00:00:00
Speaker 1: We are out of the gates on sport and state. Glad you're with us. It is Hutton and Withrow presented by Hard Rock. Bet, a lot to get to today. We have Chad Withrow coming up in hour number two. Just around the corner in about 15, 20 minutes or so, we have Jared Stillman. Make that about 30 minutes. Jared Stillman will join us. And we also, from Stillman & Company, also Todd Furman to get you ready for the weekend, the best bets, and much more headed your way this hour. we will have in about 15 minutes a reaction to the Tennessee Titans, the President Burke Nihill hiring someone from the Arizona Cardinals who is in the middle of a lawsuit for racial discrimination allegations, a civil lawsuit. And if you're familiar with Greg Sciano in Sciato Sunday, where he was going to be hired by the Tennessee Volunteers, this is the Titan Sciano moment, to say the least. with what we just heard from Ramon Foster, who is the analyst for Titans Radio, former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman, Tennessee volunteer, giving his opinion on someone that's involved in a racial discrimination lawsuit. We'll let you hear that coming up very, very soon. First, though, it is time for one big thing on every NFL game. And we start with Thursday night football. Tonight, Seahawks at Broncos. Seahawks minus two and a half. over under a 40.5 against Denver. And Denver's the home team here. The right team's favored. But 86% of the money line is on Denver at Hard Rock Bet. You go to hardrock.bet.com, $ 5, 500 in bonus bets. Someone put $ 130, 000. JT, $ 130, 000 on Denver tonight. You're the Broncos fan. What do you think?
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Speaker 2: But there's not a whole lot about Denver that excites me. I feel like they always show up for the games that they maybe shouldn't be in, but also fall flat on their face in some of those games that they should be in. I don't feel confident with placing $ 10 at Hard Rock, Matt, but.
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Speaker 1: $ 130, 000. $ 130, 000. I hope that guy wins just.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: For me tonight.
00:02:16
Speaker 1: That would win you $ 305, 000. Yeah. Yeah, so we'll think about it. We must know something we don't. Yeah, that's a hard rock bet. Denver, the only winning team in the NFL to trail in the fourth quarter in every single game this season. And Bo Nix, he's facing a nightmare schematic matchup. Under pressure, he ranks 30th in completion percentage. And now he faces Seattle, second highest pressure rate in the National Football League. We head to Sunday night football. Cowboys at Green Bay. Packers... One and a half is the line here. I mean, back and forth game expected over under 53. 96% of the total handle is on the over for this game at 53 points. Dallas defense has yet to have an interception all season. They have only five sacks in five weeks. The Packers, they're going to want to use Marshawn Lloyd often. The Cowboys, they surrender a league-worst 168 rushing yards per game. We go to Monday night. Commanders and Niners. Niners by 7.5 at 50. 50.5 is now on the total points. Unbeaten San Francisco. They're going to be without Jerry Greenlaw. He's out with a one-game suspension. And Devo Samuel with a hamstring injury. Washington's coming off that wild 27-27 tie after coaching malpractice. Ridiculous with how that game ended last week. The hard rock bet action here. The money line handle split dead even 50-50 as the larger wagers are taking a shot on Washington at plus 325. Sunday, 425. Bills, Raiders. The Raiders are catching all these teams. Big teams coming off these big wins. And they haven't performed well recently. They're 3-2. Bills favored by 5 on the road in Las Vegas. over under 53.5. That's a familiar number this week. And 90% of the total, hammering the over at 53. Josh Allen's anytime touchdown prop is outdrawing every single wide receiver and tight end on either roster for the prop for you. Nine total turnovers, though, for Buffalo over their last three games, and that feeds directly into the strength of the Raiders' defense, first in the NFL with 10 takeaways. We head down on the schedule. Chargers at Chiefs. Disappointment of the season. The Chargers. Much higher expectations than the Titans and Dolphins, who are both expected to lose. The Chargers, they're 0-5. And Kansas City favored by 8. Justin Herbert sacked 17 times in five games. Kenneth Walker III. Six total touchdowns in four games. His anytime touchdown prop at Hard Rock, drawing more than four times the bets against of any other prop in this game. Jump on board. Roll with us on that one. We should make that my lock. I should have thought about that. It's coming up later. Sunday, 4-0-5. Cardinals, Rams, Cardinals at 1-4. They beat the Chargers in Week 1. That looked like a good win. Turns out, not so good. The Rams are 2-3. The Rams, though, are still a heavy favorite to win the Super Bowl. And, well... Check this out. We've got Arizona entering a franchise record nine-game home losing streak. They've just set that mark. Jacoby Brissett, he's going to remain the starter. And 73% is backing Arizona. And when that happened, oddsmakers, they didn't drop it down. They raised it even higher. They pushed L.A. from 12.5 to 13.5. And, well, why? Because Sean McVay, 16-3. I guess the Cardinals over his tenure there and the, over that span that they've outscored Arizona by us by an average of 12. So you've got that at 13 and a half Puka to Kua returns. So get ready for some offense. Jeremiah love questionable. Um, he's got the hamstring injury, I believe ankle and Brissette. Again, he remains the quarterback. They they're raising that they're, they're actually fading the public. I've I'm going to bet the Cardinals. If, um, Ramsey. Guys, let's take a break. It was perfect 10 right there. Sorry, got sick. I'm here. It's Hunter Withrow presented by Hard Rock Bet. Right now, $ 5. You get $ 500 up to in the no sweat bets. It's fantastic. This is a great deal. You do it by going to hardrock.bet.com. Hardrock.net slash Clay. News customers, download the app. You can roll with us. We've got our Hard Rock locks coming up at the end of the show. And Chad and I are bringing some winners this week. We hit that last week. We're going to do it for back-to-back. And speaking of Hard Rock, it's Florida's only legal sportsbook, the most trustworthy option right now in the country. And you've got Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia. And it's the best time of the year for bettors. Hard Rock bet ready with the new features, app updates, and promos. Right now, again, the bonus bet. Bet five, get 500 in no-sweat bets. Hardrock.bet.com. Sign up, get all the details. Hardrock.bet.com. That's Hardrock.bet.com. So the Tennessee Titans are a dumpster fire right now. And it's one thing after the other. Chad and I have been mentioning the slogan right before the season. They were saying, like, this is our floor, and we're going to get better every week. Salah was saying that. And it's coach speak. I know what he means in that. But in terms of the outlook of the team, the floor continues to go down, tunneling. It's like the Elon tunnel here in town that they're building to the airport or a condo with a parking garage that goes underneath the building. It continues to grow and grow and grow with the same decision maker overseeing the entire building, the entire practice facility. And it's Burke Nihill. He has recently hired a new director. a new executive to come in and be the chief business officer, which in essence is the guy that's heading up all of the business for the new stadium. He's coming from the Arizona Cardinals, and he's been a buddy of Burke's. That's not an issue. You can be a friend of someone and work alongside them. That happens all the time. But outside of Burke, there's really no one that is in charge of anything because Burke oversees everything. And he oversaw this hire. And it just turns out that Jeremy Walls is in the middle of a lawsuit. And so is the owner of the Cardinals. And this comes down to a racial discrimination lawsuit. And you know where this is leading. They've hired this guy in the middle of a lawsuit. Optics were already bad for the Tennessee Titans. Perception is awful. The fan base dwindling by the day. And... even Titans radio analyst Ramon Foster, and I understand where he's coming from on this. This is what the Titans are putting out based on decisions they're making. And Ramon, who is working for the Titans, had this to say this morning on 104.5 The Zone.
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Speaker 4: When or if he's hired? Somebody will have to answer for this.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: For.
00:10:20
Speaker 4: myself, for Will to have questions surrounding this racial discrimination lawsuit, they'll have to give that answer. And here's what I will also say. It can't just be a softball, hey, what are you doing? You have to give more detail than you probably should to give this fan base an ease about thinking they're hiring, basically the way our chat is saying it, a racist. They'll have to clean that up. They'll have to give details into the whys and the how. And if he does speak, which usually these people don't speak, but somebody will have to speak for him.
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Speaker 1: Well, no one needs to speak for Burke Nihill because he speaks on behalf of ownership, except he's silent. It is crickets from the decision makers, from the management, from the leaders of the Tennessee Titans. And, well... What does that show? It shows exactly who they are. The 0-5 Tennessee Titans with a 3-win quarterback, with a 20-win head coach over his career, and they continue to tunnel further and further down. More on this is coming straight ahead. Jared Stillman is joining us from Stillman & Company, and he broke the story about the new CBO, the Chief Business Officer, who has... pissed off the fan base, and is becoming the new Shiano Sunday, except it's Titans Thursday. More coming. Jared next. It is Hutton and Withrow, sportandstate.com, presented by Hard Rock Bet. Before we get to Jared Stillman, Clay Travis Law. Maybe Stille wanted a lawyer up if the Titans banned him, but he didn't because he doesn't need his credential back. But sometimes accidents don't wait for good timing. One bad moment, a wreck, a fall, a doctor who wasn't paying attention, God forbid. Suddenly, you're fighting an insurance company that does this every single day. And that's why Clay started Clay Travis Law. He's a Vanderbilt Law grad, and he built a firm around the idea that people deserve someone willing to pay attention, ask the hard questions, push back when things don't add up. Experienced trial attorneys... who bring the fight to corporations and insurers based in Nashville, trusted across the country. You can go to claytravislaw.com for more info, claytravislaw.com, or the phone numbers for Clay's companies are fantastic. 877-222-4444. 877-222-4444. That's claytravislaw.com. You know this man. He has been banned by the Tennessee Titans, and now he breaks Tennessee Titans news before anyone else in the city of Nashville. Jared, thanks for the time, man. How are things?
00:13:03
Speaker 5: Good.
00:13:04
Speaker 6: I actually think that that is genius, by the way, the way Clay does that with those numbers. But it's never dull, apparently, in Titan land, even with the team at 0-5. So we continue on new executive hires. I don't think I've ever talked about executive leadership that wasn't technically football-related as much as I have over the last two weeks of my entire life.
00:13:26
Speaker 1: So it's interesting to me because– They're not speaking, the executives and the ownership. And it's not like, okay, if they speak, it's going to change anything. But the accountability, that is the example of what is portrayed from the organization from the top down. Perception is reality, and it's definitely reality that it is a mess. You talked to a lot of different people recently. about what Burton-Ihill's up to. Is it a common theme? That's what I want to know. From inside the building, what are they saying the vibe's like?
00:14:10
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'd say the vibes are pretty terrible. And not just the standard, the football team is 0-5 vibes.
00:14:16
Speaker 5: Which for any organization.
00:14:19
Speaker 5: Is tough to overcome or deal with.
00:14:21
Speaker 6: But I think on the corporate side of the Titans, there's a fear inside of the building that they could be called into the office by the Grim Reaper next.
00:14:30
Speaker 1: No doubt.
00:14:30
Speaker 6: And I think that that does trickle over into football to a certain extent because we've seen this when it comes to football. John Robinson, to me, is the most obvious example. A general manager who was extended to In January of 2022, and at 7-5 and in first place, John Robinson in December of 2022 was fired. So less than a year after signing an extension while sitting in first place, the general manager got canned. And it's not just Robinson that that happens to. This has happened to so many different employees over the years, whether it was 28-year PR executive Robbie Bourne, Or even recently, Adam Neuse, who had been with the team for a while, or Aaron Swartz, who led their rebrand. I think the fear is, if you currently are a Titans employee, the fear is that any five-minute interval, it could be your five-minute interval in this world. And it certainly is not something that I think creates a positive culture. And it's really hard to create a positive culture when the team is 0-5. But the Titans are certainly doing everything in their power to keep their building from having a positive culture.
00:15:36
Speaker 1: I mean, 0-5 or 7-5. I mean, they didn't win a game after she fired John Robinson at 7-5. And I'll say this. It was Burt Nihill who took the cell phone into John Robinson's office when she fired him. It was Burt Nihill who Mike Vrabel went to and wanted to know, am I the head coach of the Tennessee Titans? He wanted to know. Am I fired? Am I staying? What are we doing? who would fire Nihil? Is Amy just going to call him or is Amy going to trust someone to figure out, not just to hand the phone, but to figure out what's the, what's the next direction for the who's next in line. If it's Burke running things, I don't think, I don't think she knows Mike Berganzi. I don't think she knows Robert Sala. She's not there. Um, Bryce Wasserman, maybe, but again, like that, that's a huge, that's a huge job. Um, That's the thing. I don't know what structure's in place to just go in and take over what Burke has taken over. I'm fascinated by it because I don't have a solution to it right now based on the people that they have in place and in charge because Burke's done all the hiring.
00:16:42
Speaker 6: I think the real issue here is that Amy Adam Strunk does whatever she can to avoid conflict. And I've had several people tell me that Amy Adam Strunk is not a bad person. And then Amy Adams-Strunk likes owning a football team.
00:16:53
Speaker 1: I agree with that, yeah.
00:16:54
Speaker 6: But she doesn't want the day-to-day hassles of owning a football team. And there is a certain level of responsibility and attention that come with owning an NFL team.
00:17:03
Speaker 5: There are 32 of these on the planet.
00:17:06
Speaker 6: And so I think the question has to be asked, and I think this has to be publicly. I think the message has to get sent. Easton Freeze this morning published his report about his Titans fan survey sentiment at AtoZSports.com. And it's clear Titan fans are fed up with Amy Adams-Shrunk, and they're fed up with Burke Nihill. And so the problem for Amy Adams-Shrunk is once somebody can get through to her that Burke Nihill is not helping her football operation or her business operation anymore, then Amy Adams Strunk has to do what every other controlling owner in the NFL would have to do, and she's going to have to make the change herself.
00:17:41
Speaker 5: She's going to have to embrace the conflict.
00:17:43
Speaker 6: And I understand some people don't like that, but the reality is if you want to own an NFL team and you want to own a successful NFL team, that's what you have to do. So if she's not willing to do that, then she should, like many people suggest, sell the team. And if she's not going to do that, then she's never going to have a good team. So that's where we stand.
00:18:01
Speaker 1: Who does she put in place, though? You know, like who's the business of that stadium? I mean, we're going to get to the guy that they're hiring that they say they haven't decided on yet when we all know they have. You're absolutely right on the report. I'm just asking, like, where's Steve Underwood? That's who she would turn to.
00:18:20
Speaker 5: Sure.
00:18:22
Speaker 1: I don't know anyone else, Jared. Like, it's Burke who has the power because he's the only one. You know, there's really no one else. Based on where they're going, there's a huge opening of a stadium, all these different things, and he's the guy that's been running it, and someone else would just come in and jump in and be running it. It's a big decision beyond just get him out of here, get him away from the football team. He should already be away from the football team. It should be Borgonzi and Salah, and Burke oversees every decision.
00:18:53
Speaker 6: Well, I would say that even if it is Borgonzi and Sala, that still has Burke's hand in on it because Mike Borgonzi was hired by Chad Brinker, who was hired by Burke Nihill. So, I mean, Burke is trying to detach himself from the football team, but that's just not reality.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: Well, he hasn't done that. You're right. You're right.
00:19:10
Speaker 6: No, and I think that the local media in Nashville, you follow it very closely, Hutton. I mean, they're pointing a finger at Burke Nihill, and they're not accepting the Burke Nihill doesn't do football discussion. And Burke Nile is skated by, quote unquote, not doing football unless it was convenient for him for a long time. And I don't think they're putting up with it anymore. I think when it comes to Amy Adams Strunk, the convenient name would be Steve Underwood, who is a president of the organization for years and years, dating back to Bud Adams, Amy Adams Strunk's father's tenure as owner. But at some point, doesn't there have to be for Amy Adams Strunk an ability to find somebody to run the team? Again, I understand she doesn't necessarily want to act as if she owns a football team, but that doesn't change the reality that she does own a football team.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: But Jared, the thing is, the difference between her and Burke is she actually has shown that she can have success as an owner. Since Burke's been here, they've gone downhill, and the bottom continues to bottom out. The bottom floor is actually, there's a few garages underneath this building that they've built. We've seen her build it to an AFC Championship run, and she did that through Steve Underwood. At least she knew what she didn't know. What she didn't know was, where should I turn? If she turned to someone she trusted, she's just trusting the wrong person right now. I like the fact that that she would do that. Because, I mean, look, I was in a Titans radio interview for the play-by-play job, and there was no one from Titans radio on the interview process. That's not how it should be, I wouldn't think. I was surprised by that. I did an interview with Burke. It was fine. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't about the position. That's the problem. It Amy at least did that when she found John Robinson. I do find that to be a positive in her favor that she should get back to.
00:21:11
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that, again, Amy either has to accept the fact that she does own an NFL team or she needs to sell the NFL team. I think at this point, the idea of Amy not having some sort of responsibility in running the team and running it the right way is a disservice to her fan base, which is paying for a $ 2 billion stadium that she's moving into. And I understand the stadium is already built, and I understand that the bonds are going to get paid, and I get all that. But at the end of the day, Amy has said, Burke Nihill has said, that this is the fans' team. And if this really is the fans' team, then Amy Adam Strunk does owe it to the fans to try to get it right. I can't tell you that Amy Adam Strunk is going to get it right or that she owes it to the fans to get it right because getting it right is not a choice. It is an outcome. We hope that it gets right. But by doing nothing and by saying nothing... She is in dereliction of her duties as a controlling owner of an NFL team that once again is getting a $ 2 billion stadium. And so for Amy Adams Strunk, whether that is approaching the league and asking for help in finding a team president, whether that is promoting somebody that she trusts within who maybe doesn't have traditionally... a team president's resume, whatever it may be, she's got to try something new. The idea of going back to the ranch in Texas and letting Burke Nihill fire the next person and the next set of executives and then hiring the next executive who is facing pending legal claims. That's got to go. It cannot continue to be the same. And if it is, I think she's already doing irreparable harm to her fan base. the already small size of it. But if Amy Adam Strunk does nothing and continues to trust in Bert Nihill, she really is going to lose a large portion of her fan base.
00:23:09
Speaker 5: And that's not going to put her where she wants to be.
00:23:12
Speaker 1: That memo that was out from last week said they wanted to double their fan base. That would mean just get your other fans back from the Mid-South is what I would, what's what I referred to. The focus on the fan base has long been outside of this. Like, The NFL owners, by the way, to me it's not about her speaking. It's about the organization speaking. There's not many NFL owners who speak, but the organization speaks on behalf of the owner. And that's not happening here. He took his own name off the website. That's beyond, I don't understand it. I don't understand the move with the executive that I'm going to ask you about in a second, with the legal background that comes into this. Everything is just so nonsensical. And if it's about selling the team, I propose sell a portion of the team, be the controlling owner, but bring someone in like a Brady-esque move in Vegas where you have a direct point person that is in charge of all football decisions. And we know it because they're owners. They just don't have a position. They own the right to have the position. I think that's the structure. She can stay in Texas because you have someone planted roots in the building, in Nashville, wherever, and we know exactly the direction and the focus. The focus right now is not on football. It's about putting Taylor Swift in that dome. That's where they've lost focus. It's more about a Google-oriented plan than it is about the structure of an organization that is focused on a Super Bowl. They've lost The last time that they had a move with Callahan, Brinker didn't mention the word championship. Every time Amy has had a statement, she's mentioned the word championship. They're not going to win a championship with Burt Nihill doing this because they don't talk about it.
00:25:12
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that what you're talking about, though, regardless is some sort of action that she's not doing now. We're talking about, okay, sell part of the team to Nick Saban, let Nick Saban run the team.
00:25:24
Speaker 5: I'm for that. But that requires an action on her part.
00:25:28
Speaker 1: Sure, yes.
00:25:29
Speaker 5: I mean, even if.
00:25:31
Speaker 6: It were to be installing her cousin, or I guess her nephew, Kenneth Adams, into the position of team president.
00:25:39
Speaker 1: I would be for that.
00:25:39
Speaker 5: I would be too.
00:25:41
Speaker 6: If it's as simple as putting Kenneth Adams, your own blood, somebody that owns a part of the team, that has skin in the game just like you do, who's local here in Nashville, who has experience with the ball club, if that is the path, that's an action. I'm not telling you that she needs to make the correct action because nobody truly knows what the.
00:26:03
Speaker 5: Correct action is.
00:26:04
Speaker 6: I had a talk with an athletic director about this when it came to hiring a football coach. And I said, you're never going to be able to know every football coach in the country.
00:26:15
Speaker 5: It is impossible to.
00:26:17
Speaker 6: Know each offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator.
00:26:20
Speaker 5: And head coach.
00:26:21
Speaker 6: And it's impossible to know how the guy at Western Lafayette State would do it. He was the head coach at Ohio State. It's just impossible to know if you don't know those people. So you build a network of people over time, and you usually do pick from your network, or your network sets it up for you so that you can find somebody else. At some point, Amy's got to use a network that she has, and she has several networks. She owns an NFL team, so there are tons of people that she knows that can connect her with. But again, this requires action. She has to do something. something she doesn't have to fire everybody she doesn't she just has to do something and i guess my biggest fear as a titan fan by the way is that she is going to do nothing i feel like the backlash is so strong right now with you know really led by the oh and five play coupled with another reorganization and the media that I think has been, and I'll just speak for myself, but I feel like a lot of other people are acting similar. I feel like a lot of us in the media feel like they've been lied to by Burke Nihill over the years.
00:27:36
Speaker 5: And now it's all coming out.
00:27:38
Speaker 1: Well, here's the point of it. You're, you're going deeper with it because you pulled your credential. Burke pulled it. I mean, again, I think it's pretty clear. Like he oversees all of these decisions. He certainly knew that was coming. Um, To me, it's about the fact that I know where this is headed. It's going to happen again next year. They'll fire Sala in the middle of next year based on the way the path of this is going because they fired Callahan in week six of his second year. Borgonzi's in year two. They fired Carthon after year two. Again, Callahan was in year two. There are consequences after year two by Amy Strunk, except for the Callahan deal, which was, I mean, that was Amy, but That was also just a deal that football didn't want to make. You could tell that Borgonzi sat up there that day. He was mute because he didn't have the voice to say it. They had sent Brinker down there, and they was Burke. I just point to they continue to fire people at a very high rate and very quick rate. They just do it from the business side, the non-football side. They've been cleaning out the garage. And they've been doing it through the non-football side. The focus has been there. And that's what's out of whack. And she has always done something. She's been criticized for being impatient. In this case, the person that has been there the longest has been insulated based on the model that he put in place, including the one where Brinker couldn't even describe what his job was. Now no one's there. And now's the time to make a move. I think you clean house. I know you... You get a lot of heat for always saying, like, a hot seat, they're cleaned out. They have to clean house. Don't just put someone in the present spot. Wipe them out. Because otherwise, Robert Sulla's 20-41, Jared. You know this. Start the season next year 0-4. He's got to go. and then you're going through this all over again. Borgonzi hasn't shown. It's practically every choice on a player is practically him right now.
00:29:49
Speaker 6: Yeah, what I would do is at the end of the year, I'd fire everybody. I'd fire Burke right now. And then I would fire everybody else at the end of the year. And then I would hire a team president. And I would let the team president hire the general manager. The general manager would hire the coach. And there would be kind of a traditional model in place. Kind of similar to when she did clean house. Steve Underwood became the president. Ken Wisenhunt, gone. Rustin Webster, gone. John Robinson, in. Mike Malarkey, in. Later Mike Vrabel, in. And I think I would try to go back to that formula again. But for some reason, to your point, it just feels like a repetitive cycle where Amy gives one person a year of grace and then fires the next person, and that does need to stop.
00:30:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what? Right now, you can tell, right? You've got Sala. Sala looks like he is just so drained from the energy he had in the office. Well, he's a terrible coach. He knows the death march is on, and he's Mike McCoy.
00:30:57
Speaker 5: Maybe. I think Salah is a pretty terrible coach. But I'm saying.
00:31:02
Speaker 1: Even if he's retained, he's fired next year. We knew Callahan was going to get fired the year after, but that's where we're headed. I think that's where I'm really just over it, is the repetitive nature of what's going to carry the next year. You lose that season, then it carries on, and you restart. I'm tired of the cycle. The fans are tired of being told that they're in it to win championships. Because it's been everything but that. And it continues to get worse. I didn't think it would be this bad. And now you have the news that it gets worse. With another decision. It's just pathetic. Because tomorrow who knows what happens.
00:31:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think when it comes to Amy Adams shrunk in the Titans, and I hate saying this because I am a Titan fan, but when they lose on Sundays and they get embarrassed like they did last week against the Texans, it doesn't hurt me. Because I'm of the belief that if this thing goes 0-17, and they really might, if this thing goes 0-17, then everybody's gone. You know, at that point, there is no justification for bringing Robert Sala back, even though it was just one season. Or there's no justification for holding out hope that Cam Ward can become worthy of the number one pick. Or that Mike Borgonzi, there's no argument that he's doing a good job when he inherited the 3-14 team. and then went 3-14 and then goes 0-17. So I truly believe that as a Titan fan, I worry. I just don't think that Salah's a good enough coach for this to happen, but I kind of worry about them finding a way to win five or six games and that being a justification for keeping somebody or everybody. And again, I don't think that's going to happen with Cam Ward at quarterback and Salah as the coach, but that would be my big fear. I think that what you're looking for, you're going to get. this offseason because I think it's going to be so bad you cannot retain a coach moving into a new stadium if you go 0-17 or 1-60 you cannot do it and she.
00:32:58
Speaker 1: Won't and the record is solid record I'm with you it's not good it's not the standard but he already knows at 20 and 41 he can add an 0-17 record to that Like, he's trying to revamp and prove that he wasn't the coach in New York, that he had the second opportunity. And by week six, he's talking about the next 12 weeks as a tryout period. I mean, that is– only the Titans could pull that off with their new head coach.
00:33:28
Speaker 5: I've never seen a head coach– Bring up joint practices. Yes, exactly.
00:33:40
Speaker 6: Bring up joint practices from August as a good thing. And then basically call the remaining 12 games of the season.
00:33:49
Speaker 5: The preseason.
00:33:50
Speaker 6: Because that's what, when you say, we want to see who's going to be on this team, that's the preseason. That's what you do in the preseason. And Robert Sala is treating the rest of the season like that? I mean, that just shows you how incompetent this franchise is. And that's why, again, I think Robert Sala is a terrible head coach. I think he's a terrible messenger. I think he is terrible when it comes to running a coaching staff. And I am convinced this team's ceilings, is two wins this year, and that will be good enough to get everybody fired.
00:34:23
Speaker 1: Okay, but I agree. But I think he's convinced with Trubisky he can get five wins, and he can't make the move. I think that's what I see on his face. It's like, yeah, he's going to do this this year. He's talking about the next 12 weeks because he knows what he's in store for with Cam Ward at quarterback. That's the way I see it. He can keep his job with Trubisky because he can get to your five wins. I don't think he could do that with Cam.
00:34:50
Speaker 6: I don't think Salah's that smart. I don't think Salah's smart enough to sit there and say, you know, if I put Trubisky in there, everybody that we promised that we were going to give Cam the season to is going to be mad, but we might win five or six games and keep our job.
00:35:06
Speaker 1: I don't think he's being told he can't make the call.
00:35:10
Speaker 5: Then why would he take the job to be coached? Then you're not the coach anymore.
00:35:13
Speaker 1: Because it's the offer he had. Right? Like, why would Brian Dable take the– because, I mean, he liked Cam Ward. But, I mean, they're both trying to prove that they're head coach material. If I want to make a quarterback change, it has to be right now because you're 0-5. You're in the middle of the 0-4 game. You've got to make a change because at 0-8, 0-9, it doesn't matter if you change the quarterback.
00:35:36
Speaker 6: Well, and the other part about this, too, is that if you're Robert Sala, if you don't have the authority to change a quarterback, then you need to quit over that. You need to say, hey, I'm changing the quarterback, and if they don't let you change the quarterback, then you need them to fire you.
00:35:51
Speaker 5: Because they're not letting you coach.
00:35:54
Speaker 1: You have Dable who's coming in, and everyone's on board with him changing the accuracy and all the stuff on the quarterback. And he's the head coach of the offense. You're pairing these things together. Oh, and by the way, we're going to make sure this is Cam's rookie year. We're redoing the rookie year. Like, that's been the theme of the– and no one really pushed back on that because everyone was on board with them. Based on the shit show that we saw from the previous staff, it turns out it's the same– it feels like the same staff all over again.
00:36:21
Speaker 5: It does. This is, though, where, again, I talk about action and leadership.
00:36:25
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:36:26
Speaker 5: If you're Robert Sala and you go 2-15, you're fired.
00:36:30
Speaker 6: I mean, maybe somehow, someway you don't get fired, but you're fired. Going into a new stadium– If you get fired after what happened with the Jets, you go 2-15 with the Titans, you're never getting a head coaching job again. So the only thing that Robert Sala can do, in my opinion, for self-preservation, is to switch the quarterback. And even if they won't let him switch the quarterback, then... I would say if I was in Salah's position, you have to fire me. Because you hired me to be the coach, and as the coach, I want to play the other quarterback. And if they say, well, we don't want you to do that, well, then you have to fire me, and then you have to explain that you fired me because.
00:37:13
Speaker 5: You wouldn't let me change a quarterback.
00:37:15
Speaker 6: Because that's the only hope Salah has for his reputation of ever getting a job ever again.
00:37:20
Speaker 1: Okay. I agree, which is why the change should have already been made. One final thing, and I want to get to the news today about the exec, because I'm more fascinated by this. Mike Borgonzi has the control of Salah's staff. How far away are we from Mike Borgonzi firing Brian Dable?
00:37:38
Speaker 6: You know, I think that Brian Dable was a Mike Borgonzi hire. I don't think Brian Dable's the problem.
00:37:45
Speaker 5: I don't even think Brian Dable is on the list of problems.
00:37:49
Speaker 1: I know. Maybe they just ride it out and fire everybody at the end.
00:37:52
Speaker 6: I don't think Brian Dable is a good fit for Cam Ward because Brian Dable's offense is made for Phil Simms.
00:37:59
Speaker 5: And Cam Ward is not Phil Simms.
00:38:01
Speaker 6: This is the Earhart Perkins offense that Charlie Weiss ran, that Bill Parcells ran, that Bill Belichick's coordinators ran. This is that offense. And that's why it fits a quarterback well. who is accurate, especially short. That's why a guy like Tua can fit into that offense and play. That's why a guy like Mac Jones can fit into that offense and play. This is not the offense for Cam Ward. Not that I think there is an offense for Cam Ward, because I don't think Cam Ward's good enough or has the talent to be good enough. But again, Brian Dable, that's... That's like when Mike Munchak fired Chris Palmer.
00:38:42
Speaker 5: Big deal.
00:38:42
Speaker 6: It didn't turn Jake Locker into a good quarterback. And firing Brian Dable is not going.
00:38:47
Speaker 5: To save Cam Moore.
00:38:48
Speaker 1: It was action, Jared. They had action. They made a move. They tried something. This group hasn't tried anything. Nothing. They've been benching another player. I mean, I guess they made a move at linebacker. But they haven't tried anything. It's the most bizarre thing with the organization. Hey, Tell me about this lawsuit that's going on with this new executive that Berkney Hill's hiring that the Titans don't even want to admit they're hiring.
00:39:17
Speaker 6: So Jeremy Walls was, when I woke up this morning and I knew that Jeremy Walls was going to be the next chief business officer of the Tennessee Titans, I was under the impression that he was still technically the COO of the Arizona Cardinals. It sounds like he stepped down in August when they announced that he would step down at the end of the year, that he actually stepped down in August. Jeremy Walls is currently a defendant, along with Michael Bidwell, who's the owner of the Arizona Cardinals and technically the president and CEO of the Cardinals, from two former staffers, one of whom was an assistant to Walls. The other was an assistant coach for the Arizona Cardinals that are both alleging racism and unfair practices. I have no idea if these allegations are true or not. The federal court kicked this to the NFL for arbitration. We've seen that before. The NFL tried to kick the John Gruden lawsuit to arbitration. I believe the NFL tried to kick the Brian Flores lawsuit to arbitration. The NFL's game plan with an employee is to get that thing sent to arbitration. And this did work. So I don't know what the end results are going to be. If the Titans love Jeremy Walls so much... then they should have waited for him to be fully exonerated and then hired him. You cannot, in my opinion, hire a executive who is currently facing litigation for racism.
00:40:44
Speaker 4: Right.
00:40:44
Speaker 1: I mean, this is, you know, allegations, right, right.
00:40:47
Speaker 6: I mean, what are you going to have him be the guy that paints in racism in the end zone?
00:40:52
Speaker 1: Well, and not knowing the result of all this, right? Like, uh, Only the Titans would do this, Jared, at this point.
00:41:03
Speaker 6: I've told people when it comes to the Titans, they're far too many times over the last year. I mean, let's not even isolate it to five years. Let's just put it right to one year. Over the last year, where I thought they would never do that, they can't be that stupid.
00:41:17
Speaker 5: And then they go out and do it.
00:41:18
Speaker 6: So nothing at this point surprises me with the Tennessee Titans. It's not that they can't be that stupid to do it, because every time I think they can't be that stupid, they prove me wrong.
00:41:29
Speaker 5: And this is another example of that.
00:41:31
Speaker 1: They just hired a guy with these types of allegations. Does that sound like ace business? on behalf of the front office in Tennessee? Does it show transformational judgment, that they're a transformational industry? Absolutely not. They're saying that this hire hasn't been made because they haven't had the open search yet. They haven't had all the people come through and make it like it's a fair search.
00:42:02
Speaker 6: I love how some people on social media.
00:42:03
Speaker 1: They haven't hired the guy.
00:42:04
Speaker 6: So the Titans' response was, we haven't made a decision with our chief business officer.
00:42:09
Speaker 1: Tell your example.
00:42:10
Speaker 6: But, I mean, to me, first of all, the Titans have already done that to me. I had the report. You were involved as a candidate of the play-by-play job with the Titans. And when I called you, you were like, hey, I didn't get the job. But that's all I can tell you.
00:42:26
Speaker 1: And you had called me right after I'd heard from Burke, honestly. And I didn't know... You know, I didn't know how to react to it because I didn't know if the other guy or the other candidate other than, you know, Taylor had been told. Right? So I didn't know how to answer the question.
00:42:43
Speaker 5: I called the Titans.
00:42:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:42:45
Speaker 6: And this was when I was still a credentialed media member and when, again, I gave them, you know, journalistic. Yeah, you know, like journalistic integrity, which they said I didn't have. But this is, you know, that was one of my... Journalistic principles. I called the Titans. I said, hey, I have a report that Taylor Zarger is going to be the next play-by-play guy. And the team was like, well, I mean, he's a candidate, but we haven't decided. And that basically is what Kate Garrow's statement to Paul Kaharski today sounded a lot like. And by the way, it was Kate Garrow that I called when it came to that play-by-play story.
00:43:21
Speaker 5: My thing is this, though.
00:43:24
Speaker 6: People are saying, oh, I bet the Titans used this fake news to be able to find out who the mole feeding information to Jared Stillman is. And my response to that would be, okay, first of all, I have multiple sources. Secondly, other people in the media also had this story. A to Z Sports had this story. Kaharski tweeted out that he was close on it and just couldn't get the confirmation for it. I mean, if the Titans don't hire this guy, it will be because of the backlash from people that are saying, why is our football team hiring a guy who is currently facing litigation? That will be the only reason why. And then I will laugh and say that, wow, I just got somebody bounce as an executive from an NFL.
00:44:13
Speaker 5: I didn't know I could do that.
00:44:14
Speaker 6: But this idea that they haven't hired the guy, if the team wasn't going to hire the guy, the team would say that that was categorically false.
00:44:20
Speaker 5: They did not say that today.
00:44:21
Speaker 1: They hired Ramon Foster, and that was done. And they tried to wait until the draft. This is what they do. They wait and try to plan unveilings and stuff. But it always gets out. It never works out that way. Hey, final thing. I'm sure you've thought about this. What is the number one question you will be turning to find? In a response in that survey from fans, what must you see immediately?
00:44:51
Speaker 6: I want to see how much Burke Nihill's Q rating has changed in the last year. They asked what your thoughts of Burke Nihill this year was compared to your thoughts of Burke Nihill last year.
00:45:01
Speaker 5: I think we.
00:45:02
Speaker 1: Know the answer.
00:45:03
Speaker 5: What's that?
00:45:04
Speaker 1: I think we know the answer. Burke was booed whenever they inducted Mike to the Ring of Honor.
00:45:10
Speaker 6: Yes, but I almost feel like those boos were more directed at Amy, who was standing on the field.
00:45:15
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, Burke Nihill. Boo.
00:45:18
Speaker 6: I don't think most people knew who Burke Nihill was a year ago. I think now Burke has kind of come to the forefront because of his own doing. But I don't think Amy Adam Strunk's Q rating has changed much in the last year. It has completely plummeted over the last six years since Burke took over as CEO.
00:45:35
Speaker 1: I would argue, though, Jared, they did know who Burke Nihill was. You're playing clips of him talking about... Callahan being the savior, or talk about Rand or whoever it was. It was Callahan.
00:45:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, but I don't think until recently, I don't think Titan fans felt one way or another about Burke Nihill.
00:45:53
Speaker 5: And I think that the thing that I've noticed is just.
00:45:55
Speaker 6: How strong the media's push against Burke Nihill has been. I mean, again, I have felt lied to on several occasions by Burke Nihill. I have watched him fire people that I know are good at their jobs, people that I know are part.
00:46:08
Speaker 5: Of a winning culture.
00:46:08
Speaker 6: It's easy to say, you know, they fired John Robinson or they fired Mike Vrabel.
00:46:13
Speaker 5: I'm not talking about them.
00:46:15
Speaker 6: I'm talking about Robbie Bourne, the PR director who had been there for 28 years, and they fired for no reason. The equipment manager who had been with them from Houston, who, again, they fired for no reason. You know, again, there were so many people. Anthony Pastrana was a video guy who had been with them for years.
00:46:33
Speaker 1: And here's how they did it, Jared. They fire Rand Carthon, and then they fire others underneath that on the same day. And so it goes unnoticed that way. Like, Brent Akers was let go that day.
00:46:46
Speaker 6: And what that tells me when you fire good people that have been there for a long time is it tells me that it's all about you. And I always had that feeling when it came to Burke Nihill that it's always about him. And for me, I had given up on Burke when he fired Robbie Bourne, the PR director. And not that Robbie was feeding anybody information. He was just a true professional.
00:47:09
Speaker 1: He was fantastic for what you want. You're absolutely right.
00:47:14
Speaker 6: You don't win by getting rid of people like that. And so when I saw that, I knew that Burke was a fraud. And I think the media, each individual person has kind of had their moment where somebody inside the building has told them something like that or they've seen it firsthand for themselves. And so I think the veracity with which the media has pointed a finger at Burke Nihill, I think that's going to make this hard for him to overcome.
00:47:37
Speaker 1: Are they going to ban all of us?
00:47:41
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, only the YouTubers, I guess.
00:47:44
Speaker 1: Maybe. Maybe. I think their solution is they've been trying to pay media members to be a part of their... do certain things for the Titans website and stuff. They're doing that with the players. It's just not... The whole model, as you know, it's pathetic. It really is. I'll be waiting for Stillman & Company. presented by Hiller Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling to Electrical. I'll be waiting for the next stilly bomb to drop with more news.
00:48:16
Speaker 5: You know, I'm not Adam Schefter.
00:48:17
Speaker 6: I'm not looking for more news, but if it comes my way, I will certainly break it as I have done, even without a credential over the last six weeks.
00:48:26
Speaker 1: You're the new Jim Wyatt in town. I say that with all credit to Jim, but like, Well done, man. Keep the streak going. Thank you for the time, bro, and I'll be watching later today.
00:48:39
Speaker 5: Sounds good. Thank you, Hutton.
00:48:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, go subscribe. Still in the company. If you haven't already, you likely have, but go subscribe right now here on YouTube or wherever you are on social media. Hey, stay tuned. More coming here on Hutton and Withrow. That is Hutton and Withrow presented by Hard Rock Bet. Glad you're with us. Good morning to you. Withrow's going to join us a bit later in today's show. We have plenty to discuss coming up as well on the latest college football news. We've got some sports angles and wagering angles coming your way in just a moment from the man. He's going to give you perfect 10 advice. Speaking of perfect 10, the name says it all. Apply in 10 minutes, close in 10 days. The whole idea here is a mortgage that's simple, fast, fair. 10 minutes, start to finish right from your phone. No stack of paperwork. No sitting across a desk from a banker who's talking down to you. Perfect10mortgage. com. Perfect10mortgage. com. 855-789-1010. We've got great phone numbers for these For all of our ads here, 855-789-1010. 789-1010, that's perfect10mortgage. com. The great Todd Furman joins us here on Sporting State and Hutton and Withrow from Bet the Board. Todd, good to see you, man. Hope things are well.
00:49:53
Speaker 3: Always fun catching up.
00:49:54
Speaker 7: I'm hoping that I get my voucher for free McDonald's breakfast if you're going to get me out of bed this early on the West Coast. But when I get the opportunity to see your smiling face, Hutton, how could I possibly say no? And I think we're blessed to be able to break down games without Withrow intervening with useless opinions.
00:50:10
Speaker 1: Dude, so I thought you were still going to bed. I didn't think this was a wake-up call for you.
00:50:15
Speaker 3: My bad. My bad. If we hit the rewind button 20 years ago, it would have been the case.
00:50:19
Speaker 7: When Clay was doing his radio show on Fox, he could catch me on the tail end of a bender. Now, if I'm up past 10 o'clock, I start to get a little nervous. I need at least my six hours of sleep. The brain doesn't quite function at 4 a.m. with that same level of clarity it did when we first started hanging out in my mid-20s.
00:50:35
Speaker 1: Todd, on a scale of 1-10 on a typical college football weekend, how nervous do you get when it comes to a bet you've made? Is it every week? Is it some weeks? How do you sit and watch these games?
00:50:47
Speaker 3: You know, honestly, I used to get real nervous back in the day.
00:50:50
Speaker 7: When I was first getting started as a better, you know, I would kind of be an emotional train wreck. It was riding a roller coaster. If the day started out well, I'd have the emotional highs. If the day started to tail off, I'd be down in the dumps. But now, I kind of come in with a level of detachment that I think a lot of our viewers will look at and laugh and go, no, that's not really possible.
00:51:08
Speaker 3: But it really is.
00:51:09
Speaker 7: I mean, to be in the trenches every single day, handicapping the three main sports that I do in.
00:51:14
Speaker 3: The NHL, the NFL, and college football.
00:51:16
Speaker 7: Like if I get too high off of wins or too low off of losses, things can compound and you start to have problematic scenarios develop. So for me, I try and maintain a level, even keel. And I think the one that really appreciates it hot is my wife more than anything else. I give myself about three to five minutes to get it off my chest and to kind of vent a little bit, use the Seinfeld serenity now, and then it's boom, it's onto the next bet.
00:51:39
Speaker 3: And yeah, you treat it like numbers on a spreadsheet for better or worse.
00:51:42
Speaker 1: I'd give her my best if you don't mind. Give us your best pick. Todd Furman's lock. I'm going to give you our parlay in just a moment that Withrow and I and JT did yesterday. But I want to get your take on one play I should make immediately.
00:52:00
Speaker 7: So a game that I like quite a bit, you know, let's do a little bit of big game hunting. What fun would it be if we tried to go deep into the Mountain West or the Pac-12 to try and find a game? But I look at Ohio State, Indiana, and I think this total is a touch aggressive given what we've seen from Josh Hoover and Indiana offense that still, in my opinion, is struggling to find its footing. Hoover isn't Fernando Mendoza. And look, I was wrong in my assessment of him last year at TCU. I thought if he was in a better spot, he would start to be able to scratch the surface and make a legitimate case to be a first-round draft pick. Given what we've seen, at least through a handful of games in Bloomington, hasn't been the case. So much of Ohio State's offense is predicated on the ground game. And if you take away that big explosive play they had against Indiana in fourth and one, you know, how are we feeling about this Indiana team if they're coming in on a one game losing streak instead of being able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? And on the other side for Ohio State, you know, this is an offense that doesn't have that same level of proven depth of wide receiver that we've seen in the past. There is not a de facto number two in Brandon Innes or Chris Henry Jr.
00:52:59
Speaker 3: Just yet to rival Jeremiah Smith.
00:53:01
Speaker 7: So if there's one coach that I have confidence in in the Big Ten that can at least force you to play somewhat left-handed in, slowing down Jeremiah Smith, it may take 11 defenders.
00:53:11
Speaker 3: It's Kirk Cignetti.
00:53:12
Speaker 7: So if Ohio State has to do things differently, they don't have the explosives in the passing game, I get the feeling it's the first team to 24 that gets a win. So I'll go under the total right now at Hard Rock Bet sitting at 51.
00:53:21
Speaker 1: Okay, so how much do you follow true trends? If a team's three straight wins hitting the under, coming in against a team that's 2-1 or 1-2, are you following that, or am I a dumbass for actually following it?
00:53:35
Speaker 7: Not so much in terms of totals, but I do think there is a little bit of validity when you're looking at teams that have started the year, say, 5-0 or 6-0 against the number. Or on the flip side of things, teams that have really struggled. I'm not saying it's something that you blindly bet into or you blindly fade. But what you can take away from those kind of scenarios is that.
00:53:52
Speaker 3: Team A may be overvalued. Team B may be undervalued.
00:53:56
Speaker 7: And eventually, if we believe that the betting market is truly efficient, it's going to catch up. So, for example, a team like Oregon State, who's done nothing but cover numbers and done so by the gaudiest of margins all season long. Somewhere along the way, you're going to be forced to pay a premium. This week against Washington State, that remains to be seen. But I can tell you one thing, Hutton, that looking at Oregon State after a 66-14 win last week against San Diego State, laying four and a half points more against Washington State, who I power rate better than the Aztecs. Again, one illustration, but you're probably paying a premium to back teams that do nothing but line people's pockets week in, week out throughout the fall.
00:54:32
Speaker 1: Okay. Again, like Chad and I have discussed, we always play our parlay. We'll combine some things. We try to get creative. And then our record sucks. So we're like, we should just take the minus 135 and try to bet the obvious. But we end up trying to play it up a little bit and play it down. I don't know. I'm trying to be better this year. I'm not playing too many parlays. They suck me in on these. And so we do.
00:55:00
Speaker 3: This each week.
00:55:01
Speaker 7: They're the temptress trying to beckon you into the rocky shores. You think, you know, if I can win one game, how much harder is it to win two? And if I can win two, how much harder is it to win three? And let's hope our partners at Hard Rock Bet aren't listening right now. But look, Parleys for me are not a part of my day-to-day. Well, I tinker every now and again if I think there's a level of correlation or if I want to play two or three money line underdogs and say a college football Saturday, no doubt. But they are such a small percentage of what I'm doing for the majority of my bets that are largely predicated around sides and totals. Of course, with a smattering of futures, whether they be win totals, odds to win, all that kind of stuff.
00:55:38
Speaker 1: Okay, so with all that being said, just initial thoughts on this parlay. Every Wednesday, we go for the bundle, is what we call it. And we combine three individual picks into one. We have the Hard Rock bet going for the bundle from yesterday. I took Utah minus 14.5 against Colorado. And I said, why? Because they're playing Colorado. Do you like that pick initially? No.
00:56:03
Speaker 7: So my number on the game is kind of right in line with market. I make Utah right around a two touchdown favorite. So I don't see a ton of opportunity and upside there. I will say with Utah, though, they were rather fortunate to get outside the number last week against Kansas, a 41-24 final. We'll see if they can replicate it. But the one thing I do believe you have going for you is that if Utah is able to get out to a fast start, I just don't think Colorado has the firepower to get back in the game. And while their final score last time we saw them, against Texas Tech was rather misleading. I would be much more comfortable making a case for Utah to run away and hide than for Colorado to keep this game competitive for four quarters.
00:56:38
Speaker 1: Chad brings Florida plus 10.5 against Texas.
00:56:42
Speaker 7: So interesting development here. We are still not sure who will be starting under center for the Florida Gators. Aaron Filo showing up with a questionable designation on Wednesday. We'll see if he is the man taking snaps there. But I think for Florida, look, this is a team that a lot of people were extremely high on after that dominating win against Ole Miss. They go on the road against Missouri. Jaden Baugh gets bottled up. And you think, okay, South Carolina is going to be the perfect cure-all. They're going to handle things in their own building at the swamp. And sure enough, South Carolina wins. They came out right as a double digit dog. I can understand where Withrow is coming from. I mean, laying double digits with this Texas offense right now is kind of a perilous proposition. But at the same time, if Texas sells out, stops the run, I'm just not sure Florida has enough in the passing game. So I'd actually lean the other way from Chad on this particular game. Number did open a shade shorter in that nine and a half range. and immediately got bet up. But I can see a scenario where Texas finally looks the part offensively after that disappointing loss against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry last week.
00:57:41
Speaker 1: I get the feeling JT texted you. I don't know if he's... He.
00:57:45
Speaker 3: Did not text me this week.
00:57:47
Speaker 7: He may or may not have texted me earlier in the season for some.
00:57:50
Speaker 1: Of these bets. Hey, that's good. I'm all for this. He goes UKOU, Kentucky, Oklahoma, over the number at 43.5.
00:57:59
Speaker 3: You know what?
00:58:00
Speaker 7: I actually can't argue with JT here. It's scary trying to back OU and expecting them to actually look like a living, breathing, functioning offense. But at the same time, I think that if you were to try and take a side-by-side snapshot of what Jon Mateer has done at quarterback this year versus Arch Manning, I think a lot of people would be surprised that Mateer's numbers aren't exactly that bad. Now, Kentucky on the other side, Wolstein has done a phenomenal job getting this team to five wins. Back-to-back one-point victories, electing to go for two on the road in Columbia against South Carolina. And, of course, last week pulling off the outright upset as an eight-and-a-half point dog against LSU. But I have no problem making a slight case to go over. I think Oklahoma is going to find it a little bit easier sledding this week. And I think this Kentucky offense is slightly better than advertised. So, while it's scary and it may never feel truly comfortable, I'd much rather be holding an overticket between OU and Kentucky than I would be looking to go under the total, hoping that these defenses can dominate.
00:58:56
Speaker 1: You wouldn't play this parlay, but you should. You should go for the bundle with us with Hard Rock Bet. Alabama, Tennessee. We're going to be there, headed down there tonight. We will then host tomorrow morning out of Gatlinburg, then Knoxville on Friday night for the Dixieland Delight Friday night show on Sport and State. Todd, I've gone back and forth all week on this because there's something about the game at Neyland and the number that keeps rising that I'm waiting. to see what happens when we get closer to kickoff. Where do you come down on– I mean, Bama's playing well. They're coming off the loss. Tennessee doesn't have stellar quarterback play, but they can certainly at times run the football very well and control the clock. If they don't turn the football over, I like their chances of being a four-quarter game.
00:59:45
Speaker 4: Do you?
00:59:46
Speaker 7: I mean, the numbers started to balloon at six and a half, seven. I would have had no interest in the underdog. But as we get into that no man's land north of a touchdown, it starts to get slightly more intriguing.
00:59:55
Speaker 3: I mean, you mentioned it for Tennessee.
00:59:57
Speaker 7: I mean, it's not to oversimplify the handicap when you're trying to get involved in Vols games on a weekly basis. But are they playing a team where they can run the football? If they are, they're going to have success. If they're forced to be one-dimensional, I don't think at this point anyone has confidence in Faison, Brandon, or McIntyre under center, especially given the underwhelming cast of receivers that the Vols have at their disposal. Meanwhile, for Alabama, I do wonder a little bit about a hangover from last week's game. Was Georgia the better team in the second half? There's no doubt about it. Kirby made the right adjustments, but I think Alabama had some legitimate gripes. How you don't call pass interference late in the game Um, when KJ Bolden basically runs through an Alabama receiver following play, it's a sack takes Alabama out of field goal range. And George is able to kind of salt that thing away for a field goal victory. But, uh, this is a Bama team that look, if Keelan Russell can get comfortable in the pocket can create some problems, but I do really believe the strength of this Tennessee team is on the defensive side. And I'm surprised to see Alabama take as much money. So I would lean towards the underdog, but I do think if you want to make a case for Tennessee here, you might want to try and look, look at the under as well. because I think there's a definite correlation that if Tennessee is going to keep this game close, it's because their defense was the best unit on the field come Saturday afternoon.
01:01:07
Speaker 1: I just made a note of this. I'm taking the under for the Vols as well. Thank you, Todd. Todd Furman with us from at the board at Sporting State. Hey, so Missouri, I haven't liked Missouri to start the season, and I've been stupid with this. Have you backed the Tigers the entire time, or have they won you over?
01:01:26
Speaker 7: So, look, I'm going to give Eli Drinkwitz a world of credit because I think we were all looking for that signature win that had been absent on Missouri's resume, not just this season, but arguably over the last couple of years. You know, they put together a four-quarter performance against Florida, win that game 45-17. And Austin Simmons looked the part of the kind of franchise quarterback that I think Missouri thought they were getting in that particular spot. Fast forward a week, and then Missouri's defense is what takes the cake. The offense was a little bit underwhelming against A & M. But defensively, they made life miserable for Marcel Reed early on. You know, I think going into the fourth quarter, A & M had a grand total of two first downs before they put up a few points in garbage time late in that contest.
01:02:05
Speaker 3: It made the scoreboard and, more importantly, the box score look a little bit better.
01:02:09
Speaker 7: Different task here, and I'm interested to see the storylines there. I wonder, Hutton, if we make too big a deal about this revenge angle in the portal era. I mean, does Austin Simmons want to go back and prove that, hey, look, I should have been the starting quarterback and I didn't want to hand the baton to Trinidad Chambliss? And on the flip side for Ole Miss, do they want to prove that, look, Trinidad's our guy, we're going to make life difficult, and we're going to remind everybody why Austin Simmons became a bench casualty and eventually had to transfer out?
01:02:35
Speaker 3: This number has been interesting, though.
01:02:37
Speaker 7: When you look at where it opened at Hard Rock Bet at 6.5, kind of ping-ponging right around that secondary key number.
01:02:43
Speaker 3: We've seen some books get as low as 5.5.
01:02:45
Speaker 7: I think this is an opportunity to kind of sell Missouri stock at the top of the market, but I do think Missouri's got the kind of defense that can travel. They've played one mobile quarterback as well in Kamario Taylor. fell apart in the fourth quarter there. I think that helps them get a little bit more prepared. Wish I had stronger convictions on this game, but I do think it's one of the more fascinating SEC games of the entire day to figure out whichever team comes out of this with a win, suddenly we're talking about them having a much stronger resume and being truly worthy of playoff considerations.
01:03:16
Speaker 1: And there's something about last week, too, Todd. They're coming off the bye week, Ole Miss, and they go and just slaughter Vandy. I mean, it's over, well over at halftime.
01:03:23
Speaker 7: You know, here's the interesting part about that game, though, Hutton. I mean, watching that thing, what was it, 21-3 or 14-3? And, you know, Vandy has the ball right about midfield. And then it just, like, out of nowhere, I got up. Filled my water bottle. Came back 15 minutes later. I go, wait, what the hell is going on here?
01:03:38
Speaker 3: It was 21-3. Vandy was driving.
01:03:40
Speaker 7: I figure it's going to be right around that 10-11 point margin going to the break. And then it's suddenly 42-3. And Ole Miss looks like they were the greatest thing since sliced bread for weather that never showed up.
01:03:50
Speaker 3: So there is no doubt.
01:03:52
Speaker 7: Ole Miss had two weeks to sit on that debacle against Florida and want to exercise some demons. This, like I said, I mean, I wish I had a stronger angle to try and get involved, but this is going to be one of the more intriguing watches. And I think a true litmus test is all these SEC teams go through this nine-game conference gauntlet, you know, to figure out who can bring their A game week in, week out, and maybe more importantly, who can win with their B game when they're playing teams in that top half of the conference.
01:04:19
Speaker 1: Todd, who rebounds? Is it Mississippi State or LSU? Because they're not playing under the lights. This is earlier in the day.
01:04:25
Speaker 7: My feeling is you're going to get LSU that's going to be able to take advantage of a Mississippi State team that won't have much in the way of answers defensively. I think LSU will be able to run the football and be all right in that particular regard. My biggest concern here is in getting information out of Starkville, not exactly the easiest place to try and find out about what's truly going on. is the extent of Kamario Taylor's injuries. I mean, we heard mixed things last time out, again, when they were blown out at home by Alabama, that he was dealing with the flu, that it might be turf toe, that it could be, you know, broken foot or something along those lines. So for me, it's tough to try and assess. The one thing I will say is the betting market has had, if that's any indication, you know, moving from no man's land out to two touchdowns, even past that 14 to 14 and a half.
01:05:12
Speaker 3: I think it's a lay it or don't play it type game.
01:05:14
Speaker 7: Jeff Levy and Mississippi State have been a great story, but I think it's about to strike midnight for the de facto SEC Cinderella.
01:05:20
Speaker 1: Hey, you mentioned quarterback there, but Nico out for UCLA. What did that do to the overall odds for them and the reflection that they had in Vegas?
01:05:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, it changed the number a little bit.
01:05:32
Speaker 7: I mean, look, Nico isn't the elite prospect that Tennessee thought he was going to be when they paid him all that money to bring him in as kind of the face of the organization. But it still is a two and a half, three point downgrade for me to Dieffenbach. I think though UCLA's final score last week, the 17-15 win against Oregon, they were flattered. on the scoreboard. I mean, when you take the ball away seven times from your opponent and you can still only score 17 points, not a ringing endorsement. And we mentioned teams that are well rested versus teams that have been kind of going through it. You know, Wisconsin comes into this game brimming with confidence. They had a week to prepare. They have a salty defense, and I think Colton Joseph will be the better of the two quarterbacks. I think Wisconsin's extremely live and really believe they win this game outright. UCLA's been one of the best stories. Coach Chesney has been a phenomenal hire, at least from an early return standpoint.
01:06:19
Speaker 3: I think that'll continue.
01:06:20
Speaker 7: But I think Wisconsin goes out to Westwood and comes away with the outright win.
01:06:24
Speaker 3: I like the Badgers plus the points here.
01:06:26
Speaker 1: So let's hit Notre Dame-BYU. I mean, there's so many great games this week. This has been circled for months, this date. And it's living up to the hype, man. We've got so many games, we can't keep up with it.
01:06:38
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, look, college game day going out to Provo for the first time in almost 20 years. This is a BYU team that, you know, Kalani Satake probably does more with less than any coach in the country. It was a guy that I thought was going to be on the hot seat a couple seasons ago, and he has proven me wrong and then some. Meanwhile, for Notre Dame, you know, a lot of people will point at their strength of schedule, relatively speaking, but you dig underneath the hood and suddenly the win against Wisconsin week one looks a lot better. The fact that they were able to obliterate a Purdue team that now has an outright win as double digit dog against Illinois and a dominant performance against Minnesota looks a little bit better. So I think people are discounting Notre Dame a little bit more just because they don't have that signature marquee winner. They're not playing SEC opponents. They should be healthier on the defensive side. I mean, they were down as many as four starters last week at Stanford. Didn't slow them down. Outside of home field advantage, I'm not sure where BYU gets that de facto edge that'll leave you feeling confident backing them as a double-digit dog. You know, my power number on this game is north of two touchdowns. If I give BYU a full field goal for home field, It kind of takes me into no man's land, but I am much closer to making a bet on Notre Dame thinking that they can put a stamp on their season thus far and win this game going away than I would be backing Bear Bachmeier and an offensive BYU that I think lacks the kind of elite weapons that you need to attack a Notre Dame defense in space.
01:07:57
Speaker 1: Are you going Houston over Oklahoma State? Are you playing this game?
01:08:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't have a position on it yet.
01:08:03
Speaker 7: I do think this game could have plenty of offense, and I think Oklahoma State's only path to victory here is to try and crank up the tempo, try and tire out Houston defensively. But Connor Wegman, dare I say, making the case to be the best quarterback right now going at any FBS program currently in the state of Texas, and yes, that does include Arch Manning.
01:08:21
Speaker 3: I think this Houston team is the real deal.
01:08:23
Speaker 7: They're more balanced in terms of what they can do offensively, and more importantly, I think against Oklahoma State, they can come up with a stop or two offensively. So I like the Cougars here to win and do so by margin.
01:08:32
Speaker 1: Are you playing the Michigan-Penn State just to have a reason to watch the game?
01:08:37
Speaker 7: You know, look, if this number gets out to 7.5, I'll begrudgingly want to make a case for Penn State. Defensively, the Nittany Lions haven't exactly been a brick wall. Michigan, you know, weak to lick their wounds. What version of Bryce Underwood are we going to get? Hutton, if you have a read on either of these teams, you are a smarter, more sophisticated model builder than me. Because just when I think Michigan is going to be fine, they were unlucky, in the game against Iowa Bryce Underwood completely regresses and they look like they can't do anything offensively against Minnesota so if I had to get involved at seven and a half with lean Penn State but again not a contest that I'm running to bet and talk about a game between two historic blue bloods that loses an awful lot of luster given their respective starts of the season.
01:09:18
Speaker 1: It's still in the CBS time slot, right? So you've got Timmy B out west doing Nebraska-Oregon, and both teams coming off losses, and you've got Nebraska, though, looking okay. They've got to be a different mindset than what Oregon's going through this week.
01:09:37
Speaker 7: You would think that Nebraska still knows that they have everything in front of them to play for, and if they're able to pull off the upset in Eugene, that suddenly the loss against Indiana doesn't look as bad because if the Huskers were able to rattle off wins. and finish the regular season, dare I say, 11-1, 10-2, which, of course, is a pipe dream. They're very much in the discussion of being, you know, playoff eligible of sorts. Meanwhile, for Oregon, look, I mean, Oregon's season is hanging on the brink. I mean, we've seen their odds to win the national title completely crater hard rock bet. I mean, this is a team that even if they beat Nebraska on Saturday, their season is going to be completely defined by can they go on the road to Columbus and win that game and finish out the season 10-2. We're not sure about DJ Moore if we're ever going to see him again under center, but what a disappointing performance from Dylan Rayola, I mean, who looked the part in the second half against USC. and then gets himself pulled with three of the most miserable quarters of quarterbacking play that we have seen in a Power 4 conference all year. Tough to gauge the mindset, but I do think that Nebraska probably a little bit more focused here. And look, this Oregon team, clearly a disappointment thus far. Strong, strong lean towards the Cornhuskers playing that game at 11 o'clock Eastern time plus a 7.5.
01:10:48
Speaker 1: Final one on college, Miami. Can I feel safe just laying the points knowing they're going to crush FSU?
01:10:55
Speaker 7: So one thing to watch for here, weather could play a role and it doesn't look like it's going to be wet, but we could have 40 to 50 mile an hour winds. So if that does come to fruition in Coral Gables for the game, or I guess I should say Miami Gardens, makes it a little tougher for Miami to kind of find some of those explosives in the passing game and run away and hide. But I'd be closer to making a case for Miami is right around a three touchdown favorite. They should be able to run the football and find creative ways to get Malachi Tony the ball in space. And when I look at Florida State, they're just not built to play from behind. I mean, it's largely a quarterback run game with Croma and Ashton Daniels. And if that tandem can't get going, I just don't see any secondary pass for Florida State. But if the weather subsides, it's Miami or pass. If the weather gets nasty, tough to lay three touchdowns if it's going to be 40 or 50 mile an hour sustained wind gusts from start to finish.
01:11:41
Speaker 1: Todd, until I see it to believe it, I should play the under every week for the Titans, right?
01:11:48
Speaker 7: I mean, this offense, I don't understand how anybody watches it on a weekly basis and feels comfortable that they're seeing the kind of development from Cam Ward at least through the first five games of the season that leads you to believe he's going to be the franchise quarterback going forward.
01:12:03
Speaker 3: Bigger total because.
01:12:04
Speaker 7: Of the Colts' defense, but I think the Tennessee Titans' defense, dare I say, will be the best of.
01:12:08
Speaker 3: The four units that we'll see.
01:12:09
Speaker 7: And hot and famous last words, I actually like the Titans plus the seven here. This is a big, big number that you're asking the Colts to cover. And while it's disgusting and scary on the surface, I think the Titans are live underdogs and might not be surprised if they're able to actually win a game for the first time all season.
01:12:28
Speaker 1: Again, I've got to see it. Last week was the time to show up, man.
01:12:34
Speaker 7: I mean, look, that's a tougher nut to crack for Houston. And while I know what their record says at 0-4, underlying numbers suggest that they were one of the.
01:12:42
Speaker 3: Most unlucky teams in the league.
01:12:44
Speaker 7: And you look at the opposing offenses that were able to shred the Texans at least the first couple weeks, it was the Bills.
01:12:50
Speaker 3: It was the Bengals.
01:12:52
Speaker 7: I mean, the Colts, to a lesser extent, didn't shred them, but Houston just couldn't close that out.
01:12:56
Speaker 3: And, of course, it was the Dallas Cowboys as well. So they finally had a chance to punch down in class. I think the Titans were encountering a buzzsaw.
01:13:03
Speaker 7: But at the same time, look, Tennessee took very real and very substantial professional money on game day. I mean, that thing came off of the seven and pretty much closed six and a half everywhere in the world, including Hard Rock Bet.
01:13:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. Thursday Night Football, we've got Seahawks taking on the Broncos. Broncos, home dog. Seahawks, strong.
01:13:21
Speaker 7: First half under for me. Went under the total at 20.5. I think both these offenses are struggling. I mean, Bo Nix will grab all the headlines, but the underlying numbers for Seattle over the last couple weeks, not exactly great. I know Sam Darnold shredded the Commanders in his first game back from injury. But something looks broken for this team offensively. I mean, the ground game has been a little bit banged up. I mean, down Jadarian Price. We'll see when Zach Charbonnier can get back in action. But if teams can scheme, at least to a certain extent, JSN out of the fold, it makes them a lot easier to defend. I know the Cowboys, or Cowboys, I know the Broncos are going to be down two of their best defensive players in Patrick Sertan and Talanoa Hufanga. who left the game last week against the Chargers. But I think on a short week, Denver's defense can do enough to generate pressure up front. And on the flip side of things, I think this Seahawks defense is going to be a very difficult ask for Bo Nix and a Broncos offense looking for an identity. So I'll go into the total in the first half at 20.5 and look for both these coaches to be relatively conservative.
01:14:17
Speaker 1: We have seen a trend, though, the last three weeks. The dog is surprised. I mean, at least we see that. This would not be a shock.
01:14:24
Speaker 7: No, I think if Denver's able to win this game out, I don't think anybody will really be stunned.
01:14:29
Speaker 3: It's a tough place to play. Unfamiliar surroundings.
01:14:32
Speaker 7: I mean, a road team on a Thursday night in a non-divisional game, in my opinion, is at such a disadvantage because they're not used to scouting a particular opponent.
01:14:39
Speaker 3: So it wouldn't shock me at all.
01:14:41
Speaker 7: And while it's a very small sample size so far, so no one should overreact, You know, primetime underdogs have performed exceptionally well in the early going of the season, at least through the first five weeks.
01:14:50
Speaker 1: Hey, all the way up, what's a percentage win over the weekend that you're going for? Like 52%? What are you trying to average to get to where you want to be at the end of the season?
01:15:04
Speaker 7: So the full break even, I mean, for people that hate math, and I'm glad that Withrow isn't here because he'd be sitting here with his calculator and we get the Rodney Dangerfield gif.
01:15:12
Speaker 3: We'd see the numbers kind of flying by.
01:15:15
Speaker 7: As him trying to figure all that out. 52.4% is the break-even number if you assume that you're risking $ 11 to win.
01:15:22
Speaker 3: $ 10 on all of your bets.
01:15:24
Speaker 7: For me, at the end of football season, if I'm looking at mainly sides and totals, expect to hit a higher percentage of props for lower limits in a less liquid market. I'm thrilled if I can finish around 55%. I know people want to try and sell you a bill of goods and go, I want to hit 60 to 70%. Hutton, if I had 60 or 70% for the amount of bets that I'll make in a football season over the course of NFL and college, I am doing backflips. And while I probably couldn't move into the community that Clay Travis lives in down there in Destin, I'd at least be able to get myself a nice trailer, a stone's throw away from the beach.
01:15:56
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I see all these people on social, like, I have 75% big winners. I'm like, I doubt it.
01:16:06
Speaker 7: If you're picking 75% over a prolonged sample size, you're not posting your picks on social media.
01:16:12
Speaker 3: I mean, you're buying your own island in the Caribbean.
01:16:15
Speaker 7: You're sipping frozen drinks with little umbrellas in them.
01:16:18
Speaker 3: So it's a little bit of buyer beware.
01:16:20
Speaker 7: If someone's trying to sell you a little bit of snake oil, can you hit 60% for a season?
01:16:24
Speaker 3: Sure. It's rare and it's difficult, but it can be done.
01:16:27
Speaker 7: Uh, but if you're looking at this big picture wise, I mean, if you're hitting 55%, you know, over thousands and thousands of trials, that's a pretty good racket. And it puts you in rarefied air being in that 1%. It's not the 1% that I'm in. You know, I leave that to my cohost on the Thursday show for Beth.
01:16:41
Speaker 1: Okay. All right. You've been doing, uh, bet the board for a while, but I mean, we're thrilled to have you, man. It's, uh, You know we've got your back from here at Nashville, but we've got to get together again on the West Coast.
01:16:56
Speaker 7: I mean, look, you guys were out here. I think the last time we broke bread together was the Super Bowl out here in Vegas.
01:17:01
Speaker 3: It was.
01:17:02
Speaker 7: Whether it's me getting to Nashville, but here's the bottom line. We can cut this and clip this. You know where the College Football National Championship is this year, so this is where Clay decides to go into the company card, pony up, and we're able to do a couple of live shows right outside of Legion Stadium and take advantage of of the college football epicenter being right out here on Las Vegas Boulevard. Since you know if there's one city in the country that can rival Nashville in terms of putting on a show from Entertainment Value, I'm putting Vegas right up there alongside it.
01:17:31
Speaker 1: Is it Clay or Laura with the company card?
01:17:34
Speaker 7: I mean, Laura's the one that we have to go to to be able to make things happen. That or Producer Jacob pulling the strings behind the scenes. I mean, we can get him to try and have some accounts. And look, Hutton, I mean, I figure that there's no limit on that credit card. So if there's, you know, let's say, you know, 8 to 10 first class round trip tickets on there for all you guys to get out here, I'm easy. I can drive down there. I can stay at home. So there's not much overhead to me. It's just a question of getting all you guys out here. and figuring out what kind of accommodations you win. And if you want a presidential suite at the Wynn, or if you're looking to stay at the Oyo, unfortunately, Hard Rock won't be open on Las Vegas Boulevard. Otherwise, that'd be way too easy for us.
01:18:14
Speaker 1: We'll just send you a car. You don't have to drive.
01:18:17
Speaker 3: There we go. Perfect. My kind of team. Send me a nice black car. We'll go there.
01:18:20
Speaker 7: I don't have to deal with traffic on the Strip. I am more than happy to kind of rubber stamp that proposition.
01:18:25
Speaker 1: Hey, good to see you, man. Thank you for the advice. I wrote down the... the ones that you are strong on.
01:18:32
Speaker 7: Is that the same piece of paper, though, that you were doing the reads to start the segment, or do you keep two separate piles so you have a little bit of organization?
01:18:39
Speaker 1: Here's the read. It is like treads. It's kindling now for a fire. I wouldn't have a forest fire over here with all this.
01:18:47
Speaker 7: We'll step it up. We'll send you a couple index cards. They'll be in your box just in time for the holidays.
01:18:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got to get my stuff together over here with all the ads. All of Clay's companies. That's where we are. Good to see you, Todd. Todd Furman, Bet the Board. Check out the podcast, sportandstate.com. And all of his great work on social media, he crushes it, 55%. And that's what we're going for this weekend. That's what I've just learned. Hey, also, what we know. We know we've got Chad Withrow straight ahead and much more right here on Hutton & Withrow. SportingState.com, presented by Hard Rock Mad. Good morning to you, Hutton & Withrow, here at SportingState.com. Chad joins us from Florida with his Crockett coffee, named after the– The volunteer, the patriot, David Crockett, started by Clay Travis, Buck Sexton, and Buck's brother, Mason. Look, this is David Crockett on the back of crocodiles. That tells you everything about the attitude here. 100% pure Arabica, high altitude beans, small batch roasted right here in America, Tennessee, the heart of the country. It's chips fresh roasted. It's not sitting on a shelf. for like six months. It's light, medium, dark, decaf, organic, even a mushroom blend. However you make it in the morning, that means that's Sun Creek, Blue Ridge, King Mountain, Chad, there's even Elk River. What are you going with today? I'm going with King Mountain this morning here at the beach, and I love it, Hutton. And I love that you can set up a subscription and it shows up on your schedule, change it or cancel it anytime you want, as the free marketing intended. Free shipping on orders of $ 59 or more, and there's a discount for veterans. And Crockett partners with Tunnel to Towers, building mortgage-free homes for the families of fallen service members and for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. Good coffee, made in America, doing some good. CrockettCoffee.com. That's Crockett, C-R-O-C-K-E-T-T-Coffee.com. Hutton, thrilled to be with you here at the Gulf of America this morning. And I experienced one of the more American things I can ever remember yesterday by watching the Blue Angels perform. How was that, man? Give me your review. I've never seen them. Well, so the base here in Pensacola is closed down with the effects of the hurricane. So we couldn't go on base and do the whole museum, Naval Aviation Museum and everything else that went with it. So I watched from a Walmart parking lot with a ton more people. The parking lot was packed. The Target across the street parking lot was packed. I went with the Walmart parking lot and watched it. And they do a good job of flying directly over you and you hearing the sound and everything and doing the coordinated stunts, the diamond formation they get into where they're almost touching wings. They're so close to each other with four different jets. I can imagine doing that. The best way to describe this thing is it was a red, white, and blue middle finger to the rest of the world. And I love when America majors in middle fingers and everyone else. And the fact that we can coordinate this and use this military might all together at once and get some of the best pilots in the world to withstand the G-forces these pilots have to withstand to go straight up into the air as fast as they do, straight down, the barrel rolls, everything else. I've never been a big air show guy, and I know your grandfather's big into aviation and was big into this, but watching this yesterday, and I can't wait to come back next year for our kids' fall break and actually go to the museum.
01:22:10
Speaker 2: Nope.
01:22:10
Speaker 1: And get the narration from the extra pilot and everything else you're going to get with the show. It was awesome. How did you become a Blue Angel? So, got back home. And I would recommend this to everyone. Prime Video has an hour and a half long documentary called The Blue Angels. It's produced by our guy, Glenn Powell. Oh, nice. He's the producer on it. And it is a great documentary that shows you the history of the Blue Angels. It's got an older pilot, how you become one. You have to serve at least 3,000 aeronautic miles or missions in order to be considered for the Blue Angels. So everyone that's up there on this display team, which it is a show, they have served in combat missions or they have flown for the United States Navy. There's five Navy pilots. So naval aviators, think Tygun, right? And there's one Marine pilot that's on there. So- The Marines being a part of the Navy, they come together on this. But they all fly for our country in combat or they're flying stationed somewhere else. They come together in two-year terms to do a Blue Angel, basically stay. And then they go right back to serving our country as pilots, as fighter pilots. It's incredible. The work that goes into it, when they show the machine they do to withstand the G-forces, it's insane. So highly recommend anybody who's interested in red, white, and blue middle fingers to everyone else, which I am, watch the Blue Angels documentary on Amazon Prime. Chad, just coming in, the Titans fans are giving a middle finger to Burke Nihill, to the floor continuing to go down to the basement. Yeah. Don't put the graphic up yet, JT, because I want to set this up. So, Paul Koharski, every single day, has been asking for Burke Nihill to comment. The Titans get back to him and eventually say, when he's available, we'll let you know. Like, we're going to let you know when he's ready to talk. That because Paul, every single day, was putting out that they were not allowing him to speak to Nihill. And they didn't want that out every day. Well... And credit to Easton Freeze and A to Z Sports. They had a great idea. They just released their survey. I haven't seen the results of this yet, Chad, their big 8,000 response survey. They got comment from Burke Nihill. Now, it's not about anything other than the survey. And this is me saying to Kenneth Adams IV, to Bryce Wasserman, to literally anybody that can get to Amy's ear, You've got to do something about the leadership of the Tennessee Titans. Because it's not an A to Z sports. I would imagine this is the only thing on the record that they could get. That's my guess. Because this is BS. This is, again, I'm not ripping A to Z about the survey, but here it is. Let's put that up there. We appreciate any and all feedback. This is Burke Nihill, by the way. Any and all feedback that our fans take to provide, whether it comes to post-game surveys, emails, calls, I mean, you can scan through this. Chad, we want to win. We want to hear about the experience fans are having, both in the stadium and away from it. And what we can do better to earn their trust. Trust that's not given, it's earned. And we know it's our job to keep earning it. And then at the end, build something they can be proud of. Using their voices to guide us as we work to build something they can be proud of. Is this Chad GPT? I mean, what? We hear from him, and that's it. This is the same guy that's going to be speaking at a leadership deal in Murfreesboro. What's going on here? Here it is. It's not going to be the first comment from Burke in November, but the leadership beyond the field featuring Burke Nihill at a luncheon. Chad, what are we doing? What's going on here? Will he be taking questions? Leadership beyond the field? That would be my question because if I'm Paul Kaharski and others, I'd go ahead and pay for that pass to that convention in Rutherford County and go ahead and start asking some questions about the job he's done with the Tennessee Titans. He's got to do a sit-down with Paul. Paul's been asking every day. That can't be the representation of the response to everything that's been going on, including the hire that isn't the hire yet officially within the front office about someone who's involved in the lawsuit. I can't imagine a scenario where there is someone in charge that feels more disconnected from a city and a fan base than Amy Adam Strunk and Burke Nihill does right now when things are going south. There have been plenty of examples of out-of-touch billionaires, right? Throughout time. That just aren't, they're not living in reality. Right, right, yeah. But Burke Nihill's role is to be the face of the organization and the mouthpiece of the organization. To lead. To lead and be the mouthpiece of the Titans business, fan relations operation, stadium, the organization, okay? It's been a travesty. And... I know that he doesn't want to admit that it's been a travesty because then the question is, well, why is it a travesty? Because it's under your watch. But to come out and, as you've said, Hutton, deliver a chat GPT response to this survey where you're getting ripped and the organization's getting ripped. Good job, Ace, for getting that many people to respond to anything and to answer that many questions and to write, what, 3,800 essays? I think he got that people actually wrote out all their thoughts in essay form. Good for him to get that. I read the story. I have a hard time reading a story with that many numbers in it. I heard Todd Furman making fun of me about numbers. But when you're showing me graphs and percentages and everything else, I really lose. I'm a story guy. I'm a narrative guy. If you give me the written word, I'm going to read through it. I didn't need that survey to tell me, based on our finger on the pulse of Titans fans, that the Titans fans are angry about the direction of this organization today. And what's going on. But good job by him getting all those responses. And I guess a good job by getting a chat GPT response from Burke Nihill. I agree that he should do a sit down with Paul. I agree that he should answer a tough question. I also believe that even in that response, that we're going to continue earning your trust. Keep doing what we've been doing. I'm thinking, dude, you've got to change the wording to that to restore your trust. You have to regain your trust. We know that we have a lot of work to do to make you want to be a part of this again. You've got to start saying things like that. But again, this is not someone who cares about the fans. This is not someone who cares about what we think. What he cares about is keeping his job with Amy Adams Trump. This is like a parody. Look at the third sentence. Every response tells us something about what it means to be a Titans fan. And we don't take that for granted. I mean, this is embarrassing. It's embarrassing. And... All of this is snowballing to Ramone Foster is talking about the racial discrimination lawsuit this morning on the Wake Up Zone. I mean, everything is awful right now. And he's acting like we're going to keep earning your trust. And this is the new floor. Every time I think they've reached it, here we go. If he's going to speak, he needs to speak on behalf of all the questions. And again, I would think Easton would be trying to get more and did not get anything but that. Chad, let's do– we have our Locks of the Week coming up too. Locks of the Week. Well, let me say this too on the whole let's hire someone who's under a lawsuit issue. somewhere else. He shouldn't be allowed to hire anybody. This is what really bothers me right now is we're starting this cycle again. The guy who's been in charge of the place burning to the ground and reaching a point where Paul Kuharski, who for all of his vitriol and Yankee demeanor and everything else that people don't like about him, he's a pretty level-headed guy when it comes to wins and losses and how the NFL works. And he stays pretty level on everything. Paul is saying in the 31 years he's covered the team, it's never been worse. It's not even close. From an apathy of the team to the fans to everything that goes into the organization, it is rock bottom. And now you're going to allow the guy that has brought it to rock bottom to to start firing and then replacing other people. And I know that Amy Adams Strzok is doing this through him, but he has far too much power right now. So regardless if the person is guilty of being a racist or not, which I have no idea based on the lawsuit, it's beside the point that, okay, now you got Jared Stillman popping another story on the Titans. And then this happens, and you look foolish again. So we're going to allow– this guy's making big-time hires in the front office. This is where we're going to go now. This is the direction is to continue to empower him. If I am a Titan season ticket holder spending money with that team, I don't know how you look that person in the face straight in the eye and say, we're doing everything we can. to make this better and to make good decisions. I don't know how you can say that if you're the Titans organization. And Chad, I believe, and I was told, that Burke was telling some of those three that were laid off that we were going to be bringing in this guy. So this has all been planned prior to the layoffs. And that the guy would be telling friends of his, he's not retiring from the Cardinals. No, no, no, he's got something else coming up. Think about that. This whole thing's been in motion just like every decision is made prematurely, right? It's done, but they wouldn't even confirm the job that's done. What is done is the decision of quarterback for Tennessee. It's going to be George McIntyre. No surprise, right? Based on expectations of where Faison Brandon was. Well, and it's the right decision right now. George McIntyre's got to not turn the ball over three times. That's the takeaway from that game against Arkansas. But, you know, really, when you look at it statistically, and they weren't asking him to do a ton, but he did pretty well. I mean, he throws for 247, I think. It would have been over 300 yards had Braylon Staley stayed in bounds on one big play, had he caught another couple. He had three or four drops in the game that should have been caught. So I don't think it was all bad for George McIntyre. I also don't leave that Arkansas game thinking, boy, this is the guy who's going to beat Alabama. as a starting quarterback, or this is the guy who's going to give you a chance to beat LSU or even go on the road and beat better opponents. But I think when you look at Tennessee's defense and where they are, and where they are is they're one of the best defenses in the SEC. We're halfway through the year. They're one of the best defenses in the country. Xavier Gilliam, as Cole Kublik said, is the best defensive player in America right now through halfway point of the season. He's been unbelievable. So that defense should give you a chance. They are your constant for this team. You've got to find somebody who can make some plays through the air because Tennessee's passing game is not good right now. They want to run it, but it's tough to run it when you're so one-dimensional. George McIntyre, a healthy George McIntyre, I think we saw in the Arkansas game, gives Tennessee a better shot right now. I think it is foolish, though, to look at this and not understand that there's some gray areas here about who should be the starter moving forward. No doubt. I'm not out on Faison Brandon completely. I want to see him get healthy. I want to see if he looks better from a decision-making standpoint when he's healthier and when he's had a week to prepare. I'm not saying replace George McIntyre yet. I'm just warning ball fans that if you think George McIntyre is the new appointed one of Tennessee football, listen to what Josh Heupel is saying about Faison Brandon and how he didn't bench him. He was hurt, and he didn't lose his starting spot. He's injured, and we're waiting on him to get healthy. Faison Brandon is going to start games again this year. At some point, Tennessee needs both of those guys to be healthy and to be available when things go south. Because right now with a freshman and a redshirt freshman in this conference, I have no faith that one of those guys is going to finish the season being a great quarterback. They're going to need both of them at different times, and they're going to need to ride the hot hand a little bit, which that's something that Josh Heupel is not really comfortable doing. He is a pick a quarterback and stick with him type guy for the most part. Yep. And I don't necessarily disagree with it as long as you're sticking with the game plan that's based around that quarterback. What did we see at A & M back in 2021? Calzada came in the second half. How did they win that game? They popped a kickoff return. And they are about punt return, I believe. And they blocked one. You know, they flipped the field and Calzada was able to do the he hit his layups. You know, like Georgia's got to hit his layups. And Tennessee, they need to win the turnover battle and cash in if they get one. I think that that's the key with all of it. We're love. How did how did Clay bet this game? Has he announced that? He has. I have not read it. I saw the post where he's got his bet. I think he went with the over-under, but I don't know which way he went. Probably the under in this game is the way I would play it, probably. We discussed that. Maybe it's one of our locks. Who knows? Hard rock block, straight ahead, here on Nutley Withrow. Jay, you've got to have balls to play for the Nashville Balls. XXXY Athletics has got the t-shirts for you, the official Nashville Vols gear, founded by Jennifer Say, former national champion gymnast. She's a former Levi's brand president, but she walked away from the corporate job rather than to say something she didn't believe, and she started XXXY Athletics instead. And the mission, in their words, is to empower female athletes, take a stand for fair competition, and they call it the T that launched a movement. And, Chad, it's official athletic apparel. Maybe Burke Nihill can follow his heart and leave his company as a CEO the way Jennifer Say did and start a new company. You know, one could dream. And one could dream about a WNBA dynasty. And that's what the Nashville Bulls could become. With Enos Cantor as the starting center, as we saw, the ability to dunk two-handed on other WNBA players could be a problem for other WNBA teams. Just going to throw that out there. Tease trucker hats for the Nashville Bulls available. New customers get 20% off your first order when you sign up at freeshipping.com. Over $ 100. XXXYathletics.com. That's XX-XYathletics.com. I wish that Easton Freeze could have thrown in his survey. Would you prefer Burke Nihill to have a crisis of conscience and have to leave the organization because of men playing women's sports and start a rival company to XXXY if this was an option? Would you be okay with it instead of being the CEO of the Titans? The team name would be the Entertainment Betas, right? A boy can dream. Or girl. Boy or girl. Whatever. Coming up in 15 seconds, Hard Rock Lock.
01:37:39
Speaker 5: This year, the party's getting even bigger.
01:37:41
Speaker 3: Hey, there's Jay Boyd. They know me.
01:37:43
Speaker 5: This party, everybody's somebody. And Hard Rock Bet has something for everyone.
01:37:48
Speaker 1: Plus, new customers bid $ 5 and get up to $ 500 in no-sweat bets. Sutton and Withrow, presented by Hard Rock Bets. Hardrock.bets.clay is the offer you just heard about. It's fantastic. $ 5, get up to $ 500 in no-sweat bets. Hardrock.bets.clay. And we recommend you sign up, and then you roll with us on one of our Hard Rock Locks of the week. Chad, I feel good about both of ours this week, but I'm rolling. I'm going to one of the top matchups here. Ohio State, Indiana. I think this is about the defenses. I don't think Indiana has shown me that they are, like last year's team, is going to put up a ton of points no matter who they're playing. And I love Ohio State's defense and what we've seen in certain games. I think they show up. I think the under is in play here, 51 and a half. Look, I think this is a victory. I like it. I'm going to parlay it with yours. And I think this is a week for unders. I love that pick. We found out Clay is going under in Tennessee, Alabama. Also, I like that one if I'm playing it. I also kind of like Alabama to cover in the game, but I think under is also a good play. I'm not going under with this one. I'm going to refer to my lock this week. It's just the ultimate heat check. Oh, here we go. I'm 14 and one on Friday nights. Okay. I don't know a damn thing about Tulane. Now that John Sumrall is not their coach. I don't know much about Memphis after Ryan Silverfield left. I'm not going to sit here and lie to our audience and tell you I've done a ton of research about the rushing attack versus the front of Memphis or how Memphis is going to throw it over the top against Tulane. I have no clue, but I'm going to ride the hot hand right here. This is like Steph Curry going two feet further back after shooting three after three after three and then seeing if he can hit from half court. Friday night college football has been my sweet spot. Give me Tulane. I know nothing about them, but they're at home and they're playing Memphis and they're in a six and a half point underdog. I thought about taking Green Wave Moneyline on this.
01:39:59
Speaker 3: I didn't.
01:40:00
Speaker 1: I'm going to go Tulane six and a half. They may win outright, but give me the wave to cover in this game, Hudson. Ultimate heat check on a Friday night for me. 14-1 so far in the college football season. Let's get to 15-1 with this game, shall we? And this is how you go 14-1. You don't overthink it. You don't overthink it. You go with your gut and you take the home dog on a Friday. It's got to be the Friday. You can watch Bet the Board so Todd Furman can break out his sheets and his graphs and everything else and show you numbers and where this passing statistic intersects with this over here, and it gives you a 53% chance. There's a place for you to consume all that. Bet the Board, great show. Todd Furman's going to give you that. What I'm going to give you is my gut feeling on a guy that's 14-1 on Friday nights by God, and I'm about to go to 15-1 with this one. You know what else is great about Friday night? Dixieland Delight Friday night. We're going to be live in Knoxville. Wagon Wheel 815 is our kickoff time for Dixieland Delight Friday night live show at Wagon Wheel. Chad, you were there with Kelly and Ariel a couple weeks ago. We're headed back to Wagon Wheel for the same start time on supportandstate.com. You're going to love the setup. We started in Oxford and we were just looking at Jacob Lutz and the corner of a cubbyhole. underneath the stairwell in front of us. This setup, we're going to be on a stage. We're looking out. Window will be open so people can yell things at us and say hello as they pass in the street in the old city. And there's a breeze rolling in. There's people behind us. We're on a stage. A very, very cool setup there with Mark Jernigan and Wagon Wheel. We love it. We're going back. We're going to run it back this week, Friday night, 7.15 Central Time, 8.15 Eastern. Join us on the YouTube channel. Could have some surprise special guests also. Hey, and also tomorrow morning I'll be hanging with Next Round Live. They're going to be doing some stuff from Gatlinburg. Headed there. We'll be kicking things off there. I've got Jason Swain coming on the show, plus LT, and I believe the entire crew. We're going to make it official. I think Ryan Brown will join us as well. Hopefully everyone will swing by. It's going to be fun, and you can catch all the sport and state coverage. Chad, last time we were in Oxford together for this game, Tennessee stormed the field. We'll see what happens. I can't wait. I'm jealous you're going to go to Gatlinburg, one of my favorite places. Weather's going to be perfect this weekend. If you're in town, come find us on Friday night. Say hello. We're going to be having a ball. And can't wait to connect with the Next Round Live guys, which, oh, by the way, they're about to be starting their show here pretty soon. Yeah, that's right. They're coming up in about 30 seconds or so. Right now, remember, go download the app, the Hard Rock app, hardrock.bet.com. $ 5, get up to $ 500 in no-sweat bets. That's hardrock.bet.com. Chad, be safe on the drive coming back, if you don't mind. We'll do. We'll catch you in Knoxville. All right. Sounds great. See you there. SportsState.com. Coverage continues. He's Withrom Hutton. Hutton and Withrom presented by Hard Rock Bet.
Speaker 1: We are out of the gates on sport and state. Glad you're with us. It is Hutton and Withrow presented by Hard Rock. Bet, a lot to get to today. We have Chad Withrow coming up in hour number two. Just around the corner in about 15, 20 minutes or so, we have Jared Stillman. Make that about 30 minutes. Jared Stillman will join us. And we also, from Stillman & Company, also Todd Furman to get you ready for the weekend, the best bets, and much more headed your way this hour. we will have in about 15 minutes a reaction to the Tennessee Titans, the President Burke Nihill hiring someone from the Arizona Cardinals who is in the middle of a lawsuit for racial discrimination allegations, a civil lawsuit. And if you're familiar with Greg Sciano in Sciato Sunday, where he was going to be hired by the Tennessee Volunteers, this is the Titan Sciano moment, to say the least. with what we just heard from Ramon Foster, who is the analyst for Titans Radio, former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman, Tennessee volunteer, giving his opinion on someone that's involved in a racial discrimination lawsuit. We'll let you hear that coming up very, very soon. First, though, it is time for one big thing on every NFL game. And we start with Thursday night football. Tonight, Seahawks at Broncos. Seahawks minus two and a half. over under a 40.5 against Denver. And Denver's the home team here. The right team's favored. But 86% of the money line is on Denver at Hard Rock Bet. You go to hardrock.bet.com, $ 5, 500 in bonus bets. Someone put $ 130, 000. JT, $ 130, 000 on Denver tonight. You're the Broncos fan. What do you think?
00:01:57
Speaker 2: But there's not a whole lot about Denver that excites me. I feel like they always show up for the games that they maybe shouldn't be in, but also fall flat on their face in some of those games that they should be in. I don't feel confident with placing $ 10 at Hard Rock, Matt, but.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: $ 130, 000. $ 130, 000. I hope that guy wins just.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: For me tonight.
00:02:16
Speaker 1: That would win you $ 305, 000. Yeah. Yeah, so we'll think about it. We must know something we don't. Yeah, that's a hard rock bet. Denver, the only winning team in the NFL to trail in the fourth quarter in every single game this season. And Bo Nix, he's facing a nightmare schematic matchup. Under pressure, he ranks 30th in completion percentage. And now he faces Seattle, second highest pressure rate in the National Football League. We head to Sunday night football. Cowboys at Green Bay. Packers... One and a half is the line here. I mean, back and forth game expected over under 53. 96% of the total handle is on the over for this game at 53 points. Dallas defense has yet to have an interception all season. They have only five sacks in five weeks. The Packers, they're going to want to use Marshawn Lloyd often. The Cowboys, they surrender a league-worst 168 rushing yards per game. We go to Monday night. Commanders and Niners. Niners by 7.5 at 50. 50.5 is now on the total points. Unbeaten San Francisco. They're going to be without Jerry Greenlaw. He's out with a one-game suspension. And Devo Samuel with a hamstring injury. Washington's coming off that wild 27-27 tie after coaching malpractice. Ridiculous with how that game ended last week. The hard rock bet action here. The money line handle split dead even 50-50 as the larger wagers are taking a shot on Washington at plus 325. Sunday, 425. Bills, Raiders. The Raiders are catching all these teams. Big teams coming off these big wins. And they haven't performed well recently. They're 3-2. Bills favored by 5 on the road in Las Vegas. over under 53.5. That's a familiar number this week. And 90% of the total, hammering the over at 53. Josh Allen's anytime touchdown prop is outdrawing every single wide receiver and tight end on either roster for the prop for you. Nine total turnovers, though, for Buffalo over their last three games, and that feeds directly into the strength of the Raiders' defense, first in the NFL with 10 takeaways. We head down on the schedule. Chargers at Chiefs. Disappointment of the season. The Chargers. Much higher expectations than the Titans and Dolphins, who are both expected to lose. The Chargers, they're 0-5. And Kansas City favored by 8. Justin Herbert sacked 17 times in five games. Kenneth Walker III. Six total touchdowns in four games. His anytime touchdown prop at Hard Rock, drawing more than four times the bets against of any other prop in this game. Jump on board. Roll with us on that one. We should make that my lock. I should have thought about that. It's coming up later. Sunday, 4-0-5. Cardinals, Rams, Cardinals at 1-4. They beat the Chargers in Week 1. That looked like a good win. Turns out, not so good. The Rams are 2-3. The Rams, though, are still a heavy favorite to win the Super Bowl. And, well... Check this out. We've got Arizona entering a franchise record nine-game home losing streak. They've just set that mark. Jacoby Brissett, he's going to remain the starter. And 73% is backing Arizona. And when that happened, oddsmakers, they didn't drop it down. They raised it even higher. They pushed L.A. from 12.5 to 13.5. And, well, why? Because Sean McVay, 16-3. I guess the Cardinals over his tenure there and the, over that span that they've outscored Arizona by us by an average of 12. So you've got that at 13 and a half Puka to Kua returns. So get ready for some offense. Jeremiah love questionable. Um, he's got the hamstring injury, I believe ankle and Brissette. Again, he remains the quarterback. They they're raising that they're, they're actually fading the public. I've I'm going to bet the Cardinals. If, um, Ramsey. Guys, let's take a break. It was perfect 10 right there. Sorry, got sick. I'm here. It's Hunter Withrow presented by Hard Rock Bet. Right now, $ 5. You get $ 500 up to in the no sweat bets. It's fantastic. This is a great deal. You do it by going to hardrock.bet.com. Hardrock.net slash Clay. News customers, download the app. You can roll with us. We've got our Hard Rock locks coming up at the end of the show. And Chad and I are bringing some winners this week. We hit that last week. We're going to do it for back-to-back. And speaking of Hard Rock, it's Florida's only legal sportsbook, the most trustworthy option right now in the country. And you've got Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia. And it's the best time of the year for bettors. Hard Rock bet ready with the new features, app updates, and promos. Right now, again, the bonus bet. Bet five, get 500 in no-sweat bets. Hardrock.bet.com. Sign up, get all the details. Hardrock.bet.com. That's Hardrock.bet.com. So the Tennessee Titans are a dumpster fire right now. And it's one thing after the other. Chad and I have been mentioning the slogan right before the season. They were saying, like, this is our floor, and we're going to get better every week. Salah was saying that. And it's coach speak. I know what he means in that. But in terms of the outlook of the team, the floor continues to go down, tunneling. It's like the Elon tunnel here in town that they're building to the airport or a condo with a parking garage that goes underneath the building. It continues to grow and grow and grow with the same decision maker overseeing the entire building, the entire practice facility. And it's Burke Nihill. He has recently hired a new director. a new executive to come in and be the chief business officer, which in essence is the guy that's heading up all of the business for the new stadium. He's coming from the Arizona Cardinals, and he's been a buddy of Burke's. That's not an issue. You can be a friend of someone and work alongside them. That happens all the time. But outside of Burke, there's really no one that is in charge of anything because Burke oversees everything. And he oversaw this hire. And it just turns out that Jeremy Walls is in the middle of a lawsuit. And so is the owner of the Cardinals. And this comes down to a racial discrimination lawsuit. And you know where this is leading. They've hired this guy in the middle of a lawsuit. Optics were already bad for the Tennessee Titans. Perception is awful. The fan base dwindling by the day. And... even Titans radio analyst Ramon Foster, and I understand where he's coming from on this. This is what the Titans are putting out based on decisions they're making. And Ramon, who is working for the Titans, had this to say this morning on 104.5 The Zone.
00:10:16
Speaker 4: When or if he's hired? Somebody will have to answer for this.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: For.
00:10:20
Speaker 4: myself, for Will to have questions surrounding this racial discrimination lawsuit, they'll have to give that answer. And here's what I will also say. It can't just be a softball, hey, what are you doing? You have to give more detail than you probably should to give this fan base an ease about thinking they're hiring, basically the way our chat is saying it, a racist. They'll have to clean that up. They'll have to give details into the whys and the how. And if he does speak, which usually these people don't speak, but somebody will have to speak for him.
00:10:53
Speaker 1: Well, no one needs to speak for Burke Nihill because he speaks on behalf of ownership, except he's silent. It is crickets from the decision makers, from the management, from the leaders of the Tennessee Titans. And, well... What does that show? It shows exactly who they are. The 0-5 Tennessee Titans with a 3-win quarterback, with a 20-win head coach over his career, and they continue to tunnel further and further down. More on this is coming straight ahead. Jared Stillman is joining us from Stillman & Company, and he broke the story about the new CBO, the Chief Business Officer, who has... pissed off the fan base, and is becoming the new Shiano Sunday, except it's Titans Thursday. More coming. Jared next. It is Hutton and Withrow, sportandstate.com, presented by Hard Rock Bet. Before we get to Jared Stillman, Clay Travis Law. Maybe Stille wanted a lawyer up if the Titans banned him, but he didn't because he doesn't need his credential back. But sometimes accidents don't wait for good timing. One bad moment, a wreck, a fall, a doctor who wasn't paying attention, God forbid. Suddenly, you're fighting an insurance company that does this every single day. And that's why Clay started Clay Travis Law. He's a Vanderbilt Law grad, and he built a firm around the idea that people deserve someone willing to pay attention, ask the hard questions, push back when things don't add up. Experienced trial attorneys... who bring the fight to corporations and insurers based in Nashville, trusted across the country. You can go to claytravislaw.com for more info, claytravislaw.com, or the phone numbers for Clay's companies are fantastic. 877-222-4444. 877-222-4444. That's claytravislaw.com. You know this man. He has been banned by the Tennessee Titans, and now he breaks Tennessee Titans news before anyone else in the city of Nashville. Jared, thanks for the time, man. How are things?
00:13:03
Speaker 5: Good.
00:13:04
Speaker 6: I actually think that that is genius, by the way, the way Clay does that with those numbers. But it's never dull, apparently, in Titan land, even with the team at 0-5. So we continue on new executive hires. I don't think I've ever talked about executive leadership that wasn't technically football-related as much as I have over the last two weeks of my entire life.
00:13:26
Speaker 1: So it's interesting to me because– They're not speaking, the executives and the ownership. And it's not like, okay, if they speak, it's going to change anything. But the accountability, that is the example of what is portrayed from the organization from the top down. Perception is reality, and it's definitely reality that it is a mess. You talked to a lot of different people recently. about what Burton-Ihill's up to. Is it a common theme? That's what I want to know. From inside the building, what are they saying the vibe's like?
00:14:10
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'd say the vibes are pretty terrible. And not just the standard, the football team is 0-5 vibes.
00:14:16
Speaker 5: Which for any organization.
00:14:19
Speaker 5: Is tough to overcome or deal with.
00:14:21
Speaker 6: But I think on the corporate side of the Titans, there's a fear inside of the building that they could be called into the office by the Grim Reaper next.
00:14:30
Speaker 1: No doubt.
00:14:30
Speaker 6: And I think that that does trickle over into football to a certain extent because we've seen this when it comes to football. John Robinson, to me, is the most obvious example. A general manager who was extended to In January of 2022, and at 7-5 and in first place, John Robinson in December of 2022 was fired. So less than a year after signing an extension while sitting in first place, the general manager got canned. And it's not just Robinson that that happens to. This has happened to so many different employees over the years, whether it was 28-year PR executive Robbie Bourne, Or even recently, Adam Neuse, who had been with the team for a while, or Aaron Swartz, who led their rebrand. I think the fear is, if you currently are a Titans employee, the fear is that any five-minute interval, it could be your five-minute interval in this world. And it certainly is not something that I think creates a positive culture. And it's really hard to create a positive culture when the team is 0-5. But the Titans are certainly doing everything in their power to keep their building from having a positive culture.
00:15:36
Speaker 1: I mean, 0-5 or 7-5. I mean, they didn't win a game after she fired John Robinson at 7-5. And I'll say this. It was Burt Nihill who took the cell phone into John Robinson's office when she fired him. It was Burt Nihill who Mike Vrabel went to and wanted to know, am I the head coach of the Tennessee Titans? He wanted to know. Am I fired? Am I staying? What are we doing? who would fire Nihil? Is Amy just going to call him or is Amy going to trust someone to figure out, not just to hand the phone, but to figure out what's the, what's the next direction for the who's next in line. If it's Burke running things, I don't think, I don't think she knows Mike Berganzi. I don't think she knows Robert Sala. She's not there. Um, Bryce Wasserman, maybe, but again, like that, that's a huge, that's a huge job. Um, That's the thing. I don't know what structure's in place to just go in and take over what Burke has taken over. I'm fascinated by it because I don't have a solution to it right now based on the people that they have in place and in charge because Burke's done all the hiring.
00:16:42
Speaker 6: I think the real issue here is that Amy Adam Strunk does whatever she can to avoid conflict. And I've had several people tell me that Amy Adam Strunk is not a bad person. And then Amy Adams-Strunk likes owning a football team.
00:16:53
Speaker 1: I agree with that, yeah.
00:16:54
Speaker 6: But she doesn't want the day-to-day hassles of owning a football team. And there is a certain level of responsibility and attention that come with owning an NFL team.
00:17:03
Speaker 5: There are 32 of these on the planet.
00:17:06
Speaker 6: And so I think the question has to be asked, and I think this has to be publicly. I think the message has to get sent. Easton Freeze this morning published his report about his Titans fan survey sentiment at AtoZSports.com. And it's clear Titan fans are fed up with Amy Adams-Shrunk, and they're fed up with Burke Nihill. And so the problem for Amy Adams-Shrunk is once somebody can get through to her that Burke Nihill is not helping her football operation or her business operation anymore, then Amy Adams Strunk has to do what every other controlling owner in the NFL would have to do, and she's going to have to make the change herself.
00:17:41
Speaker 5: She's going to have to embrace the conflict.
00:17:43
Speaker 6: And I understand some people don't like that, but the reality is if you want to own an NFL team and you want to own a successful NFL team, that's what you have to do. So if she's not willing to do that, then she should, like many people suggest, sell the team. And if she's not going to do that, then she's never going to have a good team. So that's where we stand.
00:18:01
Speaker 1: Who does she put in place, though? You know, like who's the business of that stadium? I mean, we're going to get to the guy that they're hiring that they say they haven't decided on yet when we all know they have. You're absolutely right on the report. I'm just asking, like, where's Steve Underwood? That's who she would turn to.
00:18:20
Speaker 5: Sure.
00:18:22
Speaker 1: I don't know anyone else, Jared. Like, it's Burke who has the power because he's the only one. You know, there's really no one else. Based on where they're going, there's a huge opening of a stadium, all these different things, and he's the guy that's been running it, and someone else would just come in and jump in and be running it. It's a big decision beyond just get him out of here, get him away from the football team. He should already be away from the football team. It should be Borgonzi and Salah, and Burke oversees every decision.
00:18:53
Speaker 6: Well, I would say that even if it is Borgonzi and Sala, that still has Burke's hand in on it because Mike Borgonzi was hired by Chad Brinker, who was hired by Burke Nihill. So, I mean, Burke is trying to detach himself from the football team, but that's just not reality.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: Well, he hasn't done that. You're right. You're right.
00:19:10
Speaker 6: No, and I think that the local media in Nashville, you follow it very closely, Hutton. I mean, they're pointing a finger at Burke Nihill, and they're not accepting the Burke Nihill doesn't do football discussion. And Burke Nile is skated by, quote unquote, not doing football unless it was convenient for him for a long time. And I don't think they're putting up with it anymore. I think when it comes to Amy Adams Strunk, the convenient name would be Steve Underwood, who is a president of the organization for years and years, dating back to Bud Adams, Amy Adams Strunk's father's tenure as owner. But at some point, doesn't there have to be for Amy Adams Strunk an ability to find somebody to run the team? Again, I understand she doesn't necessarily want to act as if she owns a football team, but that doesn't change the reality that she does own a football team.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: But Jared, the thing is, the difference between her and Burke is she actually has shown that she can have success as an owner. Since Burke's been here, they've gone downhill, and the bottom continues to bottom out. The bottom floor is actually, there's a few garages underneath this building that they've built. We've seen her build it to an AFC Championship run, and she did that through Steve Underwood. At least she knew what she didn't know. What she didn't know was, where should I turn? If she turned to someone she trusted, she's just trusting the wrong person right now. I like the fact that that she would do that. Because, I mean, look, I was in a Titans radio interview for the play-by-play job, and there was no one from Titans radio on the interview process. That's not how it should be, I wouldn't think. I was surprised by that. I did an interview with Burke. It was fine. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't about the position. That's the problem. It Amy at least did that when she found John Robinson. I do find that to be a positive in her favor that she should get back to.
00:21:11
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that, again, Amy either has to accept the fact that she does own an NFL team or she needs to sell the NFL team. I think at this point, the idea of Amy not having some sort of responsibility in running the team and running it the right way is a disservice to her fan base, which is paying for a $ 2 billion stadium that she's moving into. And I understand the stadium is already built, and I understand that the bonds are going to get paid, and I get all that. But at the end of the day, Amy has said, Burke Nihill has said, that this is the fans' team. And if this really is the fans' team, then Amy Adam Strunk does owe it to the fans to try to get it right. I can't tell you that Amy Adam Strunk is going to get it right or that she owes it to the fans to get it right because getting it right is not a choice. It is an outcome. We hope that it gets right. But by doing nothing and by saying nothing... She is in dereliction of her duties as a controlling owner of an NFL team that once again is getting a $ 2 billion stadium. And so for Amy Adams Strunk, whether that is approaching the league and asking for help in finding a team president, whether that is promoting somebody that she trusts within who maybe doesn't have traditionally... a team president's resume, whatever it may be, she's got to try something new. The idea of going back to the ranch in Texas and letting Burke Nihill fire the next person and the next set of executives and then hiring the next executive who is facing pending legal claims. That's got to go. It cannot continue to be the same. And if it is, I think she's already doing irreparable harm to her fan base. the already small size of it. But if Amy Adam Strunk does nothing and continues to trust in Bert Nihill, she really is going to lose a large portion of her fan base.
00:23:09
Speaker 5: And that's not going to put her where she wants to be.
00:23:12
Speaker 1: That memo that was out from last week said they wanted to double their fan base. That would mean just get your other fans back from the Mid-South is what I would, what's what I referred to. The focus on the fan base has long been outside of this. Like, The NFL owners, by the way, to me it's not about her speaking. It's about the organization speaking. There's not many NFL owners who speak, but the organization speaks on behalf of the owner. And that's not happening here. He took his own name off the website. That's beyond, I don't understand it. I don't understand the move with the executive that I'm going to ask you about in a second, with the legal background that comes into this. Everything is just so nonsensical. And if it's about selling the team, I propose sell a portion of the team, be the controlling owner, but bring someone in like a Brady-esque move in Vegas where you have a direct point person that is in charge of all football decisions. And we know it because they're owners. They just don't have a position. They own the right to have the position. I think that's the structure. She can stay in Texas because you have someone planted roots in the building, in Nashville, wherever, and we know exactly the direction and the focus. The focus right now is not on football. It's about putting Taylor Swift in that dome. That's where they've lost focus. It's more about a Google-oriented plan than it is about the structure of an organization that is focused on a Super Bowl. They've lost The last time that they had a move with Callahan, Brinker didn't mention the word championship. Every time Amy has had a statement, she's mentioned the word championship. They're not going to win a championship with Burt Nihill doing this because they don't talk about it.
00:25:12
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that what you're talking about, though, regardless is some sort of action that she's not doing now. We're talking about, okay, sell part of the team to Nick Saban, let Nick Saban run the team.
00:25:24
Speaker 5: I'm for that. But that requires an action on her part.
00:25:28
Speaker 1: Sure, yes.
00:25:29
Speaker 5: I mean, even if.
00:25:31
Speaker 6: It were to be installing her cousin, or I guess her nephew, Kenneth Adams, into the position of team president.
00:25:39
Speaker 1: I would be for that.
00:25:39
Speaker 5: I would be too.
00:25:41
Speaker 6: If it's as simple as putting Kenneth Adams, your own blood, somebody that owns a part of the team, that has skin in the game just like you do, who's local here in Nashville, who has experience with the ball club, if that is the path, that's an action. I'm not telling you that she needs to make the correct action because nobody truly knows what the.
00:26:03
Speaker 5: Correct action is.
00:26:04
Speaker 6: I had a talk with an athletic director about this when it came to hiring a football coach. And I said, you're never going to be able to know every football coach in the country.
00:26:15
Speaker 5: It is impossible to.
00:26:17
Speaker 6: Know each offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator.
00:26:20
Speaker 5: And head coach.
00:26:21
Speaker 6: And it's impossible to know how the guy at Western Lafayette State would do it. He was the head coach at Ohio State. It's just impossible to know if you don't know those people. So you build a network of people over time, and you usually do pick from your network, or your network sets it up for you so that you can find somebody else. At some point, Amy's got to use a network that she has, and she has several networks. She owns an NFL team, so there are tons of people that she knows that can connect her with. But again, this requires action. She has to do something. something she doesn't have to fire everybody she doesn't she just has to do something and i guess my biggest fear as a titan fan by the way is that she is going to do nothing i feel like the backlash is so strong right now with you know really led by the oh and five play coupled with another reorganization and the media that I think has been, and I'll just speak for myself, but I feel like a lot of other people are acting similar. I feel like a lot of us in the media feel like they've been lied to by Burke Nihill over the years.
00:27:36
Speaker 5: And now it's all coming out.
00:27:38
Speaker 1: Well, here's the point of it. You're, you're going deeper with it because you pulled your credential. Burke pulled it. I mean, again, I think it's pretty clear. Like he oversees all of these decisions. He certainly knew that was coming. Um, To me, it's about the fact that I know where this is headed. It's going to happen again next year. They'll fire Sala in the middle of next year based on the way the path of this is going because they fired Callahan in week six of his second year. Borgonzi's in year two. They fired Carthon after year two. Again, Callahan was in year two. There are consequences after year two by Amy Strunk, except for the Callahan deal, which was, I mean, that was Amy, but That was also just a deal that football didn't want to make. You could tell that Borgonzi sat up there that day. He was mute because he didn't have the voice to say it. They had sent Brinker down there, and they was Burke. I just point to they continue to fire people at a very high rate and very quick rate. They just do it from the business side, the non-football side. They've been cleaning out the garage. And they've been doing it through the non-football side. The focus has been there. And that's what's out of whack. And she has always done something. She's been criticized for being impatient. In this case, the person that has been there the longest has been insulated based on the model that he put in place, including the one where Brinker couldn't even describe what his job was. Now no one's there. And now's the time to make a move. I think you clean house. I know you... You get a lot of heat for always saying, like, a hot seat, they're cleaned out. They have to clean house. Don't just put someone in the present spot. Wipe them out. Because otherwise, Robert Sulla's 20-41, Jared. You know this. Start the season next year 0-4. He's got to go. and then you're going through this all over again. Borgonzi hasn't shown. It's practically every choice on a player is practically him right now.
00:29:49
Speaker 6: Yeah, what I would do is at the end of the year, I'd fire everybody. I'd fire Burke right now. And then I would fire everybody else at the end of the year. And then I would hire a team president. And I would let the team president hire the general manager. The general manager would hire the coach. And there would be kind of a traditional model in place. Kind of similar to when she did clean house. Steve Underwood became the president. Ken Wisenhunt, gone. Rustin Webster, gone. John Robinson, in. Mike Malarkey, in. Later Mike Vrabel, in. And I think I would try to go back to that formula again. But for some reason, to your point, it just feels like a repetitive cycle where Amy gives one person a year of grace and then fires the next person, and that does need to stop.
00:30:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what? Right now, you can tell, right? You've got Sala. Sala looks like he is just so drained from the energy he had in the office. Well, he's a terrible coach. He knows the death march is on, and he's Mike McCoy.
00:30:57
Speaker 5: Maybe. I think Salah is a pretty terrible coach. But I'm saying.
00:31:02
Speaker 1: Even if he's retained, he's fired next year. We knew Callahan was going to get fired the year after, but that's where we're headed. I think that's where I'm really just over it, is the repetitive nature of what's going to carry the next year. You lose that season, then it carries on, and you restart. I'm tired of the cycle. The fans are tired of being told that they're in it to win championships. Because it's been everything but that. And it continues to get worse. I didn't think it would be this bad. And now you have the news that it gets worse. With another decision. It's just pathetic. Because tomorrow who knows what happens.
00:31:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think when it comes to Amy Adams shrunk in the Titans, and I hate saying this because I am a Titan fan, but when they lose on Sundays and they get embarrassed like they did last week against the Texans, it doesn't hurt me. Because I'm of the belief that if this thing goes 0-17, and they really might, if this thing goes 0-17, then everybody's gone. You know, at that point, there is no justification for bringing Robert Sala back, even though it was just one season. Or there's no justification for holding out hope that Cam Ward can become worthy of the number one pick. Or that Mike Borgonzi, there's no argument that he's doing a good job when he inherited the 3-14 team. and then went 3-14 and then goes 0-17. So I truly believe that as a Titan fan, I worry. I just don't think that Salah's a good enough coach for this to happen, but I kind of worry about them finding a way to win five or six games and that being a justification for keeping somebody or everybody. And again, I don't think that's going to happen with Cam Ward at quarterback and Salah as the coach, but that would be my big fear. I think that what you're looking for, you're going to get. this offseason because I think it's going to be so bad you cannot retain a coach moving into a new stadium if you go 0-17 or 1-60 you cannot do it and she.
00:32:58
Speaker 1: Won't and the record is solid record I'm with you it's not good it's not the standard but he already knows at 20 and 41 he can add an 0-17 record to that Like, he's trying to revamp and prove that he wasn't the coach in New York, that he had the second opportunity. And by week six, he's talking about the next 12 weeks as a tryout period. I mean, that is– only the Titans could pull that off with their new head coach.
00:33:28
Speaker 5: I've never seen a head coach– Bring up joint practices. Yes, exactly.
00:33:40
Speaker 6: Bring up joint practices from August as a good thing. And then basically call the remaining 12 games of the season.
00:33:49
Speaker 5: The preseason.
00:33:50
Speaker 6: Because that's what, when you say, we want to see who's going to be on this team, that's the preseason. That's what you do in the preseason. And Robert Sala is treating the rest of the season like that? I mean, that just shows you how incompetent this franchise is. And that's why, again, I think Robert Sala is a terrible head coach. I think he's a terrible messenger. I think he is terrible when it comes to running a coaching staff. And I am convinced this team's ceilings, is two wins this year, and that will be good enough to get everybody fired.
00:34:23
Speaker 1: Okay, but I agree. But I think he's convinced with Trubisky he can get five wins, and he can't make the move. I think that's what I see on his face. It's like, yeah, he's going to do this this year. He's talking about the next 12 weeks because he knows what he's in store for with Cam Ward at quarterback. That's the way I see it. He can keep his job with Trubisky because he can get to your five wins. I don't think he could do that with Cam.
00:34:50
Speaker 6: I don't think Salah's that smart. I don't think Salah's smart enough to sit there and say, you know, if I put Trubisky in there, everybody that we promised that we were going to give Cam the season to is going to be mad, but we might win five or six games and keep our job.
00:35:06
Speaker 1: I don't think he's being told he can't make the call.
00:35:10
Speaker 5: Then why would he take the job to be coached? Then you're not the coach anymore.
00:35:13
Speaker 1: Because it's the offer he had. Right? Like, why would Brian Dable take the– because, I mean, he liked Cam Ward. But, I mean, they're both trying to prove that they're head coach material. If I want to make a quarterback change, it has to be right now because you're 0-5. You're in the middle of the 0-4 game. You've got to make a change because at 0-8, 0-9, it doesn't matter if you change the quarterback.
00:35:36
Speaker 6: Well, and the other part about this, too, is that if you're Robert Sala, if you don't have the authority to change a quarterback, then you need to quit over that. You need to say, hey, I'm changing the quarterback, and if they don't let you change the quarterback, then you need them to fire you.
00:35:51
Speaker 5: Because they're not letting you coach.
00:35:54
Speaker 1: You have Dable who's coming in, and everyone's on board with him changing the accuracy and all the stuff on the quarterback. And he's the head coach of the offense. You're pairing these things together. Oh, and by the way, we're going to make sure this is Cam's rookie year. We're redoing the rookie year. Like, that's been the theme of the– and no one really pushed back on that because everyone was on board with them. Based on the shit show that we saw from the previous staff, it turns out it's the same– it feels like the same staff all over again.
00:36:21
Speaker 5: It does. This is, though, where, again, I talk about action and leadership.
00:36:25
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:36:26
Speaker 5: If you're Robert Sala and you go 2-15, you're fired.
00:36:30
Speaker 6: I mean, maybe somehow, someway you don't get fired, but you're fired. Going into a new stadium– If you get fired after what happened with the Jets, you go 2-15 with the Titans, you're never getting a head coaching job again. So the only thing that Robert Sala can do, in my opinion, for self-preservation, is to switch the quarterback. And even if they won't let him switch the quarterback, then... I would say if I was in Salah's position, you have to fire me. Because you hired me to be the coach, and as the coach, I want to play the other quarterback. And if they say, well, we don't want you to do that, well, then you have to fire me, and then you have to explain that you fired me because.
00:37:13
Speaker 5: You wouldn't let me change a quarterback.
00:37:15
Speaker 6: Because that's the only hope Salah has for his reputation of ever getting a job ever again.
00:37:20
Speaker 1: Okay. I agree, which is why the change should have already been made. One final thing, and I want to get to the news today about the exec, because I'm more fascinated by this. Mike Borgonzi has the control of Salah's staff. How far away are we from Mike Borgonzi firing Brian Dable?
00:37:38
Speaker 6: You know, I think that Brian Dable was a Mike Borgonzi hire. I don't think Brian Dable's the problem.
00:37:45
Speaker 5: I don't even think Brian Dable is on the list of problems.
00:37:49
Speaker 1: I know. Maybe they just ride it out and fire everybody at the end.
00:37:52
Speaker 6: I don't think Brian Dable is a good fit for Cam Ward because Brian Dable's offense is made for Phil Simms.
00:37:59
Speaker 5: And Cam Ward is not Phil Simms.
00:38:01
Speaker 6: This is the Earhart Perkins offense that Charlie Weiss ran, that Bill Parcells ran, that Bill Belichick's coordinators ran. This is that offense. And that's why it fits a quarterback well. who is accurate, especially short. That's why a guy like Tua can fit into that offense and play. That's why a guy like Mac Jones can fit into that offense and play. This is not the offense for Cam Ward. Not that I think there is an offense for Cam Ward, because I don't think Cam Ward's good enough or has the talent to be good enough. But again, Brian Dable, that's... That's like when Mike Munchak fired Chris Palmer.
00:38:42
Speaker 5: Big deal.
00:38:42
Speaker 6: It didn't turn Jake Locker into a good quarterback. And firing Brian Dable is not going.
00:38:47
Speaker 5: To save Cam Moore.
00:38:48
Speaker 1: It was action, Jared. They had action. They made a move. They tried something. This group hasn't tried anything. Nothing. They've been benching another player. I mean, I guess they made a move at linebacker. But they haven't tried anything. It's the most bizarre thing with the organization. Hey, Tell me about this lawsuit that's going on with this new executive that Berkney Hill's hiring that the Titans don't even want to admit they're hiring.
00:39:17
Speaker 6: So Jeremy Walls was, when I woke up this morning and I knew that Jeremy Walls was going to be the next chief business officer of the Tennessee Titans, I was under the impression that he was still technically the COO of the Arizona Cardinals. It sounds like he stepped down in August when they announced that he would step down at the end of the year, that he actually stepped down in August. Jeremy Walls is currently a defendant, along with Michael Bidwell, who's the owner of the Arizona Cardinals and technically the president and CEO of the Cardinals, from two former staffers, one of whom was an assistant to Walls. The other was an assistant coach for the Arizona Cardinals that are both alleging racism and unfair practices. I have no idea if these allegations are true or not. The federal court kicked this to the NFL for arbitration. We've seen that before. The NFL tried to kick the John Gruden lawsuit to arbitration. I believe the NFL tried to kick the Brian Flores lawsuit to arbitration. The NFL's game plan with an employee is to get that thing sent to arbitration. And this did work. So I don't know what the end results are going to be. If the Titans love Jeremy Walls so much... then they should have waited for him to be fully exonerated and then hired him. You cannot, in my opinion, hire a executive who is currently facing litigation for racism.
00:40:44
Speaker 4: Right.
00:40:44
Speaker 1: I mean, this is, you know, allegations, right, right.
00:40:47
Speaker 6: I mean, what are you going to have him be the guy that paints in racism in the end zone?
00:40:52
Speaker 1: Well, and not knowing the result of all this, right? Like, uh, Only the Titans would do this, Jared, at this point.
00:41:03
Speaker 6: I've told people when it comes to the Titans, they're far too many times over the last year. I mean, let's not even isolate it to five years. Let's just put it right to one year. Over the last year, where I thought they would never do that, they can't be that stupid.
00:41:17
Speaker 5: And then they go out and do it.
00:41:18
Speaker 6: So nothing at this point surprises me with the Tennessee Titans. It's not that they can't be that stupid to do it, because every time I think they can't be that stupid, they prove me wrong.
00:41:29
Speaker 5: And this is another example of that.
00:41:31
Speaker 1: They just hired a guy with these types of allegations. Does that sound like ace business? on behalf of the front office in Tennessee? Does it show transformational judgment, that they're a transformational industry? Absolutely not. They're saying that this hire hasn't been made because they haven't had the open search yet. They haven't had all the people come through and make it like it's a fair search.
00:42:02
Speaker 6: I love how some people on social media.
00:42:03
Speaker 1: They haven't hired the guy.
00:42:04
Speaker 6: So the Titans' response was, we haven't made a decision with our chief business officer.
00:42:09
Speaker 1: Tell your example.
00:42:10
Speaker 6: But, I mean, to me, first of all, the Titans have already done that to me. I had the report. You were involved as a candidate of the play-by-play job with the Titans. And when I called you, you were like, hey, I didn't get the job. But that's all I can tell you.
00:42:26
Speaker 1: And you had called me right after I'd heard from Burke, honestly. And I didn't know... You know, I didn't know how to react to it because I didn't know if the other guy or the other candidate other than, you know, Taylor had been told. Right? So I didn't know how to answer the question.
00:42:43
Speaker 5: I called the Titans.
00:42:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:42:45
Speaker 6: And this was when I was still a credentialed media member and when, again, I gave them, you know, journalistic. Yeah, you know, like journalistic integrity, which they said I didn't have. But this is, you know, that was one of my... Journalistic principles. I called the Titans. I said, hey, I have a report that Taylor Zarger is going to be the next play-by-play guy. And the team was like, well, I mean, he's a candidate, but we haven't decided. And that basically is what Kate Garrow's statement to Paul Kaharski today sounded a lot like. And by the way, it was Kate Garrow that I called when it came to that play-by-play story.
00:43:21
Speaker 5: My thing is this, though.
00:43:24
Speaker 6: People are saying, oh, I bet the Titans used this fake news to be able to find out who the mole feeding information to Jared Stillman is. And my response to that would be, okay, first of all, I have multiple sources. Secondly, other people in the media also had this story. A to Z Sports had this story. Kaharski tweeted out that he was close on it and just couldn't get the confirmation for it. I mean, if the Titans don't hire this guy, it will be because of the backlash from people that are saying, why is our football team hiring a guy who is currently facing litigation? That will be the only reason why. And then I will laugh and say that, wow, I just got somebody bounce as an executive from an NFL.
00:44:13
Speaker 5: I didn't know I could do that.
00:44:14
Speaker 6: But this idea that they haven't hired the guy, if the team wasn't going to hire the guy, the team would say that that was categorically false.
00:44:20
Speaker 5: They did not say that today.
00:44:21
Speaker 1: They hired Ramon Foster, and that was done. And they tried to wait until the draft. This is what they do. They wait and try to plan unveilings and stuff. But it always gets out. It never works out that way. Hey, final thing. I'm sure you've thought about this. What is the number one question you will be turning to find? In a response in that survey from fans, what must you see immediately?
00:44:51
Speaker 6: I want to see how much Burke Nihill's Q rating has changed in the last year. They asked what your thoughts of Burke Nihill this year was compared to your thoughts of Burke Nihill last year.
00:45:01
Speaker 5: I think we.
00:45:02
Speaker 1: Know the answer.
00:45:03
Speaker 5: What's that?
00:45:04
Speaker 1: I think we know the answer. Burke was booed whenever they inducted Mike to the Ring of Honor.
00:45:10
Speaker 6: Yes, but I almost feel like those boos were more directed at Amy, who was standing on the field.
00:45:15
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, Burke Nihill. Boo.
00:45:18
Speaker 6: I don't think most people knew who Burke Nihill was a year ago. I think now Burke has kind of come to the forefront because of his own doing. But I don't think Amy Adam Strunk's Q rating has changed much in the last year. It has completely plummeted over the last six years since Burke took over as CEO.
00:45:35
Speaker 1: I would argue, though, Jared, they did know who Burke Nihill was. You're playing clips of him talking about... Callahan being the savior, or talk about Rand or whoever it was. It was Callahan.
00:45:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, but I don't think until recently, I don't think Titan fans felt one way or another about Burke Nihill.
00:45:53
Speaker 5: And I think that the thing that I've noticed is just.
00:45:55
Speaker 6: How strong the media's push against Burke Nihill has been. I mean, again, I have felt lied to on several occasions by Burke Nihill. I have watched him fire people that I know are good at their jobs, people that I know are part.
00:46:08
Speaker 5: Of a winning culture.
00:46:08
Speaker 6: It's easy to say, you know, they fired John Robinson or they fired Mike Vrabel.
00:46:13
Speaker 5: I'm not talking about them.
00:46:15
Speaker 6: I'm talking about Robbie Bourne, the PR director who had been there for 28 years, and they fired for no reason. The equipment manager who had been with them from Houston, who, again, they fired for no reason. You know, again, there were so many people. Anthony Pastrana was a video guy who had been with them for years.
00:46:33
Speaker 1: And here's how they did it, Jared. They fire Rand Carthon, and then they fire others underneath that on the same day. And so it goes unnoticed that way. Like, Brent Akers was let go that day.
00:46:46
Speaker 6: And what that tells me when you fire good people that have been there for a long time is it tells me that it's all about you. And I always had that feeling when it came to Burke Nihill that it's always about him. And for me, I had given up on Burke when he fired Robbie Bourne, the PR director. And not that Robbie was feeding anybody information. He was just a true professional.
00:47:09
Speaker 1: He was fantastic for what you want. You're absolutely right.
00:47:14
Speaker 6: You don't win by getting rid of people like that. And so when I saw that, I knew that Burke was a fraud. And I think the media, each individual person has kind of had their moment where somebody inside the building has told them something like that or they've seen it firsthand for themselves. And so I think the veracity with which the media has pointed a finger at Burke Nihill, I think that's going to make this hard for him to overcome.
00:47:37
Speaker 1: Are they going to ban all of us?
00:47:41
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, only the YouTubers, I guess.
00:47:44
Speaker 1: Maybe. Maybe. I think their solution is they've been trying to pay media members to be a part of their... do certain things for the Titans website and stuff. They're doing that with the players. It's just not... The whole model, as you know, it's pathetic. It really is. I'll be waiting for Stillman & Company. presented by Hiller Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling to Electrical. I'll be waiting for the next stilly bomb to drop with more news.
00:48:16
Speaker 5: You know, I'm not Adam Schefter.
00:48:17
Speaker 6: I'm not looking for more news, but if it comes my way, I will certainly break it as I have done, even without a credential over the last six weeks.
00:48:26
Speaker 1: You're the new Jim Wyatt in town. I say that with all credit to Jim, but like, Well done, man. Keep the streak going. Thank you for the time, bro, and I'll be watching later today.
00:48:39
Speaker 5: Sounds good. Thank you, Hutton.
00:48:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, go subscribe. Still in the company. If you haven't already, you likely have, but go subscribe right now here on YouTube or wherever you are on social media. Hey, stay tuned. More coming here on Hutton and Withrow. That is Hutton and Withrow presented by Hard Rock Bet. Glad you're with us. Good morning to you. Withrow's going to join us a bit later in today's show. We have plenty to discuss coming up as well on the latest college football news. We've got some sports angles and wagering angles coming your way in just a moment from the man. He's going to give you perfect 10 advice. Speaking of perfect 10, the name says it all. Apply in 10 minutes, close in 10 days. The whole idea here is a mortgage that's simple, fast, fair. 10 minutes, start to finish right from your phone. No stack of paperwork. No sitting across a desk from a banker who's talking down to you. Perfect10mortgage. com. Perfect10mortgage. com. 855-789-1010. We've got great phone numbers for these For all of our ads here, 855-789-1010. 789-1010, that's perfect10mortgage. com. The great Todd Furman joins us here on Sporting State and Hutton and Withrow from Bet the Board. Todd, good to see you, man. Hope things are well.
00:49:53
Speaker 3: Always fun catching up.
00:49:54
Speaker 7: I'm hoping that I get my voucher for free McDonald's breakfast if you're going to get me out of bed this early on the West Coast. But when I get the opportunity to see your smiling face, Hutton, how could I possibly say no? And I think we're blessed to be able to break down games without Withrow intervening with useless opinions.
00:50:10
Speaker 1: Dude, so I thought you were still going to bed. I didn't think this was a wake-up call for you.
00:50:15
Speaker 3: My bad. My bad. If we hit the rewind button 20 years ago, it would have been the case.
00:50:19
Speaker 7: When Clay was doing his radio show on Fox, he could catch me on the tail end of a bender. Now, if I'm up past 10 o'clock, I start to get a little nervous. I need at least my six hours of sleep. The brain doesn't quite function at 4 a.m. with that same level of clarity it did when we first started hanging out in my mid-20s.
00:50:35
Speaker 1: Todd, on a scale of 1-10 on a typical college football weekend, how nervous do you get when it comes to a bet you've made? Is it every week? Is it some weeks? How do you sit and watch these games?
00:50:47
Speaker 3: You know, honestly, I used to get real nervous back in the day.
00:50:50
Speaker 7: When I was first getting started as a better, you know, I would kind of be an emotional train wreck. It was riding a roller coaster. If the day started out well, I'd have the emotional highs. If the day started to tail off, I'd be down in the dumps. But now, I kind of come in with a level of detachment that I think a lot of our viewers will look at and laugh and go, no, that's not really possible.
00:51:08
Speaker 3: But it really is.
00:51:09
Speaker 7: I mean, to be in the trenches every single day, handicapping the three main sports that I do in.
00:51:14
Speaker 3: The NHL, the NFL, and college football.
00:51:16
Speaker 7: Like if I get too high off of wins or too low off of losses, things can compound and you start to have problematic scenarios develop. So for me, I try and maintain a level, even keel. And I think the one that really appreciates it hot is my wife more than anything else. I give myself about three to five minutes to get it off my chest and to kind of vent a little bit, use the Seinfeld serenity now, and then it's boom, it's onto the next bet.
00:51:39
Speaker 3: And yeah, you treat it like numbers on a spreadsheet for better or worse.
00:51:42
Speaker 1: I'd give her my best if you don't mind. Give us your best pick. Todd Furman's lock. I'm going to give you our parlay in just a moment that Withrow and I and JT did yesterday. But I want to get your take on one play I should make immediately.
00:52:00
Speaker 7: So a game that I like quite a bit, you know, let's do a little bit of big game hunting. What fun would it be if we tried to go deep into the Mountain West or the Pac-12 to try and find a game? But I look at Ohio State, Indiana, and I think this total is a touch aggressive given what we've seen from Josh Hoover and Indiana offense that still, in my opinion, is struggling to find its footing. Hoover isn't Fernando Mendoza. And look, I was wrong in my assessment of him last year at TCU. I thought if he was in a better spot, he would start to be able to scratch the surface and make a legitimate case to be a first-round draft pick. Given what we've seen, at least through a handful of games in Bloomington, hasn't been the case. So much of Ohio State's offense is predicated on the ground game. And if you take away that big explosive play they had against Indiana in fourth and one, you know, how are we feeling about this Indiana team if they're coming in on a one game losing streak instead of being able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? And on the other side for Ohio State, you know, this is an offense that doesn't have that same level of proven depth of wide receiver that we've seen in the past. There is not a de facto number two in Brandon Innes or Chris Henry Jr.
00:52:59
Speaker 3: Just yet to rival Jeremiah Smith.
00:53:01
Speaker 7: So if there's one coach that I have confidence in in the Big Ten that can at least force you to play somewhat left-handed in, slowing down Jeremiah Smith, it may take 11 defenders.
00:53:11
Speaker 3: It's Kirk Cignetti.
00:53:12
Speaker 7: So if Ohio State has to do things differently, they don't have the explosives in the passing game, I get the feeling it's the first team to 24 that gets a win. So I'll go under the total right now at Hard Rock Bet sitting at 51.
00:53:21
Speaker 1: Okay, so how much do you follow true trends? If a team's three straight wins hitting the under, coming in against a team that's 2-1 or 1-2, are you following that, or am I a dumbass for actually following it?
00:53:35
Speaker 7: Not so much in terms of totals, but I do think there is a little bit of validity when you're looking at teams that have started the year, say, 5-0 or 6-0 against the number. Or on the flip side of things, teams that have really struggled. I'm not saying it's something that you blindly bet into or you blindly fade. But what you can take away from those kind of scenarios is that.
00:53:52
Speaker 3: Team A may be overvalued. Team B may be undervalued.
00:53:56
Speaker 7: And eventually, if we believe that the betting market is truly efficient, it's going to catch up. So, for example, a team like Oregon State, who's done nothing but cover numbers and done so by the gaudiest of margins all season long. Somewhere along the way, you're going to be forced to pay a premium. This week against Washington State, that remains to be seen. But I can tell you one thing, Hutton, that looking at Oregon State after a 66-14 win last week against San Diego State, laying four and a half points more against Washington State, who I power rate better than the Aztecs. Again, one illustration, but you're probably paying a premium to back teams that do nothing but line people's pockets week in, week out throughout the fall.
00:54:32
Speaker 1: Okay. Again, like Chad and I have discussed, we always play our parlay. We'll combine some things. We try to get creative. And then our record sucks. So we're like, we should just take the minus 135 and try to bet the obvious. But we end up trying to play it up a little bit and play it down. I don't know. I'm trying to be better this year. I'm not playing too many parlays. They suck me in on these. And so we do.
00:55:00
Speaker 3: This each week.
00:55:01
Speaker 7: They're the temptress trying to beckon you into the rocky shores. You think, you know, if I can win one game, how much harder is it to win two? And if I can win two, how much harder is it to win three? And let's hope our partners at Hard Rock Bet aren't listening right now. But look, Parleys for me are not a part of my day-to-day. Well, I tinker every now and again if I think there's a level of correlation or if I want to play two or three money line underdogs and say a college football Saturday, no doubt. But they are such a small percentage of what I'm doing for the majority of my bets that are largely predicated around sides and totals. Of course, with a smattering of futures, whether they be win totals, odds to win, all that kind of stuff.
00:55:38
Speaker 1: Okay, so with all that being said, just initial thoughts on this parlay. Every Wednesday, we go for the bundle, is what we call it. And we combine three individual picks into one. We have the Hard Rock bet going for the bundle from yesterday. I took Utah minus 14.5 against Colorado. And I said, why? Because they're playing Colorado. Do you like that pick initially? No.
00:56:03
Speaker 7: So my number on the game is kind of right in line with market. I make Utah right around a two touchdown favorite. So I don't see a ton of opportunity and upside there. I will say with Utah, though, they were rather fortunate to get outside the number last week against Kansas, a 41-24 final. We'll see if they can replicate it. But the one thing I do believe you have going for you is that if Utah is able to get out to a fast start, I just don't think Colorado has the firepower to get back in the game. And while their final score last time we saw them, against Texas Tech was rather misleading. I would be much more comfortable making a case for Utah to run away and hide than for Colorado to keep this game competitive for four quarters.
00:56:38
Speaker 1: Chad brings Florida plus 10.5 against Texas.
00:56:42
Speaker 7: So interesting development here. We are still not sure who will be starting under center for the Florida Gators. Aaron Filo showing up with a questionable designation on Wednesday. We'll see if he is the man taking snaps there. But I think for Florida, look, this is a team that a lot of people were extremely high on after that dominating win against Ole Miss. They go on the road against Missouri. Jaden Baugh gets bottled up. And you think, okay, South Carolina is going to be the perfect cure-all. They're going to handle things in their own building at the swamp. And sure enough, South Carolina wins. They came out right as a double digit dog. I can understand where Withrow is coming from. I mean, laying double digits with this Texas offense right now is kind of a perilous proposition. But at the same time, if Texas sells out, stops the run, I'm just not sure Florida has enough in the passing game. So I'd actually lean the other way from Chad on this particular game. Number did open a shade shorter in that nine and a half range. and immediately got bet up. But I can see a scenario where Texas finally looks the part offensively after that disappointing loss against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry last week.
00:57:41
Speaker 1: I get the feeling JT texted you. I don't know if he's... He.
00:57:45
Speaker 3: Did not text me this week.
00:57:47
Speaker 7: He may or may not have texted me earlier in the season for some.
00:57:50
Speaker 1: Of these bets. Hey, that's good. I'm all for this. He goes UKOU, Kentucky, Oklahoma, over the number at 43.5.
00:57:59
Speaker 3: You know what?
00:58:00
Speaker 7: I actually can't argue with JT here. It's scary trying to back OU and expecting them to actually look like a living, breathing, functioning offense. But at the same time, I think that if you were to try and take a side-by-side snapshot of what Jon Mateer has done at quarterback this year versus Arch Manning, I think a lot of people would be surprised that Mateer's numbers aren't exactly that bad. Now, Kentucky on the other side, Wolstein has done a phenomenal job getting this team to five wins. Back-to-back one-point victories, electing to go for two on the road in Columbia against South Carolina. And, of course, last week pulling off the outright upset as an eight-and-a-half point dog against LSU. But I have no problem making a slight case to go over. I think Oklahoma is going to find it a little bit easier sledding this week. And I think this Kentucky offense is slightly better than advertised. So, while it's scary and it may never feel truly comfortable, I'd much rather be holding an overticket between OU and Kentucky than I would be looking to go under the total, hoping that these defenses can dominate.
00:58:56
Speaker 1: You wouldn't play this parlay, but you should. You should go for the bundle with us with Hard Rock Bet. Alabama, Tennessee. We're going to be there, headed down there tonight. We will then host tomorrow morning out of Gatlinburg, then Knoxville on Friday night for the Dixieland Delight Friday night show on Sport and State. Todd, I've gone back and forth all week on this because there's something about the game at Neyland and the number that keeps rising that I'm waiting. to see what happens when we get closer to kickoff. Where do you come down on– I mean, Bama's playing well. They're coming off the loss. Tennessee doesn't have stellar quarterback play, but they can certainly at times run the football very well and control the clock. If they don't turn the football over, I like their chances of being a four-quarter game.
00:59:45
Speaker 4: Do you?
00:59:46
Speaker 7: I mean, the numbers started to balloon at six and a half, seven. I would have had no interest in the underdog. But as we get into that no man's land north of a touchdown, it starts to get slightly more intriguing.
00:59:55
Speaker 3: I mean, you mentioned it for Tennessee.
00:59:57
Speaker 7: I mean, it's not to oversimplify the handicap when you're trying to get involved in Vols games on a weekly basis. But are they playing a team where they can run the football? If they are, they're going to have success. If they're forced to be one-dimensional, I don't think at this point anyone has confidence in Faison, Brandon, or McIntyre under center, especially given the underwhelming cast of receivers that the Vols have at their disposal. Meanwhile, for Alabama, I do wonder a little bit about a hangover from last week's game. Was Georgia the better team in the second half? There's no doubt about it. Kirby made the right adjustments, but I think Alabama had some legitimate gripes. How you don't call pass interference late in the game Um, when KJ Bolden basically runs through an Alabama receiver following play, it's a sack takes Alabama out of field goal range. And George is able to kind of salt that thing away for a field goal victory. But, uh, this is a Bama team that look, if Keelan Russell can get comfortable in the pocket can create some problems, but I do really believe the strength of this Tennessee team is on the defensive side. And I'm surprised to see Alabama take as much money. So I would lean towards the underdog, but I do think if you want to make a case for Tennessee here, you might want to try and look, look at the under as well. because I think there's a definite correlation that if Tennessee is going to keep this game close, it's because their defense was the best unit on the field come Saturday afternoon.
01:01:07
Speaker 1: I just made a note of this. I'm taking the under for the Vols as well. Thank you, Todd. Todd Furman with us from at the board at Sporting State. Hey, so Missouri, I haven't liked Missouri to start the season, and I've been stupid with this. Have you backed the Tigers the entire time, or have they won you over?
01:01:26
Speaker 7: So, look, I'm going to give Eli Drinkwitz a world of credit because I think we were all looking for that signature win that had been absent on Missouri's resume, not just this season, but arguably over the last couple of years. You know, they put together a four-quarter performance against Florida, win that game 45-17. And Austin Simmons looked the part of the kind of franchise quarterback that I think Missouri thought they were getting in that particular spot. Fast forward a week, and then Missouri's defense is what takes the cake. The offense was a little bit underwhelming against A & M. But defensively, they made life miserable for Marcel Reed early on. You know, I think going into the fourth quarter, A & M had a grand total of two first downs before they put up a few points in garbage time late in that contest.
01:02:05
Speaker 3: It made the scoreboard and, more importantly, the box score look a little bit better.
01:02:09
Speaker 7: Different task here, and I'm interested to see the storylines there. I wonder, Hutton, if we make too big a deal about this revenge angle in the portal era. I mean, does Austin Simmons want to go back and prove that, hey, look, I should have been the starting quarterback and I didn't want to hand the baton to Trinidad Chambliss? And on the flip side for Ole Miss, do they want to prove that, look, Trinidad's our guy, we're going to make life difficult, and we're going to remind everybody why Austin Simmons became a bench casualty and eventually had to transfer out?
01:02:35
Speaker 3: This number has been interesting, though.
01:02:37
Speaker 7: When you look at where it opened at Hard Rock Bet at 6.5, kind of ping-ponging right around that secondary key number.
01:02:43
Speaker 3: We've seen some books get as low as 5.5.
01:02:45
Speaker 7: I think this is an opportunity to kind of sell Missouri stock at the top of the market, but I do think Missouri's got the kind of defense that can travel. They've played one mobile quarterback as well in Kamario Taylor. fell apart in the fourth quarter there. I think that helps them get a little bit more prepared. Wish I had stronger convictions on this game, but I do think it's one of the more fascinating SEC games of the entire day to figure out whichever team comes out of this with a win, suddenly we're talking about them having a much stronger resume and being truly worthy of playoff considerations.
01:03:16
Speaker 1: And there's something about last week, too, Todd. They're coming off the bye week, Ole Miss, and they go and just slaughter Vandy. I mean, it's over, well over at halftime.
01:03:23
Speaker 7: You know, here's the interesting part about that game, though, Hutton. I mean, watching that thing, what was it, 21-3 or 14-3? And, you know, Vandy has the ball right about midfield. And then it just, like, out of nowhere, I got up. Filled my water bottle. Came back 15 minutes later. I go, wait, what the hell is going on here?
01:03:38
Speaker 3: It was 21-3. Vandy was driving.
01:03:40
Speaker 7: I figure it's going to be right around that 10-11 point margin going to the break. And then it's suddenly 42-3. And Ole Miss looks like they were the greatest thing since sliced bread for weather that never showed up.
01:03:50
Speaker 3: So there is no doubt.
01:03:52
Speaker 7: Ole Miss had two weeks to sit on that debacle against Florida and want to exercise some demons. This, like I said, I mean, I wish I had a stronger angle to try and get involved, but this is going to be one of the more intriguing watches. And I think a true litmus test is all these SEC teams go through this nine-game conference gauntlet, you know, to figure out who can bring their A game week in, week out, and maybe more importantly, who can win with their B game when they're playing teams in that top half of the conference.
01:04:19
Speaker 1: Todd, who rebounds? Is it Mississippi State or LSU? Because they're not playing under the lights. This is earlier in the day.
01:04:25
Speaker 7: My feeling is you're going to get LSU that's going to be able to take advantage of a Mississippi State team that won't have much in the way of answers defensively. I think LSU will be able to run the football and be all right in that particular regard. My biggest concern here is in getting information out of Starkville, not exactly the easiest place to try and find out about what's truly going on. is the extent of Kamario Taylor's injuries. I mean, we heard mixed things last time out, again, when they were blown out at home by Alabama, that he was dealing with the flu, that it might be turf toe, that it could be, you know, broken foot or something along those lines. So for me, it's tough to try and assess. The one thing I will say is the betting market has had, if that's any indication, you know, moving from no man's land out to two touchdowns, even past that 14 to 14 and a half.
01:05:12
Speaker 3: I think it's a lay it or don't play it type game.
01:05:14
Speaker 7: Jeff Levy and Mississippi State have been a great story, but I think it's about to strike midnight for the de facto SEC Cinderella.
01:05:20
Speaker 1: Hey, you mentioned quarterback there, but Nico out for UCLA. What did that do to the overall odds for them and the reflection that they had in Vegas?
01:05:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, it changed the number a little bit.
01:05:32
Speaker 7: I mean, look, Nico isn't the elite prospect that Tennessee thought he was going to be when they paid him all that money to bring him in as kind of the face of the organization. But it still is a two and a half, three point downgrade for me to Dieffenbach. I think though UCLA's final score last week, the 17-15 win against Oregon, they were flattered. on the scoreboard. I mean, when you take the ball away seven times from your opponent and you can still only score 17 points, not a ringing endorsement. And we mentioned teams that are well rested versus teams that have been kind of going through it. You know, Wisconsin comes into this game brimming with confidence. They had a week to prepare. They have a salty defense, and I think Colton Joseph will be the better of the two quarterbacks. I think Wisconsin's extremely live and really believe they win this game outright. UCLA's been one of the best stories. Coach Chesney has been a phenomenal hire, at least from an early return standpoint.
01:06:19
Speaker 3: I think that'll continue.
01:06:20
Speaker 7: But I think Wisconsin goes out to Westwood and comes away with the outright win.
01:06:24
Speaker 3: I like the Badgers plus the points here.
01:06:26
Speaker 1: So let's hit Notre Dame-BYU. I mean, there's so many great games this week. This has been circled for months, this date. And it's living up to the hype, man. We've got so many games, we can't keep up with it.
01:06:38
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, look, college game day going out to Provo for the first time in almost 20 years. This is a BYU team that, you know, Kalani Satake probably does more with less than any coach in the country. It was a guy that I thought was going to be on the hot seat a couple seasons ago, and he has proven me wrong and then some. Meanwhile, for Notre Dame, you know, a lot of people will point at their strength of schedule, relatively speaking, but you dig underneath the hood and suddenly the win against Wisconsin week one looks a lot better. The fact that they were able to obliterate a Purdue team that now has an outright win as double digit dog against Illinois and a dominant performance against Minnesota looks a little bit better. So I think people are discounting Notre Dame a little bit more just because they don't have that signature marquee winner. They're not playing SEC opponents. They should be healthier on the defensive side. I mean, they were down as many as four starters last week at Stanford. Didn't slow them down. Outside of home field advantage, I'm not sure where BYU gets that de facto edge that'll leave you feeling confident backing them as a double-digit dog. You know, my power number on this game is north of two touchdowns. If I give BYU a full field goal for home field, It kind of takes me into no man's land, but I am much closer to making a bet on Notre Dame thinking that they can put a stamp on their season thus far and win this game going away than I would be backing Bear Bachmeier and an offensive BYU that I think lacks the kind of elite weapons that you need to attack a Notre Dame defense in space.
01:07:57
Speaker 1: Are you going Houston over Oklahoma State? Are you playing this game?
01:08:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't have a position on it yet.
01:08:03
Speaker 7: I do think this game could have plenty of offense, and I think Oklahoma State's only path to victory here is to try and crank up the tempo, try and tire out Houston defensively. But Connor Wegman, dare I say, making the case to be the best quarterback right now going at any FBS program currently in the state of Texas, and yes, that does include Arch Manning.
01:08:21
Speaker 3: I think this Houston team is the real deal.
01:08:23
Speaker 7: They're more balanced in terms of what they can do offensively, and more importantly, I think against Oklahoma State, they can come up with a stop or two offensively. So I like the Cougars here to win and do so by margin.
01:08:32
Speaker 1: Are you playing the Michigan-Penn State just to have a reason to watch the game?
01:08:37
Speaker 7: You know, look, if this number gets out to 7.5, I'll begrudgingly want to make a case for Penn State. Defensively, the Nittany Lions haven't exactly been a brick wall. Michigan, you know, weak to lick their wounds. What version of Bryce Underwood are we going to get? Hutton, if you have a read on either of these teams, you are a smarter, more sophisticated model builder than me. Because just when I think Michigan is going to be fine, they were unlucky, in the game against Iowa Bryce Underwood completely regresses and they look like they can't do anything offensively against Minnesota so if I had to get involved at seven and a half with lean Penn State but again not a contest that I'm running to bet and talk about a game between two historic blue bloods that loses an awful lot of luster given their respective starts of the season.
01:09:18
Speaker 1: It's still in the CBS time slot, right? So you've got Timmy B out west doing Nebraska-Oregon, and both teams coming off losses, and you've got Nebraska, though, looking okay. They've got to be a different mindset than what Oregon's going through this week.
01:09:37
Speaker 7: You would think that Nebraska still knows that they have everything in front of them to play for, and if they're able to pull off the upset in Eugene, that suddenly the loss against Indiana doesn't look as bad because if the Huskers were able to rattle off wins. and finish the regular season, dare I say, 11-1, 10-2, which, of course, is a pipe dream. They're very much in the discussion of being, you know, playoff eligible of sorts. Meanwhile, for Oregon, look, I mean, Oregon's season is hanging on the brink. I mean, we've seen their odds to win the national title completely crater hard rock bet. I mean, this is a team that even if they beat Nebraska on Saturday, their season is going to be completely defined by can they go on the road to Columbus and win that game and finish out the season 10-2. We're not sure about DJ Moore if we're ever going to see him again under center, but what a disappointing performance from Dylan Rayola, I mean, who looked the part in the second half against USC. and then gets himself pulled with three of the most miserable quarters of quarterbacking play that we have seen in a Power 4 conference all year. Tough to gauge the mindset, but I do think that Nebraska probably a little bit more focused here. And look, this Oregon team, clearly a disappointment thus far. Strong, strong lean towards the Cornhuskers playing that game at 11 o'clock Eastern time plus a 7.5.
01:10:48
Speaker 1: Final one on college, Miami. Can I feel safe just laying the points knowing they're going to crush FSU?
01:10:55
Speaker 7: So one thing to watch for here, weather could play a role and it doesn't look like it's going to be wet, but we could have 40 to 50 mile an hour winds. So if that does come to fruition in Coral Gables for the game, or I guess I should say Miami Gardens, makes it a little tougher for Miami to kind of find some of those explosives in the passing game and run away and hide. But I'd be closer to making a case for Miami is right around a three touchdown favorite. They should be able to run the football and find creative ways to get Malachi Tony the ball in space. And when I look at Florida State, they're just not built to play from behind. I mean, it's largely a quarterback run game with Croma and Ashton Daniels. And if that tandem can't get going, I just don't see any secondary pass for Florida State. But if the weather subsides, it's Miami or pass. If the weather gets nasty, tough to lay three touchdowns if it's going to be 40 or 50 mile an hour sustained wind gusts from start to finish.
01:11:41
Speaker 1: Todd, until I see it to believe it, I should play the under every week for the Titans, right?
01:11:48
Speaker 7: I mean, this offense, I don't understand how anybody watches it on a weekly basis and feels comfortable that they're seeing the kind of development from Cam Ward at least through the first five games of the season that leads you to believe he's going to be the franchise quarterback going forward.
01:12:03
Speaker 3: Bigger total because.
01:12:04
Speaker 7: Of the Colts' defense, but I think the Tennessee Titans' defense, dare I say, will be the best of.
01:12:08
Speaker 3: The four units that we'll see.
01:12:09
Speaker 7: And hot and famous last words, I actually like the Titans plus the seven here. This is a big, big number that you're asking the Colts to cover. And while it's disgusting and scary on the surface, I think the Titans are live underdogs and might not be surprised if they're able to actually win a game for the first time all season.
01:12:28
Speaker 1: Again, I've got to see it. Last week was the time to show up, man.
01:12:34
Speaker 7: I mean, look, that's a tougher nut to crack for Houston. And while I know what their record says at 0-4, underlying numbers suggest that they were one of the.
01:12:42
Speaker 3: Most unlucky teams in the league.
01:12:44
Speaker 7: And you look at the opposing offenses that were able to shred the Texans at least the first couple weeks, it was the Bills.
01:12:50
Speaker 3: It was the Bengals.
01:12:52
Speaker 7: I mean, the Colts, to a lesser extent, didn't shred them, but Houston just couldn't close that out.
01:12:56
Speaker 3: And, of course, it was the Dallas Cowboys as well. So they finally had a chance to punch down in class. I think the Titans were encountering a buzzsaw.
01:13:03
Speaker 7: But at the same time, look, Tennessee took very real and very substantial professional money on game day. I mean, that thing came off of the seven and pretty much closed six and a half everywhere in the world, including Hard Rock Bet.
01:13:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. Thursday Night Football, we've got Seahawks taking on the Broncos. Broncos, home dog. Seahawks, strong.
01:13:21
Speaker 7: First half under for me. Went under the total at 20.5. I think both these offenses are struggling. I mean, Bo Nix will grab all the headlines, but the underlying numbers for Seattle over the last couple weeks, not exactly great. I know Sam Darnold shredded the Commanders in his first game back from injury. But something looks broken for this team offensively. I mean, the ground game has been a little bit banged up. I mean, down Jadarian Price. We'll see when Zach Charbonnier can get back in action. But if teams can scheme, at least to a certain extent, JSN out of the fold, it makes them a lot easier to defend. I know the Cowboys, or Cowboys, I know the Broncos are going to be down two of their best defensive players in Patrick Sertan and Talanoa Hufanga. who left the game last week against the Chargers. But I think on a short week, Denver's defense can do enough to generate pressure up front. And on the flip side of things, I think this Seahawks defense is going to be a very difficult ask for Bo Nix and a Broncos offense looking for an identity. So I'll go into the total in the first half at 20.5 and look for both these coaches to be relatively conservative.
01:14:17
Speaker 1: We have seen a trend, though, the last three weeks. The dog is surprised. I mean, at least we see that. This would not be a shock.
01:14:24
Speaker 7: No, I think if Denver's able to win this game out, I don't think anybody will really be stunned.
01:14:29
Speaker 3: It's a tough place to play. Unfamiliar surroundings.
01:14:32
Speaker 7: I mean, a road team on a Thursday night in a non-divisional game, in my opinion, is at such a disadvantage because they're not used to scouting a particular opponent.
01:14:39
Speaker 3: So it wouldn't shock me at all.
01:14:41
Speaker 7: And while it's a very small sample size so far, so no one should overreact, You know, primetime underdogs have performed exceptionally well in the early going of the season, at least through the first five weeks.
01:14:50
Speaker 1: Hey, all the way up, what's a percentage win over the weekend that you're going for? Like 52%? What are you trying to average to get to where you want to be at the end of the season?
01:15:04
Speaker 7: So the full break even, I mean, for people that hate math, and I'm glad that Withrow isn't here because he'd be sitting here with his calculator and we get the Rodney Dangerfield gif.
01:15:12
Speaker 3: We'd see the numbers kind of flying by.
01:15:15
Speaker 7: As him trying to figure all that out. 52.4% is the break-even number if you assume that you're risking $ 11 to win.
01:15:22
Speaker 3: $ 10 on all of your bets.
01:15:24
Speaker 7: For me, at the end of football season, if I'm looking at mainly sides and totals, expect to hit a higher percentage of props for lower limits in a less liquid market. I'm thrilled if I can finish around 55%. I know people want to try and sell you a bill of goods and go, I want to hit 60 to 70%. Hutton, if I had 60 or 70% for the amount of bets that I'll make in a football season over the course of NFL and college, I am doing backflips. And while I probably couldn't move into the community that Clay Travis lives in down there in Destin, I'd at least be able to get myself a nice trailer, a stone's throw away from the beach.
01:15:56
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I see all these people on social, like, I have 75% big winners. I'm like, I doubt it.
01:16:06
Speaker 7: If you're picking 75% over a prolonged sample size, you're not posting your picks on social media.
01:16:12
Speaker 3: I mean, you're buying your own island in the Caribbean.
01:16:15
Speaker 7: You're sipping frozen drinks with little umbrellas in them.
01:16:18
Speaker 3: So it's a little bit of buyer beware.
01:16:20
Speaker 7: If someone's trying to sell you a little bit of snake oil, can you hit 60% for a season?
01:16:24
Speaker 3: Sure. It's rare and it's difficult, but it can be done.
01:16:27
Speaker 7: Uh, but if you're looking at this big picture wise, I mean, if you're hitting 55%, you know, over thousands and thousands of trials, that's a pretty good racket. And it puts you in rarefied air being in that 1%. It's not the 1% that I'm in. You know, I leave that to my cohost on the Thursday show for Beth.
01:16:41
Speaker 1: Okay. All right. You've been doing, uh, bet the board for a while, but I mean, we're thrilled to have you, man. It's, uh, You know we've got your back from here at Nashville, but we've got to get together again on the West Coast.
01:16:56
Speaker 7: I mean, look, you guys were out here. I think the last time we broke bread together was the Super Bowl out here in Vegas.
01:17:01
Speaker 3: It was.
01:17:02
Speaker 7: Whether it's me getting to Nashville, but here's the bottom line. We can cut this and clip this. You know where the College Football National Championship is this year, so this is where Clay decides to go into the company card, pony up, and we're able to do a couple of live shows right outside of Legion Stadium and take advantage of of the college football epicenter being right out here on Las Vegas Boulevard. Since you know if there's one city in the country that can rival Nashville in terms of putting on a show from Entertainment Value, I'm putting Vegas right up there alongside it.
01:17:31
Speaker 1: Is it Clay or Laura with the company card?
01:17:34
Speaker 7: I mean, Laura's the one that we have to go to to be able to make things happen. That or Producer Jacob pulling the strings behind the scenes. I mean, we can get him to try and have some accounts. And look, Hutton, I mean, I figure that there's no limit on that credit card. So if there's, you know, let's say, you know, 8 to 10 first class round trip tickets on there for all you guys to get out here, I'm easy. I can drive down there. I can stay at home. So there's not much overhead to me. It's just a question of getting all you guys out here. and figuring out what kind of accommodations you win. And if you want a presidential suite at the Wynn, or if you're looking to stay at the Oyo, unfortunately, Hard Rock won't be open on Las Vegas Boulevard. Otherwise, that'd be way too easy for us.
01:18:14
Speaker 1: We'll just send you a car. You don't have to drive.
01:18:17
Speaker 3: There we go. Perfect. My kind of team. Send me a nice black car. We'll go there.
01:18:20
Speaker 7: I don't have to deal with traffic on the Strip. I am more than happy to kind of rubber stamp that proposition.
01:18:25
Speaker 1: Hey, good to see you, man. Thank you for the advice. I wrote down the... the ones that you are strong on.
01:18:32
Speaker 7: Is that the same piece of paper, though, that you were doing the reads to start the segment, or do you keep two separate piles so you have a little bit of organization?
01:18:39
Speaker 1: Here's the read. It is like treads. It's kindling now for a fire. I wouldn't have a forest fire over here with all this.
01:18:47
Speaker 7: We'll step it up. We'll send you a couple index cards. They'll be in your box just in time for the holidays.
01:18:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got to get my stuff together over here with all the ads. All of Clay's companies. That's where we are. Good to see you, Todd. Todd Furman, Bet the Board. Check out the podcast, sportandstate.com. And all of his great work on social media, he crushes it, 55%. And that's what we're going for this weekend. That's what I've just learned. Hey, also, what we know. We know we've got Chad Withrow straight ahead and much more right here on Hutton & Withrow. SportingState.com, presented by Hard Rock Mad. Good morning to you, Hutton & Withrow, here at SportingState.com. Chad joins us from Florida with his Crockett coffee, named after the– The volunteer, the patriot, David Crockett, started by Clay Travis, Buck Sexton, and Buck's brother, Mason. Look, this is David Crockett on the back of crocodiles. That tells you everything about the attitude here. 100% pure Arabica, high altitude beans, small batch roasted right here in America, Tennessee, the heart of the country. It's chips fresh roasted. It's not sitting on a shelf. for like six months. It's light, medium, dark, decaf, organic, even a mushroom blend. However you make it in the morning, that means that's Sun Creek, Blue Ridge, King Mountain, Chad, there's even Elk River. What are you going with today? I'm going with King Mountain this morning here at the beach, and I love it, Hutton. And I love that you can set up a subscription and it shows up on your schedule, change it or cancel it anytime you want, as the free marketing intended. Free shipping on orders of $ 59 or more, and there's a discount for veterans. And Crockett partners with Tunnel to Towers, building mortgage-free homes for the families of fallen service members and for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. Good coffee, made in America, doing some good. CrockettCoffee.com. That's Crockett, C-R-O-C-K-E-T-T-Coffee.com. Hutton, thrilled to be with you here at the Gulf of America this morning. And I experienced one of the more American things I can ever remember yesterday by watching the Blue Angels perform. How was that, man? Give me your review. I've never seen them. Well, so the base here in Pensacola is closed down with the effects of the hurricane. So we couldn't go on base and do the whole museum, Naval Aviation Museum and everything else that went with it. So I watched from a Walmart parking lot with a ton more people. The parking lot was packed. The Target across the street parking lot was packed. I went with the Walmart parking lot and watched it. And they do a good job of flying directly over you and you hearing the sound and everything and doing the coordinated stunts, the diamond formation they get into where they're almost touching wings. They're so close to each other with four different jets. I can imagine doing that. The best way to describe this thing is it was a red, white, and blue middle finger to the rest of the world. And I love when America majors in middle fingers and everyone else. And the fact that we can coordinate this and use this military might all together at once and get some of the best pilots in the world to withstand the G-forces these pilots have to withstand to go straight up into the air as fast as they do, straight down, the barrel rolls, everything else. I've never been a big air show guy, and I know your grandfather's big into aviation and was big into this, but watching this yesterday, and I can't wait to come back next year for our kids' fall break and actually go to the museum.
01:22:10
Speaker 2: Nope.
01:22:10
Speaker 1: And get the narration from the extra pilot and everything else you're going to get with the show. It was awesome. How did you become a Blue Angel? So, got back home. And I would recommend this to everyone. Prime Video has an hour and a half long documentary called The Blue Angels. It's produced by our guy, Glenn Powell. Oh, nice. He's the producer on it. And it is a great documentary that shows you the history of the Blue Angels. It's got an older pilot, how you become one. You have to serve at least 3,000 aeronautic miles or missions in order to be considered for the Blue Angels. So everyone that's up there on this display team, which it is a show, they have served in combat missions or they have flown for the United States Navy. There's five Navy pilots. So naval aviators, think Tygun, right? And there's one Marine pilot that's on there. So- The Marines being a part of the Navy, they come together on this. But they all fly for our country in combat or they're flying stationed somewhere else. They come together in two-year terms to do a Blue Angel, basically stay. And then they go right back to serving our country as pilots, as fighter pilots. It's incredible. The work that goes into it, when they show the machine they do to withstand the G-forces, it's insane. So highly recommend anybody who's interested in red, white, and blue middle fingers to everyone else, which I am, watch the Blue Angels documentary on Amazon Prime. Chad, just coming in, the Titans fans are giving a middle finger to Burke Nihill, to the floor continuing to go down to the basement. Yeah. Don't put the graphic up yet, JT, because I want to set this up. So, Paul Koharski, every single day, has been asking for Burke Nihill to comment. The Titans get back to him and eventually say, when he's available, we'll let you know. Like, we're going to let you know when he's ready to talk. That because Paul, every single day, was putting out that they were not allowing him to speak to Nihill. And they didn't want that out every day. Well... And credit to Easton Freeze and A to Z Sports. They had a great idea. They just released their survey. I haven't seen the results of this yet, Chad, their big 8,000 response survey. They got comment from Burke Nihill. Now, it's not about anything other than the survey. And this is me saying to Kenneth Adams IV, to Bryce Wasserman, to literally anybody that can get to Amy's ear, You've got to do something about the leadership of the Tennessee Titans. Because it's not an A to Z sports. I would imagine this is the only thing on the record that they could get. That's my guess. Because this is BS. This is, again, I'm not ripping A to Z about the survey, but here it is. Let's put that up there. We appreciate any and all feedback. This is Burke Nihill, by the way. Any and all feedback that our fans take to provide, whether it comes to post-game surveys, emails, calls, I mean, you can scan through this. Chad, we want to win. We want to hear about the experience fans are having, both in the stadium and away from it. And what we can do better to earn their trust. Trust that's not given, it's earned. And we know it's our job to keep earning it. And then at the end, build something they can be proud of. Using their voices to guide us as we work to build something they can be proud of. Is this Chad GPT? I mean, what? We hear from him, and that's it. This is the same guy that's going to be speaking at a leadership deal in Murfreesboro. What's going on here? Here it is. It's not going to be the first comment from Burke in November, but the leadership beyond the field featuring Burke Nihill at a luncheon. Chad, what are we doing? What's going on here? Will he be taking questions? Leadership beyond the field? That would be my question because if I'm Paul Kaharski and others, I'd go ahead and pay for that pass to that convention in Rutherford County and go ahead and start asking some questions about the job he's done with the Tennessee Titans. He's got to do a sit-down with Paul. Paul's been asking every day. That can't be the representation of the response to everything that's been going on, including the hire that isn't the hire yet officially within the front office about someone who's involved in the lawsuit. I can't imagine a scenario where there is someone in charge that feels more disconnected from a city and a fan base than Amy Adam Strunk and Burke Nihill does right now when things are going south. There have been plenty of examples of out-of-touch billionaires, right? Throughout time. That just aren't, they're not living in reality. Right, right, yeah. But Burke Nihill's role is to be the face of the organization and the mouthpiece of the organization. To lead. To lead and be the mouthpiece of the Titans business, fan relations operation, stadium, the organization, okay? It's been a travesty. And... I know that he doesn't want to admit that it's been a travesty because then the question is, well, why is it a travesty? Because it's under your watch. But to come out and, as you've said, Hutton, deliver a chat GPT response to this survey where you're getting ripped and the organization's getting ripped. Good job, Ace, for getting that many people to respond to anything and to answer that many questions and to write, what, 3,800 essays? I think he got that people actually wrote out all their thoughts in essay form. Good for him to get that. I read the story. I have a hard time reading a story with that many numbers in it. I heard Todd Furman making fun of me about numbers. But when you're showing me graphs and percentages and everything else, I really lose. I'm a story guy. I'm a narrative guy. If you give me the written word, I'm going to read through it. I didn't need that survey to tell me, based on our finger on the pulse of Titans fans, that the Titans fans are angry about the direction of this organization today. And what's going on. But good job by him getting all those responses. And I guess a good job by getting a chat GPT response from Burke Nihill. I agree that he should do a sit down with Paul. I agree that he should answer a tough question. I also believe that even in that response, that we're going to continue earning your trust. Keep doing what we've been doing. I'm thinking, dude, you've got to change the wording to that to restore your trust. You have to regain your trust. We know that we have a lot of work to do to make you want to be a part of this again. You've got to start saying things like that. But again, this is not someone who cares about the fans. This is not someone who cares about what we think. What he cares about is keeping his job with Amy Adams Trump. This is like a parody. Look at the third sentence. Every response tells us something about what it means to be a Titans fan. And we don't take that for granted. I mean, this is embarrassing. It's embarrassing. And... All of this is snowballing to Ramone Foster is talking about the racial discrimination lawsuit this morning on the Wake Up Zone. I mean, everything is awful right now. And he's acting like we're going to keep earning your trust. And this is the new floor. Every time I think they've reached it, here we go. If he's going to speak, he needs to speak on behalf of all the questions. And again, I would think Easton would be trying to get more and did not get anything but that. Chad, let's do– we have our Locks of the Week coming up too. Locks of the Week. Well, let me say this too on the whole let's hire someone who's under a lawsuit issue. somewhere else. He shouldn't be allowed to hire anybody. This is what really bothers me right now is we're starting this cycle again. The guy who's been in charge of the place burning to the ground and reaching a point where Paul Kuharski, who for all of his vitriol and Yankee demeanor and everything else that people don't like about him, he's a pretty level-headed guy when it comes to wins and losses and how the NFL works. And he stays pretty level on everything. Paul is saying in the 31 years he's covered the team, it's never been worse. It's not even close. From an apathy of the team to the fans to everything that goes into the organization, it is rock bottom. And now you're going to allow the guy that has brought it to rock bottom to to start firing and then replacing other people. And I know that Amy Adams Strzok is doing this through him, but he has far too much power right now. So regardless if the person is guilty of being a racist or not, which I have no idea based on the lawsuit, it's beside the point that, okay, now you got Jared Stillman popping another story on the Titans. And then this happens, and you look foolish again. So we're going to allow– this guy's making big-time hires in the front office. This is where we're going to go now. This is the direction is to continue to empower him. If I am a Titan season ticket holder spending money with that team, I don't know how you look that person in the face straight in the eye and say, we're doing everything we can. to make this better and to make good decisions. I don't know how you can say that if you're the Titans organization. And Chad, I believe, and I was told, that Burke was telling some of those three that were laid off that we were going to be bringing in this guy. So this has all been planned prior to the layoffs. And that the guy would be telling friends of his, he's not retiring from the Cardinals. No, no, no, he's got something else coming up. Think about that. This whole thing's been in motion just like every decision is made prematurely, right? It's done, but they wouldn't even confirm the job that's done. What is done is the decision of quarterback for Tennessee. It's going to be George McIntyre. No surprise, right? Based on expectations of where Faison Brandon was. Well, and it's the right decision right now. George McIntyre's got to not turn the ball over three times. That's the takeaway from that game against Arkansas. But, you know, really, when you look at it statistically, and they weren't asking him to do a ton, but he did pretty well. I mean, he throws for 247, I think. It would have been over 300 yards had Braylon Staley stayed in bounds on one big play, had he caught another couple. He had three or four drops in the game that should have been caught. So I don't think it was all bad for George McIntyre. I also don't leave that Arkansas game thinking, boy, this is the guy who's going to beat Alabama. as a starting quarterback, or this is the guy who's going to give you a chance to beat LSU or even go on the road and beat better opponents. But I think when you look at Tennessee's defense and where they are, and where they are is they're one of the best defenses in the SEC. We're halfway through the year. They're one of the best defenses in the country. Xavier Gilliam, as Cole Kublik said, is the best defensive player in America right now through halfway point of the season. He's been unbelievable. So that defense should give you a chance. They are your constant for this team. You've got to find somebody who can make some plays through the air because Tennessee's passing game is not good right now. They want to run it, but it's tough to run it when you're so one-dimensional. George McIntyre, a healthy George McIntyre, I think we saw in the Arkansas game, gives Tennessee a better shot right now. I think it is foolish, though, to look at this and not understand that there's some gray areas here about who should be the starter moving forward. No doubt. I'm not out on Faison Brandon completely. I want to see him get healthy. I want to see if he looks better from a decision-making standpoint when he's healthier and when he's had a week to prepare. I'm not saying replace George McIntyre yet. I'm just warning ball fans that if you think George McIntyre is the new appointed one of Tennessee football, listen to what Josh Heupel is saying about Faison Brandon and how he didn't bench him. He was hurt, and he didn't lose his starting spot. He's injured, and we're waiting on him to get healthy. Faison Brandon is going to start games again this year. At some point, Tennessee needs both of those guys to be healthy and to be available when things go south. Because right now with a freshman and a redshirt freshman in this conference, I have no faith that one of those guys is going to finish the season being a great quarterback. They're going to need both of them at different times, and they're going to need to ride the hot hand a little bit, which that's something that Josh Heupel is not really comfortable doing. He is a pick a quarterback and stick with him type guy for the most part. Yep. And I don't necessarily disagree with it as long as you're sticking with the game plan that's based around that quarterback. What did we see at A & M back in 2021? Calzada came in the second half. How did they win that game? They popped a kickoff return. And they are about punt return, I believe. And they blocked one. You know, they flipped the field and Calzada was able to do the he hit his layups. You know, like Georgia's got to hit his layups. And Tennessee, they need to win the turnover battle and cash in if they get one. I think that that's the key with all of it. We're love. How did how did Clay bet this game? Has he announced that? He has. I have not read it. I saw the post where he's got his bet. I think he went with the over-under, but I don't know which way he went. Probably the under in this game is the way I would play it, probably. We discussed that. Maybe it's one of our locks. Who knows? Hard rock block, straight ahead, here on Nutley Withrow. Jay, you've got to have balls to play for the Nashville Balls. XXXY Athletics has got the t-shirts for you, the official Nashville Vols gear, founded by Jennifer Say, former national champion gymnast. She's a former Levi's brand president, but she walked away from the corporate job rather than to say something she didn't believe, and she started XXXY Athletics instead. And the mission, in their words, is to empower female athletes, take a stand for fair competition, and they call it the T that launched a movement. And, Chad, it's official athletic apparel. Maybe Burke Nihill can follow his heart and leave his company as a CEO the way Jennifer Say did and start a new company. You know, one could dream. And one could dream about a WNBA dynasty. And that's what the Nashville Bulls could become. With Enos Cantor as the starting center, as we saw, the ability to dunk two-handed on other WNBA players could be a problem for other WNBA teams. Just going to throw that out there. Tease trucker hats for the Nashville Bulls available. New customers get 20% off your first order when you sign up at freeshipping.com. Over $ 100. XXXYathletics.com. That's XX-XYathletics.com. I wish that Easton Freeze could have thrown in his survey. Would you prefer Burke Nihill to have a crisis of conscience and have to leave the organization because of men playing women's sports and start a rival company to XXXY if this was an option? Would you be okay with it instead of being the CEO of the Titans? The team name would be the Entertainment Betas, right? A boy can dream. Or girl. Boy or girl. Whatever. Coming up in 15 seconds, Hard Rock Lock.
01:37:39
Speaker 5: This year, the party's getting even bigger.
01:37:41
Speaker 3: Hey, there's Jay Boyd. They know me.
01:37:43
Speaker 5: This party, everybody's somebody. And Hard Rock Bet has something for everyone.
01:37:48
Speaker 1: Plus, new customers bid $ 5 and get up to $ 500 in no-sweat bets. Sutton and Withrow, presented by Hard Rock Bets. Hardrock.bets.clay is the offer you just heard about. It's fantastic. $ 5, get up to $ 500 in no-sweat bets. Hardrock.bets.clay. And we recommend you sign up, and then you roll with us on one of our Hard Rock Locks of the week. Chad, I feel good about both of ours this week, but I'm rolling. I'm going to one of the top matchups here. Ohio State, Indiana. I think this is about the defenses. I don't think Indiana has shown me that they are, like last year's team, is going to put up a ton of points no matter who they're playing. And I love Ohio State's defense and what we've seen in certain games. I think they show up. I think the under is in play here, 51 and a half. Look, I think this is a victory. I like it. I'm going to parlay it with yours. And I think this is a week for unders. I love that pick. We found out Clay is going under in Tennessee, Alabama. Also, I like that one if I'm playing it. I also kind of like Alabama to cover in the game, but I think under is also a good play. I'm not going under with this one. I'm going to refer to my lock this week. It's just the ultimate heat check. Oh, here we go. I'm 14 and one on Friday nights. Okay. I don't know a damn thing about Tulane. Now that John Sumrall is not their coach. I don't know much about Memphis after Ryan Silverfield left. I'm not going to sit here and lie to our audience and tell you I've done a ton of research about the rushing attack versus the front of Memphis or how Memphis is going to throw it over the top against Tulane. I have no clue, but I'm going to ride the hot hand right here. This is like Steph Curry going two feet further back after shooting three after three after three and then seeing if he can hit from half court. Friday night college football has been my sweet spot. Give me Tulane. I know nothing about them, but they're at home and they're playing Memphis and they're in a six and a half point underdog. I thought about taking Green Wave Moneyline on this.
01:39:59
Speaker 3: I didn't.
01:40:00
Speaker 1: I'm going to go Tulane six and a half. They may win outright, but give me the wave to cover in this game, Hudson. Ultimate heat check on a Friday night for me. 14-1 so far in the college football season. Let's get to 15-1 with this game, shall we? And this is how you go 14-1. You don't overthink it. You don't overthink it. You go with your gut and you take the home dog on a Friday. It's got to be the Friday. You can watch Bet the Board so Todd Furman can break out his sheets and his graphs and everything else and show you numbers and where this passing statistic intersects with this over here, and it gives you a 53% chance. There's a place for you to consume all that. Bet the Board, great show. Todd Furman's going to give you that. What I'm going to give you is my gut feeling on a guy that's 14-1 on Friday nights by God, and I'm about to go to 15-1 with this one. You know what else is great about Friday night? Dixieland Delight Friday night. We're going to be live in Knoxville. Wagon Wheel 815 is our kickoff time for Dixieland Delight Friday night live show at Wagon Wheel. Chad, you were there with Kelly and Ariel a couple weeks ago. We're headed back to Wagon Wheel for the same start time on supportandstate.com. You're going to love the setup. We started in Oxford and we were just looking at Jacob Lutz and the corner of a cubbyhole. underneath the stairwell in front of us. This setup, we're going to be on a stage. We're looking out. Window will be open so people can yell things at us and say hello as they pass in the street in the old city. And there's a breeze rolling in. There's people behind us. We're on a stage. A very, very cool setup there with Mark Jernigan and Wagon Wheel. We love it. We're going back. We're going to run it back this week, Friday night, 7.15 Central Time, 8.15 Eastern. Join us on the YouTube channel. Could have some surprise special guests also. Hey, and also tomorrow morning I'll be hanging with Next Round Live. They're going to be doing some stuff from Gatlinburg. Headed there. We'll be kicking things off there. I've got Jason Swain coming on the show, plus LT, and I believe the entire crew. We're going to make it official. I think Ryan Brown will join us as well. Hopefully everyone will swing by. It's going to be fun, and you can catch all the sport and state coverage. Chad, last time we were in Oxford together for this game, Tennessee stormed the field. We'll see what happens. I can't wait. I'm jealous you're going to go to Gatlinburg, one of my favorite places. Weather's going to be perfect this weekend. If you're in town, come find us on Friday night. Say hello. We're going to be having a ball. And can't wait to connect with the Next Round Live guys, which, oh, by the way, they're about to be starting their show here pretty soon. Yeah, that's right. They're coming up in about 30 seconds or so. Right now, remember, go download the app, the Hard Rock app, hardrock.bet.com. $ 5, get up to $ 500 in no-sweat bets. That's hardrock.bet.com. Chad, be safe on the drive coming back, if you don't mind. We'll do. We'll catch you in Knoxville. All right. Sounds great. See you there. SportsState.com. Coverage continues. He's Withrom Hutton. Hutton and Withrom presented by Hard Rock Bet.
