the next two, is the Los Angeles Dodgers in the next round in a best-of-five series. So it's just a foregone conclusion the Dodgers are going to win a third straight is what people are thinking with the roster that they've built. And if they do that, it's going to be a bunch of, I told.
00:16:32
Speaker 1: You so, the game needs to be fixed. It's broken.
00:16:35
Speaker 2: This is why they're headed for a lockout, because the Dodgers of the world can do whatever they want and build their roster together. And to a super team, and that's going to be a.
00:16:43
Speaker 1: Lot of the talk. You just hit on it. This could be the last of baseball for a little while. Yeah.
00:16:50
Speaker 2: But you know what?
00:16:51
Speaker 1: It's baseball.
00:16:52
Speaker 2: Anything can truly happen. So the Phillies or the Braves could theoretically knock off the Dodgers in the next round, whoever gets there, because those are two really good teams also.
00:17:01
Speaker 1: So can't wait to watch today. It would be a great series if that is the case. Hey, coming up, we discuss a trade, big trade, that took place in the NFL. J.J. McCarthy and the New York Giants. And what that tells us about the Vikings specifically, that's straight ahead here on Hutton & Withrow. You want some Nashville balls gear, the official place to get that is XXXY Athletics. Founded by Jennifer Say, former national champion gymnast, former Levi's brand president, she walked away from that corporate job rather than say something she didn't believe and started XXXY Athletics instead. And the mission, in their words, is to empower female athletes to take a stand for fair competition. They call it the T that launched a movement. This is real athletic apparel and real apparel from the Nashville Balls.
00:17:45
Speaker 2: And this is the crew making the Nashville Balls gear. Trucker hats, tees, out now. If you want the shirt, that's where you go to get it. Also, good news, new customers get 20% off your first order when you sign up. And free shipping over $ 100, xxxyathletics.com. That's xx-xyathletics.com. Speaking of xxxy, speaking of WNBA, I'm not following the WNBA playoffs closely, but did you see where the Indiana Fever beat the Las Vegas Aces last night in game two? I think it's a best of three. So now it's a game three, do or die. But Asia Wilson went nuts on a fan at the game because a fan, a grown, a man, basically a man who's probably 55 years old, dared to point at her after a foul. He was like, like everybody else in the crowd was pointing at her.
00:18:33
Speaker 1: Or saying something or doing something.
00:18:35
Speaker 2: And she walks toward this guy and gets in his face and is going ballistic. She gets a technical. The Indiana Fever crowd and security said the dude did nothing wrong to deserve that. And after the game, I mean, she was just like, oh, yeah, I would do it again. Don't bleep with me. Don't mess with me. I'm not about that. You're a grown man. You're going to stand up and start walking towards me? And I'm thinking, walking towards you? He's sitting in his seat over there pointing at you, and you walk towards him. It was a wild scene in Indianapolis, to say the least.
00:19:06
Speaker 1: They want attention, but they don't want a fan base. You know, like it is so odd.
00:19:11
Speaker 2: They don't want that fan base. They do not want straight, white, older men. Caring about the team because they just see it as, well, he's racist, he's homophobic, he's transphobic. That's why this guy is here cheering on Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham.
00:19:27
Speaker 1: That's who they don't want. Well, what they've turned it into, Chad, is the WNBA has turned their sport into everything that we go to sports to get away from, the escape. You can go to a stadium, you can go to an arena, and you don't care who you're sitting next to, by and large. You're cheering for the same team. or you're cheering against the same team, whatever it might be. And now they've made it and created an atmosphere where you want to cheer against them. You're doing it to get a reaction because you know you will. It's just so petty and so just soft, extremely soft. just to be on the lookout for fans like this gentleman, who's simply a fan, a paying customer, I'm assuming, showing up and helping them do what they want to do, which is gain notoriety, gain attention. And instead, they want to kick that person out. They don't want to include it. This reminds me of a soccer fan from 20 years ago. You know what I'm talking about. This niche sport was like, no, you're not allowed to talk about anything involving soccer or college baseball. There was just this group of fans that would not allow you to join their group. Now it's the actual athlete that's doing it, which is absurd. It's totally stupid. And they continue to do it. For what reason, I have no idea when they're alienating their best player on the planet.
00:21:03
Speaker 2: Well, and just be happy that the place is sold out and that there's a big crowd there watching you. And I'm not saying just take anything any fan says. The guy didn't say anything.
00:21:14
Speaker 1: He didn't say anything derogatory.
00:21:17
Speaker 2: He didn't threaten her. He pointed like Sophie Cunningham with the pointing thing. He was doing that, and she walked over and did that to him. Shout out to our Karen Krause at Sporting State. She wrote a great piece where she went to the bar in Portland where the bar owner or that waitress kicked out the lady wearing the XXXY gear just as an experiment to write about it and see what it was like. And she told the, you know, she, they had protests there after that. And then the protest for XXXY became an anti-protest about transphobia and all this stuff happened. And the owner of the place, the GM, was talking to Karen and said, yeah, that was a weird couple weeks.
00:21:59
Speaker 1: That was crazy.
00:22:00
Speaker 2: But Karen said, I had the uncomfortable conversation, said, well, I'm on the side of the people who believe that men should stay out of women's sports first off. And she disagreed, but it was ultimately fine. But she told a great story about, this is basically a lesbian bar, is the description of the place, right? It's all women's sports on the TVs.
00:22:20
Speaker 1: At all time.
00:22:20
Speaker 2: And they're appealing to a lesbian trans crowd, okay, at this place. But she met a woman who, because she couldn't get or the bar was closed or something, had to go to a bar next door that was just a straight-up sports bar, and she was upset because she wanted to watch the WNBA game, and she was afraid because it's Kansas City Chiefs fan bar in Portland. They were going to take it off the TV to watch the Chiefs game on a Sunday. Instead, the bar owner kept her game on the TV. She ended up meeting Chiefs fans. And this woman was afraid because she thought she was going to be out of her comfort zone and people were going to be angry with her. And instead, she ended up meeting an older man who's a Chiefs fan who she was asking him about the Chiefs and he was asking her about the WNBA team that she was following. And the moral of the story is, if you get out of your comfort zone, maybe just maybe sports can bring people together. And you might find something that, hey, this older white dude isn't as bad as I thought or as evil as I thought. Or you might say, hey, this person who I don't think is anything like me, maybe they're okay. Maybe I have something to learn about the WNBA or whatever sports on the TV and we can get along. So I thought it was brilliant work by Karen to go to the bar and write about that. That's the moral of the story. Hud, you say it all the time. We say it on this show. You don't care about the politics, the person you're slapping hands with when you're watching a sporting event or seeing.
00:23:42
Speaker 1: A big moment. By and large, no. Or the concert you're going to, by and large. Who knows what half the time my favorite artists are singing about in some of these cases. If it's not country music, I don't know what they would be singing about. Chad, by the way, great visit from Jason Foster, sportandstate.com there. JJ McCarthy traded. He was the 10th overall pick in 2024. He's the highest quarterback ever drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. Let that sink in. Wow. And he's drafted by a head coach who is a quarterback developer known by NFL circles. He did touch the cloak of Sean McVay. He did do that. But the first year, we saw what happened with Sam Darnold. And we saw that they didn't re-sign Sam Darnold. They tried to. They low-balled him. He ends up leaving. He goes to Seattle. The rest is history. They go with their rookie quarterback in J.J. McCarthy. Now, this offseason, they're trying to revamp that feeling with Kyler Murray. And they've already given up. They've already thrown in the towel on McCarthy. And it made me think about Cam Ward, where you start looking at the starts and, oh, we need 20 starts, 22 starts, whatever. If you know, you know. And this is O'Connell saying, we know. Apparently, J.J. McCarthy had no idea this was going to happen. There was like an emotional conversation between head coach and quarterback. But the fact that the Giants are going to trade for him, and what does it mean for the Giants? And what does it mean for the Vikings, who have given up this high-profile pick, paid a big price for it, the most they've ever paid, and they've already said, you know what? We're done. We're done here. We're out.
00:25:36
Speaker 2: That's admitting a mistake and moving on and doing it the right way. I credit them for finding a trade partner. I credit them for the quick realization of this.
00:25:45
Speaker 1: Isn't going to work out.
00:25:46
Speaker 2: And being able to admit it was a mistake, right? I mean, that's key in all of this. You mentioned it. This is a head coach who is a quarterback developer and knows quarterbacks. Made the distinction that this guy is not going to work out, so let's not waste time. and let's move them if we can. I love that for the Vikings. Look, it helps that the Vikings are off to a good start, too, also, right? They look smarter because they're doing well, and they've got a really good defense and all those things, but it does make me also think about Cam Ward and how soon is too soon, how late is too late to let it continue, right? All these questions now of, boy, every sign is that it's not going to work out, but Do you continue to allow for good signs to happen with him moving forward? I think it's time, if you're going to look your team in the eyes and say, I'm trying to give you guys a chance to win games and climb out of this 0-3 hole, you've got to make a move at quarterback because it's one move that you can make. And you've got a veteran guy who I think could be one of the better backups in the league than Mitch Trubisky, especially with his knowledge of Brian Dayball's system that's waiting in the wings ready to go.
00:27:00
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:27:01
Speaker 2: Look, I think it's time for Cam Ward, but the Titans also aren't coached by a quarterback guru. They're coached by a defensive-minded head coach in Robert Sala, who ultimately will have to make that call.
00:27:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just think about it from the Giants' perspective. The signing bonus has already been paid. They got him for a fifth-round pick for a guy that was drafted 10th overall. He had the torn meniscus in his first year. Chad, he only started 10 games. He threw 11 touchdowns and 12 picks. And 6-4, I believe, was the overall record. They just said, see ya. Because Kyler Murray came in and said, yeah, this isn't a battle. I'm going to win this job. And he did. We'll see. He's on a one-year deal. And McCarthy's under contracts until 2027, so they've got another year with him in New York. Of course, you've got Dart. But again, for this year, I like the aggressive play. And if you need him, you play him. But if not, stick with Jameis. And hope you play the Titans every week. He's 1-0.
00:28:01
Speaker 2: Jameis Winston's 1-0. He had that one nice run, too, where he sidestepped a guy running down the field. So you ride Jameis until the end. Did you hear what he said postgame? He's a lunatic when he talks. It's hilarious, though, the way he speaks. He's like, this reminded me of camp. First day of camp. Pouring rain.
00:28:18
Speaker 1: No energy. Nobody cared about that practice.
00:28:20
Speaker 2: But that was like a game.
00:28:21
Speaker 1: That was like today. If he's just going into it, I'm like, dude.
00:28:25
Speaker 2: There's so many non-sequiturs when he's talking, but everything he does, he delivers it so dramatically.
00:28:30
Speaker 1: I can't get enough of his interviews. He's like a cool Russell Wilson. Yeah, he's like a more.
00:28:36
Speaker 2: Authentic Russell Wilson.
00:28:38
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson does it. It comes across as fake.
00:28:40
Speaker 2: And Jameis Winston, it comes across completely genuine. Hey, there's genuine love of the USC football team from their radio team, Hutton.
00:28:47
Speaker 1: That's for sure. Yeah, so this is like an SNL skit. Here, the Trojan Radio Network here discussing what happened on a play where a player ends up pointing the wrong direction. He did not try to slide feet first, and Stevens went in helmet first, but he kind of ran into Dante Moore, who ducked into that hit. I did not see him put his feet out first. I saw him dive forward.
00:29:16
Speaker 2: He's laying feet first. He is now because they spun him around.
00:29:20
Speaker 1: I want to see the replay. I don't know. Here he goes down into, not a feet first slide, more of a knee slide. It didn't look like targeting on the replay to us.
00:29:30
Speaker 2: The shoulder, you see the guy, the spotter, saying it was a shoulder, it wasn't a helmet, a helmet. That was the play where Dante Moore was damn near decapitated on a play where the linebacker who did it got ejected and then celebrated the ejection and the hit and has since had to come out and apologize for doing that. I mean, there needs to be an apology from that radio crew for that. And I know Homer local stuff, all that. We have it here at Nashville too. And they're probably never going to have to apologize for anything because That.
00:30:00
Speaker 1: Looks so stupid.
00:30:01
Speaker 2: And it is a great lesson in if you were emotionally invested in something, your emotions can convince your brain to see something that's not happening. And you could be so blinded by that emotion where you can't just say, yeah, that was a dirty hit. Or, yeah, I see now that's going to be target.
00:30:20
Speaker 1: Or if you're edited and you have to be Homer radio over the top all the time for fear of reprimand, you know? that's the other thing.
00:30:29
Speaker 2: If you're walking on eggshells after the game, I don't think that was the case in this one. I think that was just a bunch of guys who are USC fans that are acting like they saw something that didn't happen.
00:30:38
Speaker 1: That's fair.
00:30:39
Speaker 2: More of a knee slide. It wasn't a proper slide. It was a knee slide down. He, he, he deserved that hit is essentially what they were trying to say. And then the dude's face that he makes the camera, not a great look for the old USC radio team.
00:30:53
Speaker 1: Oh man, not a great look for Lincoln Riley either. We'll, we must discuss him, um, At some point we have to get into that. Just the fact that wouldn't you just focus on your defense at some point, please, you know, get a clue and get a defense and then actually have a team that's competitive. Giving up, you know, all these points is not going to win you games in the big 10. Yeah.
00:31:18
Speaker 2: Oregon has big 10 of five, their roster.
00:31:21
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:31:21
Speaker 2: Dan landing like big physical guys up front. They have adapted to the conference they're in where they can compete and and compete for championships. USC should be a program that can compete for a Big Ten title, but I don't think Lincoln Riley's adapted.
00:31:36
Speaker 1: No, it's all about building forward. They have not. If anything, they've just stayed exactly where they were sitting going into the conference play. Coming up, going for the bundle, and we've got some good ones for you where you can roll with us with Hard Rock Bet, Putnam Withrow.
00:31:52
Speaker 3: This year, the biggest sportsbook party.
00:31:55
Speaker 1: Is getting even bigger.
00:31:56
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00:31:57
Speaker 4: I mean, whether you've been here, you're just getting here, everybody gets the same bonus bets.
00:32:02
Speaker 3: Hey, J.
00:32:03
Speaker 2: Jimmy Johnson. Kevin, they know me?
00:32:06
Speaker 1: Of course they know you. In this party, everybody's somebody.
00:32:10
Speaker 3: And everyone gets bonus bets.
00:32:12
Speaker 2: Hey, that's Fat Joe.
00:32:13
Speaker 1: Forget him. That's J-Boy. Hey, J-Boy. Everybody on Hard Rock Bet gets $ 100 in bonus bets. Limited time only. My name's J-Boy. I got that.
00:32:21
Speaker 2: I got that.
00:32:24
Speaker 1: It is Hutton and Withrow presented by Hard Rock Bet. And each and every Wednesday, we go for the bundle. Bet $ 5, get 100 in bonus bets. That's for new customers. Right now, you download the app, hardrock.bet.com. Mark Howard brings us to the bundle.
00:32:43
Speaker 4: On first down, Smoker back in his own end zone, going for the bundle.
00:32:46
Speaker 3: He's got Bonner, who lays it out and catches the ball down on the.
00:32:50
Speaker 1: 7, and he's in for the touchdown. He was not touched. He was not touched by the defender, Nate Coggins.
00:32:57
Speaker 4: Jeff Smoker is a touchdown-throwing inferno.
00:33:01
Speaker 3: It's 57-49, Nashville.
00:33:04
Speaker 1: Always hit the over. Mark Howard, Daryl Hammond, RIP to both, man. We honor them with going for the bundle with hard rock bet. Chad, I'm taking Tennessee first quarter against Auburn minus one and a half. Get off to a quick start here. Go with the run game. Control the football. I think Tennessee starts fast at home, and I'll take minus one and a half in the first quarter.
00:33:27
Speaker 2: I can see this being a game where if Tennessee wins a toss, they're going to take the ball. A lot of times when Josh Heupel feels like his defense is playing well, he goes on defense first. That's what happened this past weekend against Texas. I could definitely see this one where they've got something scripted and they feel like they can go score a touchdown on drive number one, so they take the ball. So I don't hate that play, Hutton, at all. I'm nervous because I don't know what Vegas is seeing. This is very similar to Florida Ole Miss last week. Northwestern lost 29-23. to Indiana last week. They destroyed Colorado 41-6. Penn State just lost to Wisconsin at home in year one under Matt Campbell. Northwestern is opening their brand new stadium on the lake. This is a Friday night game in a marquee spot in their brand new home stadium that they're going to open. And Northwestern is a two and a half point underdog? Give me the Wildcats, Northwestern, Moneyline, not just to cover. Give me the Moneyline as a slight underdog at home against Penn State. That's going to be my leg of the parlay.
00:34:31
Speaker 1: JT.
00:34:34
Speaker 3: Georgia's defense remains elite, letting up just 13 points a game. That's 18th in the country. Only giving up about 50 yards rushing. Vanderbilt's offense. has been just modest, I think about 28 points per game. I really like, and you also have to look ahead to Bama next week for Georgia. I like the under a 50 and a half at Hard Rock bet for Georgia Vandy.
00:35:01
Speaker 2: This is, I think, the smartest play on this game. And I fear, honestly, that Georgia could get over this number themselves in this game, but that's not Kirby Smart's M.O. I think they're going to get a 2-3 score lead and that he's going to slow it up and just suffocate Vandy in this game. So I like this play a lot, JT, to go the under on that 50.5 points.
00:35:26
Speaker 1: This is a good week for us, boys. Tennessee minus 1.5 in the first quarter. Chad's got Northwestern Moneyline, and JT's taking the under in Georgia and Vanderbilt. That's a $ 5 wager. We'll pay out $ 44 on that three-bet parlay going for the bundle this week with Hard Rock Betting. Hey, let's win, gentlemen, shall we? I'm going to bet each of these individually and parlay these together as well. I'm parlaying it right now to make sure that we are all winners this week. That's what's going to happen. I feel good about it. Chad, I like it just because Northwestern's opening up their stadium. They're not losing that game.
00:35:59
Speaker 2: It feels too perfect for Northwestern.
00:36:03
Speaker 1: They're coming up.
00:36:04
Speaker 2: They played on Friday night, I think last week also, against Indiana. So they get the full week to prepare for another Friday night game.
00:36:11
Speaker 1: It's the new stadium. Come on now.
00:36:13
Speaker 2: Give me Northwestern. They're going to make this happen.
00:36:15
Speaker 1: Let's check the weather as well because it's going to be raining in Knoxville Saturday, right?
00:36:20
Speaker 2: I did check the weather in that game.
00:36:22
Speaker 1: Yes. It's going to be sunny.
00:36:24
Speaker 2: It's looking like a lot of rain last check for that Tennessee-Auburn game.
00:36:29
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Northwestern on Saturday, 62 and sunny. Perfect football weather. I like that. It's not big game Beth weather.
00:36:39
Speaker 2: For a Northwestern game, which is typically more 52 degrees and overcast, but maybe high 40s. But this is perfect football weather.
00:36:47
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Saturday in Athens, rains, that chance of storms, and 84 degrees. So buckle up for scattered thunderstorms. Also helps the underplay by JT, if that's the case. Yes, it does. Does not help Jared Curtis all that well.
00:37:06
Speaker 2: No, it's looking like, by the way, thunderstorms in 75 in Knoxville also.
00:37:11
Speaker 1: I think that helps Tennessee in the run game too. Texas is just different when it comes to stopping the run. I think Tennessee gets right back on track against Auburn. I don't think they can do what Texas just did to them.
00:37:24
Speaker 2: I also don't understand why Tennessee didn't try to run the ball outside at all. There was no creativity in the run game. It was just right up the middle and beating your head up against a brick wall with that Auburn defensive front. So, Look, Tennessee and Auburn both want to run it, and Auburn's going to have more design quarterback runs with Byron Brown than Tennessee will with Faison Brandon. So I think this game, a lot of it is going to be which defense is saltier against the run in this game.
00:37:53
Speaker 1: Right now, over under 54.5 for Tennessee and Auburn.
00:37:57
Speaker 2: Pretty low scoring for these two teams, you'd think.
00:38:00
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I still like the under in that, just based on weather currently. I think that goes down maybe a point or so. Seven and a half is the spread. I haven't played that yet, Jed. I was bold last week getting the points. I'm not bold enough to take seven and a half yet against Auburn.
00:38:19
Speaker 2: I need to see Tennessee bounce back. I need to see it that this is not going to be a trend of every SEC defense they face. They're going to be unable to do anything. If I see them look competent on offense on Saturday, I feel good about their defense. from what I've seen so far this year, if they look confident on offense, I'll be a lot more secure in betting Tennessee moving forward with that next game at Arkansas after they play Auburn.
00:38:44
Speaker 1: Chad, fun show today. As October joins us tomorrow, we will have our September Heisman Awards. We'll be handing out. We've got our coach as well. We'll see how obvious it is. Or if we've got some close debate, especially when it comes to coach. Maybe not player, at least not yet. We'll be back at it 8 o'clock Eastern each morning right here at Sporting State for Hutton and Withrow presented by Hard Rock Bet.
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00:00:35
Speaker 2: Based off our conversation yesterday about eliminating the unneeded Y at the end of the name, I would like to make a push to call this David Crockett as we talk about Crockett Coffee. In fact, if you search on Wikipedia, David Crockett appears and not Davy Crockett. It is David Crockett High School in East Tennessee and not Davy Crockett also. At least I'd like to make that change. Something I won't be changing is my subscription to Crockett Coffee. I've got the Blue Ridge blend right now.
00:01:03
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00:01:28
Speaker 1: Chad, best I can tell, David Crockett did not have a middle name. Fascinating. I know. I find that.
00:01:37
Speaker 2: It was a simpler time, Hutton. It was a simpler people. And they said, why waste time with having a third name? Let's just go with David Crockett and roll with it. That's a strong enough name.
00:01:48
Speaker 1: I feel like he would want to go by David. David, Davey.
00:01:53
Speaker 2: I just, I don't prefer, I do not prefer Davey. Guys, are we good to go to Jason now?
00:01:59
Speaker 1: Yeah? Okay, perfect. Oh, great. Jason Foster joins us.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: I was doing research on David Crockett over there. I got lost in it for a second. I'm like, oh, there's Jason waiting on us.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: From the press box.
00:02:11
Speaker 2: From the press box at the Braves-Phillies game. Jason Foster, sportandstate.com. doing a great job covering Major League Baseball on with us right now.
00:02:20
Speaker 1: Jason, how are you, man?
00:02:21
Speaker 2: Appreciate you doing this while you're covering this series.
00:02:23
Speaker 3: I'm doing great.
00:02:24
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
00:02:26
Speaker 1: Are you a fan of this series format right now where you've got three at home and you don't have to– it feels like everyone's wanting a five-game series. Why won't Major League Baseball give that to us?
00:02:37
Speaker 4: Well, I think it just comes down to, like, not having the postseason go too far into November. I mean, there is a good case to have the wild card series be best three out of five, and then have the Division Series be a best of seven, like the Championship Series and the World Series. I know a lot of fans definitely want that. I'm kind of indifferent toward a five-game wildcard series, but it's a three-game best of three is definitely a lot better than what it used to be, which was the one game which anything can happen and really wasn't fair. So I'm okay with.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: The way it is. What do the players say about it?
00:03:14
Speaker 4: I think they have very similar feelings. They prefer anything other than just one game. And they also don't want the postseason to go too far into November. So I think they're okay with it. And they would probably tell you it's just more incentive to win your division and have one of the top two best records so you don't have to play the wildcard series.
00:03:32
Speaker 2: And that's where my problem arises. It's not about three-game series for wildcard teams. It's about the Braves winning 96 games and winning a division and a tough division and a record that would have got them in a great spot in the American League and being forced to play a three-game series to start it. We have got to do something in baseball. I don't know what you do with the numbers. You add a team or do this. Wildcard teams should play wildcard teams in the wildcard.
00:03:57
Speaker 1: Round, Jason.
00:03:58
Speaker 2: I cannot stand division champions being forced to play in the wildcard round and just taking the top two records of division champions to get the bye. Where do you stand on that? And do you feel like the Braves or another division champ would have the argument that, hey, it would be great if we got a buy to that best-of-five series for winning a division after a 162-game schedule.
00:04:22
Speaker 4: I would agree with that. I think there has to be a better way to reward division winners, and I think you'll probably see that as some component of the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. I don't know what that might look like. There's been ideas of having the top seed get to choose their opponent or the third division winner or the division winner with the lowest record to come in with one win already in hand like they do in Japan. So there's a lot of ideas out there. So I would not be at all surprised to see that addressed in the CBA.
00:04:54
Speaker 2: I'm watching the game yesterday. I'm a giant Braves fan. And what struck me was it was a great moment with Austin Riley that you saw live.
00:05:03
Speaker 1: And it was very loud in that moment.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: But I was at a series in late June against the Milwaukee Brewers that had better atmosphere and a better crowd on a Friday night in the regular season than what we saw for a mid-afternoon start on a Tuesday afternoon in Atlanta. And I know you wrote about this at Sporting State as well, Jason, but that is an issue. And this is not something new. You know, days during the week, during the middle of the day in Major League Baseball playoffs has been going on forever. But to have the Braves and Phillies in that time slot for possibly three straight days in this series, what do you make of that decision by Major League Baseball?
00:05:42
Speaker 4: Well, MLB says obviously someone has to have the first game slot and there's going to be fan bases unhappy no matter what. And they factor in things like the time zone of the teams and where the game is and the potential draw that it's going to bring. But like you said, when you have a marquee matchup like the Braves and Phillies, two huge rivals who have postseason beef not that long ago, there's just all kinds of narratives that kind of lend themselves to or lends the game to a more prominent time slot. Two o'clock in the afternoon is, is just bad on all fronts. You know, if you're in school, you can't watch it. If you're at work, you probably can't watch it and you can't come to the game in most cases, which is why it wasn't a sell yesterday. It was a little over 30,000, which was better than I expected because like 45 minutes before the game, I was looking out and it was, it was a skip carry used to say it was a partial sellout. And it was just, it was just not a, It was not a good look at that time, but the crowd did fill in nicely. And I saw something on X this morning that yesterday's crowd was actually, I think, the third highest game one crowd ever since they started the current wildcard format. And so it wasn't a terrible crowd, but I agree with you. It could have been better. And I think if it was even a five o'clock start, you would have seen a much better crowd.
00:07:06
Speaker 2: Well, one broadcast question for you, too, and I'll turn it back over to Hutton then. And I know you're not watching the broadcast while you're actually there in the building in the press box covering the game. But NBC's decision to bring the hometown announcers in to call the game with two color guys. And I know they had, I think Joey Votto was the third analyst.
00:07:25
Speaker 1: But C.J.
00:07:26
Speaker 2: Nikowski, who I think does a great job with Braves Vision covering the Braves. But I've watched and heard C.J. Nikowski all season with the Braves. John Kruk with the Phillies broadcast. And they're there together. I just feel like if you're going to be truly big time with Major League Baseball and your commitment, if you're NBC, you have a second broadcast crew, you know, for that secondary game or whatever it is. That's a national broadcast crew for that game.
00:07:51
Speaker 1: Am I off with that?
00:07:52
Speaker 2: Or do you agree with the decision to have the hometown color commentators call that game yesterday?
00:07:58
Speaker 4: I like having one of each team. I wouldn't be opposed to what you're suggesting as some sort of simulcast situation. But I think fans in general like to have a familiar voice on the broadcast because that's always been a complaint through the decades that you watch a broadcast team for 162 games and then the playoffs start and you don't get to hear them anymore. And so this at least addresses that a little bit. And I know they're supposed to be not exactly neutral. They're allowed to be a little bit Homer-ish. But I think overall fans like it. But I definitely understand the– desire to have a a big-time announce crew like some more prominent national announcers so i think i think maybe that's something else they could consider uh to broadcast a simulcast like espn used to do the regular broadcast and then they're like analytical broadcast i think you could do something similar with hometown announcers and then a big-time crew jason with.
00:08:53
Speaker 1: These start times i mean they're they obviously want yankees and red sox in the night gap right are they taking advantage of the Braves fan base that will actually show up to game one at this time and actually have 30,000 as opposed to another series where if they're in a different, you know, if they're, if they're in the, in the national league, they don't make the playoffs for, for instance. Yeah.
00:09:15
Speaker 4: I mean, possibly, like I said, MLB takes a lot, told me that they take a lot of factors into account when they schedule and they know that some fan bases are just going to be unhappy.
00:09:27
Speaker 3: Right.
00:09:27
Speaker 4: And, As far as the Braves-Phillies, they told me that it just came down to that they're the East Coast teams that weren't the Yankees and Red Sox. And so it was kind of by default they would get the early game. But on the one hand, you could say if a game's important to fans, they'll find a way to watch it. I don't necessarily agree with that because there's a lot of people who just can't afford to take time off work or can't afford tickets or whatever it might be. And so they're just out of luck. They have to sneak in on their phone during the work day or during the school day to try to watch what's happening. And that's no way to enjoy the postseason when you follow the team all season. And then especially in a short series like this where the first two games, it could be over after two games and you potentially don't get to see any of it. And so there seems like there's got to be a better way for MLB to schedule these things.
00:10:15
Speaker 1: So Chad's a Braves fan. He can chime on this as well. I've heard from a couple different Braves fans that did not want to see Philly in the postseason. What is it about the Phillies that has the number of the Braves when it comes to the big-time games that everyone's trying to avoid? And moving forward here, what's the gamesmanship now? What's the pitching matchups to be looking for?
00:10:36
Speaker 4: I think the Phillies are just one of those teams that has a collection of players that for whatever reason are able to step it up when the pressure's on. And maybe the Braves haven't had that type of collection outside of 2021 of late. But the Phillies are tough. And when you combine that with the postseason just being a different animal, the regular season just does not matter. A lot of fans just don't understand that. But the postseason, once it starts, the regular season just really doesn't matter. Everything starts fresh. You heard Walt Weiss and Austin Raleigh talk about that yesterday in terms of his heroics. But The Phillies have just had the Braves number, and I think a big part of that was that they had to play some games in Citizens Bank Park, which is one of the worst places for a visiting team to play in the postseason because those fans are crazy in a good way, and it's loud, and it's a tough place to play. Having it here for potentially all three games is a huge advantage for the Braves, and so I think that this is– Definitely the best opportunity for the Braves to, like, slay the Phillies demons that have haunted them for the past few seasons and try to make a deep run.
00:11:44
Speaker 2: And now they get that opportunity two games to win one at this point. Jason, it felt like getting that win with Chris Sale pitching was paramount for the Braves, and they found a way with Austin Riley's three-run homer in the eighth to.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: Get that done.
00:11:58
Speaker 2: How does it set up now with Malley on the hill for the Braves today? What does the pitching matchup look like? And how key was that for the Braves to have a chance to make sure they won that game that Chris Sale started?
00:12:10
Speaker 4: Well, that was huge to get the win with Sale on the mound. That was by far their best chance to win in the series on paper. And they were able to take advantage. And so being up 1-0 in a best three, obviously huge. Today's matchup on paper, I would say, favors the Phillies because Christopher Sanchez is another tough lefty. If not for Jacob Mizorowski and Sale, he would probably be the Cy Young frontrunner in the National League. So he's always tough. He's been a little bit uneven the past few weeks of the regular season. But like I said, none of that matters once the postseason starts. He's going to be tough on the Braves. Tyler Malley has been a godsend for the Braves. He has overperformed everyone's expectations. So if you can't have Chris Sale on the mound for a game two, Tyler Malley is definitely the best option. And piggybacking off that, it'll be even more of a key– for the Braves to win today, because if they, if they don't win today, I'm not even sure they know yet what their pitching situation is going to look like in game three. Uh, and that would a hundred percent favor the Phillies, um, almost no matter who they put out there, because the Braves would have to probably go with a bullpen game. And that's always less than ideal in an elimination game, but hopefully for them, uh, Mally can close it out today. Cause like I said, he's been great. He's, he's just really tough to hit, even though he doesn't throw that hard. He just has a good mix of pitches and, um, Braves will be looking for a key start from him today, not just in terms of limiting Philly, but also giving them length in case they do have to pitch a bullpen game tomorrow.
00:13:40
Speaker 2: Of the two lower-profile series, not Red Sox-Yankees, not Braves-Phillies, which one interests you the most between White Sox-Astros and Cubs-Padres?
00:13:51
Speaker 1: Definitely Cubs-Padres.
00:13:53
Speaker 4: Those two teams have a lot of interesting players. You've got Pete Crow Armstrong, the likely MVP. You got Fernando Tatis Jr., who was electric last night and is able to change the game in multiple ways. That's by far the best secondary series. The White Sox-Astros is just not interesting to me. Like I wrote in my column, they combined for 82.5 wins on average, and if they played in the National League, they wouldn't have even made the postseason. That's not to say they can't do some magic in the postseason because October is weird, but I can't get excited about that series, and it's going to have to prove me wrong to bring my interest in.
00:14:32
Speaker 1: Guys, Chad, chime in on this. If it comes down to a bullpen game in the third matchup against the Phillies, do you trust Atlanta's bats in that matchup? Go ahead.
00:14:45
Speaker 2: No, I was going to say, yeah, go ahead and jump in, but my confidence level would not be.
00:14:51
Speaker 1: High, Jason. Okay, okay.
00:14:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, the bats have been so weird for the Braves this season. In some ways, it doesn't make sense that they won the division because they've had long stretches where they are literally the worst performing offense in the major leagues. And yet they won 94 games and won the division. And at one point, we're up by 10 games. Yesterday, you saw more of the same with Lizardo shutting them down for the first few innings. They stranded some opportunities, stranded some runs in scoring positions. So I would not trust their offense in terms of like you go in and say, well, I'm confident that the Braves offense can make up for any bullpen deficiencies. That confidence just isn't there. The keys are going to be the top of the order. Acuna, Baldwin, Olsen, Harris, if those guys aren't performing, it takes a guy like Riley Jones. for all these yesterday also to have a big hit in a big situation, because if that doesn't happen, it's going to be really tough for the Braves to win a bullpen game.
00:15:52
Speaker 1: So today is massive. It is massive. Yeah. Jason, thank you for the time, man. This is a great insight and glad to have you on board with Sporting State. Yeah.
00:16:02
Speaker 4: Thanks guys.
00:16:02
Speaker 2: Anytime.
00:16:04
Speaker 1: Great. Thanks Jason. From Atlanta, Jason Foster, bringing us all the insight and analysis at SportingState.com when it comes to this. And the reward.
00:16:13
Speaker 2: Hunting the reward for whoever wins, if the Braves win today or the Phillies win the next two, is the Los Angeles Dodgers in the next round in a best-of-five series. So it's just a foregone conclusion the Dodgers are going to win a third straight is what people are thinking with the roster that they've built. And if they do that, it's going to be a bunch of, I told.
00:16:32
Speaker 1: You so, the game needs to be fixed. It's broken.
00:16:35
Speaker 2: This is why they're headed for a lockout, because the Dodgers of the world can do whatever they want and build their roster together. And to a super team, and that's going to be a.
00:16:43
Speaker 1: Lot of the talk. You just hit on it. This could be the last of baseball for a little while. Yeah.
00:16:50
Speaker 2: But you know what?
00:16:51
Speaker 1: It's baseball.
00:16:52
Speaker 2: Anything can truly happen. So the Phillies or the Braves could theoretically knock off the Dodgers in the next round, whoever gets there, because those are two really good teams also.
00:17:01
Speaker 1: So can't wait to watch today. It would be a great series if that is the case. Hey, coming up, we discuss a trade, big trade, that took place in the NFL. J.J. McCarthy and the New York Giants. And what that tells us about the Vikings specifically, that's straight ahead here on Hutton & Withrow. You want some Nashville balls gear, the official place to get that is XXXY Athletics. Founded by Jennifer Say, former national champion gymnast, former Levi's brand president, she walked away from that corporate job rather than say something she didn't believe and started XXXY Athletics instead. And the mission, in their words, is to empower female athletes to take a stand for fair competition. They call it the T that launched a movement. This is real athletic apparel and real apparel from the Nashville Balls.
00:17:45
Speaker 2: And this is the crew making the Nashville Balls gear. Trucker hats, tees, out now. If you want the shirt, that's where you go to get it. Also, good news, new customers get 20% off your first order when you sign up. And free shipping over $ 100, xxxyathletics.com. That's xx-xyathletics.com. Speaking of xxxy, speaking of WNBA, I'm not following the WNBA playoffs closely, but did you see where the Indiana Fever beat the Las Vegas Aces last night in game two? I think it's a best of three. So now it's a game three, do or die. But Asia Wilson went nuts on a fan at the game because a fan, a grown, a man, basically a man who's probably 55 years old, dared to point at her after a foul. He was like, like everybody else in the crowd was pointing at her.
00:18:33
Speaker 1: Or saying something or doing something.
00:18:35
Speaker 2: And she walks toward this guy and gets in his face and is going ballistic. She gets a technical. The Indiana Fever crowd and security said the dude did nothing wrong to deserve that. And after the game, I mean, she was just like, oh, yeah, I would do it again. Don't bleep with me. Don't mess with me. I'm not about that. You're a grown man. You're going to stand up and start walking towards me? And I'm thinking, walking towards you? He's sitting in his seat over there pointing at you, and you walk towards him. It was a wild scene in Indianapolis, to say the least.
00:19:06
Speaker 1: They want attention, but they don't want a fan base. You know, like it is so odd.
00:19:11
Speaker 2: They don't want that fan base. They do not want straight, white, older men. Caring about the team because they just see it as, well, he's racist, he's homophobic, he's transphobic. That's why this guy is here cheering on Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham.
00:19:27
Speaker 1: That's who they don't want. Well, what they've turned it into, Chad, is the WNBA has turned their sport into everything that we go to sports to get away from, the escape. You can go to a stadium, you can go to an arena, and you don't care who you're sitting next to, by and large. You're cheering for the same team. or you're cheering against the same team, whatever it might be. And now they've made it and created an atmosphere where you want to cheer against them. You're doing it to get a reaction because you know you will. It's just so petty and so just soft, extremely soft. just to be on the lookout for fans like this gentleman, who's simply a fan, a paying customer, I'm assuming, showing up and helping them do what they want to do, which is gain notoriety, gain attention. And instead, they want to kick that person out. They don't want to include it. This reminds me of a soccer fan from 20 years ago. You know what I'm talking about. This niche sport was like, no, you're not allowed to talk about anything involving soccer or college baseball. There was just this group of fans that would not allow you to join their group. Now it's the actual athlete that's doing it, which is absurd. It's totally stupid. And they continue to do it. For what reason, I have no idea when they're alienating their best player on the planet.
00:21:03
Speaker 2: Well, and just be happy that the place is sold out and that there's a big crowd there watching you. And I'm not saying just take anything any fan says. The guy didn't say anything.
00:21:14
Speaker 1: He didn't say anything derogatory.
00:21:17
Speaker 2: He didn't threaten her. He pointed like Sophie Cunningham with the pointing thing. He was doing that, and she walked over and did that to him. Shout out to our Karen Krause at Sporting State. She wrote a great piece where she went to the bar in Portland where the bar owner or that waitress kicked out the lady wearing the XXXY gear just as an experiment to write about it and see what it was like. And she told the, you know, she, they had protests there after that. And then the protest for XXXY became an anti-protest about transphobia and all this stuff happened. And the owner of the place, the GM, was talking to Karen and said, yeah, that was a weird couple weeks.
00:21:59
Speaker 1: That was crazy.
00:22:00
Speaker 2: But Karen said, I had the uncomfortable conversation, said, well, I'm on the side of the people who believe that men should stay out of women's sports first off. And she disagreed, but it was ultimately fine. But she told a great story about, this is basically a lesbian bar, is the description of the place, right? It's all women's sports on the TVs.
00:22:20
Speaker 1: At all time.
00:22:20
Speaker 2: And they're appealing to a lesbian trans crowd, okay, at this place. But she met a woman who, because she couldn't get or the bar was closed or something, had to go to a bar next door that was just a straight-up sports bar, and she was upset because she wanted to watch the WNBA game, and she was afraid because it's Kansas City Chiefs fan bar in Portland. They were going to take it off the TV to watch the Chiefs game on a Sunday. Instead, the bar owner kept her game on the TV. She ended up meeting Chiefs fans. And this woman was afraid because she thought she was going to be out of her comfort zone and people were going to be angry with her. And instead, she ended up meeting an older man who's a Chiefs fan who she was asking him about the Chiefs and he was asking her about the WNBA team that she was following. And the moral of the story is, if you get out of your comfort zone, maybe just maybe sports can bring people together. And you might find something that, hey, this older white dude isn't as bad as I thought or as evil as I thought. Or you might say, hey, this person who I don't think is anything like me, maybe they're okay. Maybe I have something to learn about the WNBA or whatever sports on the TV and we can get along. So I thought it was brilliant work by Karen to go to the bar and write about that. That's the moral of the story. Hud, you say it all the time. We say it on this show. You don't care about the politics, the person you're slapping hands with when you're watching a sporting event or seeing.
00:23:42
Speaker 1: A big moment. By and large, no. Or the concert you're going to, by and large. Who knows what half the time my favorite artists are singing about in some of these cases. If it's not country music, I don't know what they would be singing about. Chad, by the way, great visit from Jason Foster, sportandstate.com there. JJ McCarthy traded. He was the 10th overall pick in 2024. He's the highest quarterback ever drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. Let that sink in. Wow. And he's drafted by a head coach who is a quarterback developer known by NFL circles. He did touch the cloak of Sean McVay. He did do that. But the first year, we saw what happened with Sam Darnold. And we saw that they didn't re-sign Sam Darnold. They tried to. They low-balled him. He ends up leaving. He goes to Seattle. The rest is history. They go with their rookie quarterback in J.J. McCarthy. Now, this offseason, they're trying to revamp that feeling with Kyler Murray. And they've already given up. They've already thrown in the towel on McCarthy. And it made me think about Cam Ward, where you start looking at the starts and, oh, we need 20 starts, 22 starts, whatever. If you know, you know. And this is O'Connell saying, we know. Apparently, J.J. McCarthy had no idea this was going to happen. There was like an emotional conversation between head coach and quarterback. But the fact that the Giants are going to trade for him, and what does it mean for the Giants? And what does it mean for the Vikings, who have given up this high-profile pick, paid a big price for it, the most they've ever paid, and they've already said, you know what? We're done. We're done here. We're out.
00:25:36
Speaker 2: That's admitting a mistake and moving on and doing it the right way. I credit them for finding a trade partner. I credit them for the quick realization of this.
00:25:45
Speaker 1: Isn't going to work out.
00:25:46
Speaker 2: And being able to admit it was a mistake, right? I mean, that's key in all of this. You mentioned it. This is a head coach who is a quarterback developer and knows quarterbacks. Made the distinction that this guy is not going to work out, so let's not waste time. and let's move them if we can. I love that for the Vikings. Look, it helps that the Vikings are off to a good start, too, also, right? They look smarter because they're doing well, and they've got a really good defense and all those things, but it does make me also think about Cam Ward and how soon is too soon, how late is too late to let it continue, right? All these questions now of, boy, every sign is that it's not going to work out, but Do you continue to allow for good signs to happen with him moving forward? I think it's time, if you're going to look your team in the eyes and say, I'm trying to give you guys a chance to win games and climb out of this 0-3 hole, you've got to make a move at quarterback because it's one move that you can make. And you've got a veteran guy who I think could be one of the better backups in the league than Mitch Trubisky, especially with his knowledge of Brian Dayball's system that's waiting in the wings ready to go.
00:27:00
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:27:01
Speaker 2: Look, I think it's time for Cam Ward, but the Titans also aren't coached by a quarterback guru. They're coached by a defensive-minded head coach in Robert Sala, who ultimately will have to make that call.
00:27:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just think about it from the Giants' perspective. The signing bonus has already been paid. They got him for a fifth-round pick for a guy that was drafted 10th overall. He had the torn meniscus in his first year. Chad, he only started 10 games. He threw 11 touchdowns and 12 picks. And 6-4, I believe, was the overall record. They just said, see ya. Because Kyler Murray came in and said, yeah, this isn't a battle. I'm going to win this job. And he did. We'll see. He's on a one-year deal. And McCarthy's under contracts until 2027, so they've got another year with him in New York. Of course, you've got Dart. But again, for this year, I like the aggressive play. And if you need him, you play him. But if not, stick with Jameis. And hope you play the Titans every week. He's 1-0.
00:28:01
Speaker 2: Jameis Winston's 1-0. He had that one nice run, too, where he sidestepped a guy running down the field. So you ride Jameis until the end. Did you hear what he said postgame? He's a lunatic when he talks. It's hilarious, though, the way he speaks. He's like, this reminded me of camp. First day of camp. Pouring rain.
00:28:18
Speaker 1: No energy. Nobody cared about that practice.
00:28:20
Speaker 2: But that was like a game.
00:28:21
Speaker 1: That was like today. If he's just going into it, I'm like, dude.
00:28:25
Speaker 2: There's so many non-sequiturs when he's talking, but everything he does, he delivers it so dramatically.
00:28:30
Speaker 1: I can't get enough of his interviews. He's like a cool Russell Wilson. Yeah, he's like a more.
00:28:36
Speaker 2: Authentic Russell Wilson.
00:28:38
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson does it. It comes across as fake.
00:28:40
Speaker 2: And Jameis Winston, it comes across completely genuine. Hey, there's genuine love of the USC football team from their radio team, Hutton.
00:28:47
Speaker 1: That's for sure. Yeah, so this is like an SNL skit. Here, the Trojan Radio Network here discussing what happened on a play where a player ends up pointing the wrong direction. He did not try to slide feet first, and Stevens went in helmet first, but he kind of ran into Dante Moore, who ducked into that hit. I did not see him put his feet out first. I saw him dive forward.
00:29:16
Speaker 2: He's laying feet first. He is now because they spun him around.
00:29:20
Speaker 1: I want to see the replay. I don't know. Here he goes down into, not a feet first slide, more of a knee slide. It didn't look like targeting on the replay to us.
00:29:30
Speaker 2: The shoulder, you see the guy, the spotter, saying it was a shoulder, it wasn't a helmet, a helmet. That was the play where Dante Moore was damn near decapitated on a play where the linebacker who did it got ejected and then celebrated the ejection and the hit and has since had to come out and apologize for doing that. I mean, there needs to be an apology from that radio crew for that. And I know Homer local stuff, all that. We have it here at Nashville too. And they're probably never going to have to apologize for anything because That.
00:30:00
Speaker 1: Looks so stupid.
00:30:01
Speaker 2: And it is a great lesson in if you were emotionally invested in something, your emotions can convince your brain to see something that's not happening. And you could be so blinded by that emotion where you can't just say, yeah, that was a dirty hit. Or, yeah, I see now that's going to be target.
00:30:20
Speaker 1: Or if you're edited and you have to be Homer radio over the top all the time for fear of reprimand, you know? that's the other thing.
00:30:29
Speaker 2: If you're walking on eggshells after the game, I don't think that was the case in this one. I think that was just a bunch of guys who are USC fans that are acting like they saw something that didn't happen.
00:30:38
Speaker 1: That's fair.
00:30:39
Speaker 2: More of a knee slide. It wasn't a proper slide. It was a knee slide down. He, he, he deserved that hit is essentially what they were trying to say. And then the dude's face that he makes the camera, not a great look for the old USC radio team.
00:30:53
Speaker 1: Oh man, not a great look for Lincoln Riley either. We'll, we must discuss him, um, At some point we have to get into that. Just the fact that wouldn't you just focus on your defense at some point, please, you know, get a clue and get a defense and then actually have a team that's competitive. Giving up, you know, all these points is not going to win you games in the big 10. Yeah.
00:31:18
Speaker 2: Oregon has big 10 of five, their roster.
00:31:21
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:31:21
Speaker 2: Dan landing like big physical guys up front. They have adapted to the conference they're in where they can compete and and compete for championships. USC should be a program that can compete for a Big Ten title, but I don't think Lincoln Riley's adapted.
00:31:36
Speaker 1: No, it's all about building forward. They have not. If anything, they've just stayed exactly where they were sitting going into the conference play. Coming up, going for the bundle, and we've got some good ones for you where you can roll with us with Hard Rock Bet, Putnam Withrow.
00:31:52
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00:32:02
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00:32:03
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00:32:10
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00:32:21
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00:32:24
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00:32:43
Speaker 4: On first down, Smoker back in his own end zone, going for the bundle.
00:32:46
Speaker 3: He's got Bonner, who lays it out and catches the ball down on the.
00:32:50
Speaker 1: 7, and he's in for the touchdown. He was not touched. He was not touched by the defender, Nate Coggins.
00:32:57
Speaker 4: Jeff Smoker is a touchdown-throwing inferno.
00:33:01
Speaker 3: It's 57-49, Nashville.
00:33:04
Speaker 1: Always hit the over. Mark Howard, Daryl Hammond, RIP to both, man. We honor them with going for the bundle with hard rock bet. Chad, I'm taking Tennessee first quarter against Auburn minus one and a half. Get off to a quick start here. Go with the run game. Control the football. I think Tennessee starts fast at home, and I'll take minus one and a half in the first quarter.
00:33:27
Speaker 2: I can see this being a game where if Tennessee wins a toss, they're going to take the ball. A lot of times when Josh Heupel feels like his defense is playing well, he goes on defense first. That's what happened this past weekend against Texas. I could definitely see this one where they've got something scripted and they feel like they can go score a touchdown on drive number one, so they take the ball. So I don't hate that play, Hutton, at all. I'm nervous because I don't know what Vegas is seeing. This is very similar to Florida Ole Miss last week. Northwestern lost 29-23. to Indiana last week. They destroyed Colorado 41-6. Penn State just lost to Wisconsin at home in year one under Matt Campbell. Northwestern is opening their brand new stadium on the lake. This is a Friday night game in a marquee spot in their brand new home stadium that they're going to open. And Northwestern is a two and a half point underdog? Give me the Wildcats, Northwestern, Moneyline, not just to cover. Give me the Moneyline as a slight underdog at home against Penn State. That's going to be my leg of the parlay.
00:34:31
Speaker 1: JT.
00:34:34
Speaker 3: Georgia's defense remains elite, letting up just 13 points a game. That's 18th in the country. Only giving up about 50 yards rushing. Vanderbilt's offense. has been just modest, I think about 28 points per game. I really like, and you also have to look ahead to Bama next week for Georgia. I like the under a 50 and a half at Hard Rock bet for Georgia Vandy.
00:35:01
Speaker 2: This is, I think, the smartest play on this game. And I fear, honestly, that Georgia could get over this number themselves in this game, but that's not Kirby Smart's M.O. I think they're going to get a 2-3 score lead and that he's going to slow it up and just suffocate Vandy in this game. So I like this play a lot, JT, to go the under on that 50.5 points.
00:35:26
Speaker 1: This is a good week for us, boys. Tennessee minus 1.5 in the first quarter. Chad's got Northwestern Moneyline, and JT's taking the under in Georgia and Vanderbilt. That's a $ 5 wager. We'll pay out $ 44 on that three-bet parlay going for the bundle this week with Hard Rock Betting. Hey, let's win, gentlemen, shall we? I'm going to bet each of these individually and parlay these together as well. I'm parlaying it right now to make sure that we are all winners this week. That's what's going to happen. I feel good about it. Chad, I like it just because Northwestern's opening up their stadium. They're not losing that game.
00:35:59
Speaker 2: It feels too perfect for Northwestern.
00:36:03
Speaker 1: They're coming up.
00:36:04
Speaker 2: They played on Friday night, I think last week also, against Indiana. So they get the full week to prepare for another Friday night game.
00:36:11
Speaker 1: It's the new stadium. Come on now.
00:36:13
Speaker 2: Give me Northwestern. They're going to make this happen.
00:36:15
Speaker 1: Let's check the weather as well because it's going to be raining in Knoxville Saturday, right?
00:36:20
Speaker 2: I did check the weather in that game.
00:36:22
Speaker 1: Yes. It's going to be sunny.
00:36:24
Speaker 2: It's looking like a lot of rain last check for that Tennessee-Auburn game.
00:36:29
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Northwestern on Saturday, 62 and sunny. Perfect football weather. I like that. It's not big game Beth weather.
00:36:39
Speaker 2: For a Northwestern game, which is typically more 52 degrees and overcast, but maybe high 40s. But this is perfect football weather.
00:36:47
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Saturday in Athens, rains, that chance of storms, and 84 degrees. So buckle up for scattered thunderstorms. Also helps the underplay by JT, if that's the case. Yes, it does. Does not help Jared Curtis all that well.
00:37:06
Speaker 2: No, it's looking like, by the way, thunderstorms in 75 in Knoxville also.
00:37:11
Speaker 1: I think that helps Tennessee in the run game too. Texas is just different when it comes to stopping the run. I think Tennessee gets right back on track against Auburn. I don't think they can do what Texas just did to them.
00:37:24
Speaker 2: I also don't understand why Tennessee didn't try to run the ball outside at all. There was no creativity in the run game. It was just right up the middle and beating your head up against a brick wall with that Auburn defensive front. So, Look, Tennessee and Auburn both want to run it, and Auburn's going to have more design quarterback runs with Byron Brown than Tennessee will with Faison Brandon. So I think this game, a lot of it is going to be which defense is saltier against the run in this game.
00:37:53
Speaker 1: Right now, over under 54.5 for Tennessee and Auburn.
00:37:57
Speaker 2: Pretty low scoring for these two teams, you'd think.
00:38:00
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I still like the under in that, just based on weather currently. I think that goes down maybe a point or so. Seven and a half is the spread. I haven't played that yet, Jed. I was bold last week getting the points. I'm not bold enough to take seven and a half yet against Auburn.
00:38:19
Speaker 2: I need to see Tennessee bounce back. I need to see it that this is not going to be a trend of every SEC defense they face. They're going to be unable to do anything. If I see them look competent on offense on Saturday, I feel good about their defense. from what I've seen so far this year, if they look confident on offense, I'll be a lot more secure in betting Tennessee moving forward with that next game at Arkansas after they play Auburn.
00:38:44
Speaker 1: Chad, fun show today. As October joins us tomorrow, we will have our September Heisman Awards. We'll be handing out. We've got our coach as well. We'll see how obvious it is. Or if we've got some close debate, especially when it comes to coach. Maybe not player, at least not yet. We'll be back at it 8 o'clock Eastern each morning right here at Sporting State for Hutton and Withrow presented by Hard Rock Bet.
