9-8-26 Full Show

0:00Finally, we now know. Get on board and let's go win Atlanta. What's going on? It's Duke's in Bell on sports radio. 92 9 the game. We start off every day and every hour by saying, hey, man, the news dropped on Labor Day and many of you who are making your way back like my man Mike Bell from last night Florida State game. What a mess that was. Oh, yeah. You're making your way back to work or just getting back home. Whatever it was, hope you had a great vacation, get away weekend. But the news that broke kind of set the NFL world on fire because everybody was assuming, hey, if they're waiting this long, it's going to be Michael Pinnix. Of course, we're talking about the Falcons. It is not. And week one, it is to a tongue of Iowa. T U A. I do not know what we're going to get guys. I have no idea Mike what this is going to look like. How well he is or is not going to play. This is what I do know.

1:00I'm on board. And for everyone who wanted one thing and didn't get it, let's not hope the Falcons go to Pittsburgh and get embarrassed. Let's not hope the Falcons show up and don't do anything offensively. Rooting against our guys is not it. At some point, can we all agree that we will see Michael Pinnix? At some point, I don't know in Mike, but at some point, we will probably see Michael Pinnix. But for week one, can we all just ride and say, hey, let's go and try to win a football game? It's not going to be easy, guys. It's not going to be easy. The Steelers defense will break this down over the remaining part of the week here. They're offends. Say what you want. They still have a Hall of Fame quarterback at behind center. But Mike, this is driving people crazy. Yeah, man. Look, it's going to be another week. It will be an active for week two. Don't know. Is Pittsburgh a really good defense? Yes. Is it a really mediocre offense? Yes. But it's a road game in the NFL. So just a matter of how too aggressive it's the fancy is asking to do.

2:03And hopefully, you know, our playmakers, we got a bunch of those guys. They stepped into it. And the young defense may be surprised as long as some of the OGs they added. But, yeah, I mean, look, I'm not arguing about this with people. I don't understand how you can't say I'm ready. He knows his body. All right. Cam Newton told him, okay, great. Okay. All right, buddy. It'll be ready when it's ready. So we're not going to get a full season of sample size by definition. It's not a full season. So that's okay. Well, roll with it. I know you and Dade A were arguing back and forth about, you know, the analogy that is this, what we wanted Kirk Cousins to do and say that he wasn't ready to go after that Saints game. And I said, it's a bit like Apple's oranges. And Dade A will talk about it later in his segment. It's like Apple's to pine apples in my mind because Kirk should establish guy. You know, and the coach should have said, look, it's not, you're not ready. You sit for a week, get right, and we'll put, you know, put Panix in and we'll get you back out there. Panix is fighting for his career. Kirk Cousins came and got paid $100 million. It's different to me. It's a different argument. Of course it is.

3:03And I stated as much on Twitter. Follow us. Put them up. See, dukes, ATL, Bell, 929. And if you go read the entire tweet, not the headline, just the entire tweet. Hopefully you understand the dichotomy of what I was talking about because it's two different elements that we're talking about. But yet you want to compare what you want to say is, well, you guys wanted to kill Kirk Cousins because he wouldn't tell the truth. What I am laying out for you is why Kirk Cousins did what he did and why he got respect from his teammates, which was Mike, you play when you're hurt. And sometimes you play when you don't want to play. Right. And for Michael Pinnix, the irony is he's at a point where that's why you're disappointed. Many of you were just saying to yourself, man, I know he's going to play because you know what he'll pull through this. He's going to be fine. Even he's been cleared medically, whatever that means. And he'll just say, I'm ready. The thing is he didn't say that. And I'm going to read a direct quote from Michael Pinnix as to what he said to Kevin Stofansky.

4:03He told the team and Kevin Stofansky specifically, I'm not 100%. I just told Coach Stofansky, I'm not where I want to be right now. I want to be 100% so I can go help the team win football games. It's that simple for Michael Pinnix. The problem I'm having with that is Mike, you've had extra time. I think it's been six weeks now, right? Over six weeks. There's another guy in the league now. He didn't have three knee surgeries, but his name's Patrick Mahomes. He's Patrick Mahomes. He's playing opening weekend. And a lot of folks felt like the timetable just synced up perfectly for him to be a vacant. For him to be available and ready. Let's be clear on a couple of things Atlanta. One, medically he's been cleared. Two, he's been practicing and doing more than he did at the beginning of camp. And so the assumption there was, okay, they'll get him up to speed, Mike, 11 on 11, and he'll be ready to go. And those things have not linked like we thought they would. The question is why is this mental or is it something else?

5:04And if you're just telling me, well, I just told him I'm not ready. As Mike's been saying, and it's redundant, but when, at what point does three more days help you? Does two more weeks help you? And now Mike, the cinnamon is, well, guess what? They didn't put him on the public. So that means he'll be ready certainly by week three. Right. I mean, it's just a little different. It is a bit counterintuitive, as we said. I mean, you know, day day talked about it earlier. You know, we just discussed the differences with cousins. But I mean, yes, generally in the NFL, you got to be pulled dragged off the field. You know, unless, you know, there's a bone sticking out. You know, you're going to try to stay out there. Or you're going to try to get out there. And knowing, you know, good and well, this is, I mean, like, I don't think that Michael doesn't get this. I wonder if this is just a new Jack quarterback now where, and the fans are cool. They're cool. We came from a different mindset. It was, I just laid it out. It was literally, you got to be a dead man. They dragged off the field. It's a different mindset. And a lot of our audience is apparently cool with it because they only accept panics as their quarterback.

6:04So you're rationalizing this, this is anybody else. You be going, what the hell is going on here? But he's your boy. So you're giving him the patience of job, which is fine. Let's hear from Kevin Stofansky. He made this announcement and everybody went, and I don't know why. This had been trending this way for a very long time. What I think Mike is, people got caught up in these damn preseason games and wanted to believe that they hadn't seen enough to front. And seen enough for him to be named the starter. And this idea that, well, he didn't win the job. Well, neither did Michael Pinnix. Neither did Pinnix. No, it wasn't, it wasn't even a quarterback competition. Correct. The most compelling part of our quarterback competition was a Jack Strand made the roster. Frost, let me hear Kevin Stofansky making this announcement. As you guys saw, the report to a will start. Cooper Rush will be the backup. Mike Pinnix will be inactive. Really, really proud of those guys. And I told them this this morning, I think those guys have worked like crazy.

7:06All offseason. And they've pushed each other and they've supported each other. And that's what we'll do for two. We'll continue to support him. And understand that this is a collective group that is constantly looking to help each other. Inactive. That bothers a lot of people. I don't know why he's not playing. He's not able to play. He just told the coach he's not 100% but yet you want to mess it back up. If you can't start, he can't be the backup. Right. If you can't, if you're telling the coach, I'm not good to go, then you don't dress. You're not, you're in sweats. And so Cooper Rush would then become the backup if anything happens to two of it. Having forbid that goes down. Pittsburgh, like you said, it's, it's, it's not like it's the scariest game ever. It's a road game. Road games are hard to win. Their defense is really good. I was our quarterback going to handle playing against that defense in a new offense. That's it. That's a question because we got, we have enough guys. You're going to lean into B-john. They'll try to probably take B-john or we make two of beat them. Sure. But we got guys. And, you know, and offensively, it's, if you guys think that Aaron Roche is going to lead the Steelers this Super, you're on crack.

8:06Ain't going to happen. He doesn't have that game. He's not that guy anymore. They're old, man. I mean, that's my deal. It's an older team. This is their last run, right? We know that. They're grooming Drew Allard and some of these other guys to be the next era or, uh, a, a, a, a parent. Either way, they're going to run out there and go, all right, this is a feasting. That's what they believe that they think they're going to get off on our offense. And maybe they get to two a few times. That's just the nature of it. They do. They have one of the best edge rushers in the game. We don't have any DJ Watts of beast. So we got to find a way to block this dude, whether it's, whether it was pinnocks or whether it was two, uh, but the reality of where we're at right now is a fan base. Mike, we're split. We are split. We got to come together and say, hey, let's go win. And that's what's bothering me the most about this. It's almost as if, well, if he ain't playing, I ain't cheering for him. I don't understand that. I just don't. Yeah. As I said, there's just, there's a bias towards a certain kind of quarterback for some of the fans. Not all, just some. And again, if this was anybody else, you'd say it's incomplete. What has he shown you? And again, we've already covered the things that were beyond his control and the things that were in his control last season.

9:09And the year before, I mean, it's just, I get it easy. They're all nice guys. They're all pulling for me. He says he's like a really good dude. Everybody in that team is pulling for him. But I mean, at some point, he's got to get out there and do it. Yep. You know it. But again, I've just never heard of fan base going. He's not ready. He's not ready. You can't rush him. Okay. All right. How many years football has been playing? It's just a different mindset, I guess, these days. What is Mike real quick before we grab a phone call? And you're more than welcome to call in. 404-726-0929. Hope you had a great Labor Day. It's Mike and I's first chance to address this on these airways. And it's been interesting to hear the responses. I just kind of chilled yesterday and set back and listened and watched what was going on. And the one thing the common denominator about this is, well, you know, this just doesn't get me exciting. You know, we get you excited. Winning. Winning gets you excited. Right. Ask Georgia Tech. Winning gets you excited. If they won the gaming against Colorado, you'd be excited about maybe what the season was going to bring.

10:11Ask LSU fans. Ask Clemson fans. Right. Winning is what gets you excited. If we can win and Mike and I are tired of losing in this city when it comes to our Falcons. Nine years, Mike. Nine? There'll be nine seasons if we don't make the playoffs this year. Ridiculous. 404-726-0929. Let's hear Stofansky real quick before we get to some of your calls on Pinnix is doing everything he needs to. This has been the message, guys, since day one. First day at Camp, he said this. I don't think it'd be fair for me to speculate. I would tell you he's doing everything in his power to get ready. And that's all the work you put in the training room, all the work you put in the weight room, the work in the meeting room out on the grass. So he's doing everything that he needs to do. Mike, if I told you that was a from week one of training camp, you wouldn't know the difference. That's the same thing, Kevin Stofansky has been saying. He's on track. He's done all the right things. He's working hard. But I can't give you a definitive date. Right. And you and I were just talking about this off the air. I mean, we suggested this back in the spring that maybe they always knew this was the case.

11:12Pinnix was probably not going to be ready week one, maybe week two, you know, and maybe week three is the target. And then the cherry on top is here in Mike's and I'm not ready. So, okay. Okay. Okay. All right. I mean, I don't know. I just, it's hockey players. You know, like if it's the NBA, I could say that that's par for the course of the NBA. It's just not what I'm used to here for the NFL. No. And I think most professional athletes would tell you if they've been injured and they've been on the sideline and I use that term loosely. I mean, not being able to play is the worst thing when it's what you've done all your life. And then you're all of a sudden, you're cleared. You're okay. Your body's healed. You're okay to go play if you want to play. No, I'm good. You don't hear that. Yeah, you just don't. And I look, I thought it was a fascinating conversation with Cam Newton about a month ago when he went on the podcast. You know, and saying, Cam is like, you know, like, you know, yeah, I was, I was a gree just paraphrasing. But Cam said, you know, he, he, he, he rushed back from an injury. But that was the first injury, Cam. It's right. This guy's had a bunch his whole career.

12:12His whole career is defined by injuries. So if he's going to be good to go and win this job and he's, he's only going to accept 100% he's writing his head. He's right with his body. Well, you and I have to be more patient than. And I think that's where we're all going to have to be. I'm not rooting against pinnocks. Certainly not rooting against two. I'm rooting for the team. I have success. I don't care who the quarterback is at this point. I really don't let's win. Let's have success. And if that part of it, you just, you're not, you're not a part of this. Then I don't know what to tell you. All right, Eric and coming. We're going to grab you, man. Stay there. All right. We got to talk to Tony Gwynn Jr. Our Odyssey MLB insider. Braves. Steel. In first place. After an incredible weekend in Ronald, Akunya. Did his thing. We'll talk to our man Tony Gwynn Jr. next. Sportswear to you. 92-9. The game headline. Powered by Ken Nugent. Georgia's law firm. One call. That's all. Go to call ken.com. That's all ken.com. The Braves settled for a split of their four game series with the Phillies after falling

13:13one nothing in yesterday's finale. They're back home tonight, welcoming the Tampa Bay Rares. AJ Spishovr gets to start with first pitch at 715. And to a tag of Aloa is the Falcon starting quarterback to begin the season. The Kevin Stephans says he's only focused on Sunday's opener in Pittsburgh. Not a long term decision. I'm Ali Mack. It is Duke Symbel on a Tuesday. We're talking about the Falcon's decision. And actually, I think it's more Michael Pinnick's decision. Because when you tell the coach, I'm not quite 100%. I'm not going to make it easy for them to say, okay, well, we got to play somebody who is and somebody who's capable of trying to win a football game for us. But we want to get your thoughts, man. And before we get to our buddy, Tony Quinn, Jr. Eric and coming has hit us up here on the show. Eric, welcome in, man. Welcome to sports radio, 92 9 to game. Is he there? He hung up. All right. As he called in and was pretty adamant about something in regards to Pinnick's.

14:13And by the way, you're more than welcome to share. Okay. Wherever you're out on this, it doesn't matter. 404 7260929. We'll take plenty of phone calls throughout the day. Let's talk to Tony, Grand Junior, Odyssey MLB insider. Of course, insider calls presented by Granger for the ones who get it done. Granger offers professional grade products. You need delivered win and where you need them call. Click Granger.com or just stop by. Tony, we went to Philly. We handled business. I'm talking about our braves. And I want to ask you about pimping home runs because I am not seeing this much reaction from a Ronald Akunyan home running a long time. And he pimped it. But he also deserved a pimped after facing seven fastballs over 100 miles per hour or whatever it was. And then he hits a big home run that ties the game. And ultimately, your team wins. Did you have a problem with the way he did it? No. And neither says, you know, I don't think Zach did it. I think he was in his feelings a little bit. And, you know, rightfully so.

15:14Sometimes you get put in front of that camera right after the game. You're still a little salty. You get to hear some real thoughts sometimes. And so I think it's been a lot to do about that. I mean, he made reference to Bryce. Bryce certainly admires his home run. It's not like he hits them and just starts running. And he's going to do his thing as he should. And so, yeah, this is just our greats to me. Right. I don't get a kick out of it. I mean, oh, poor Philly, they've been victimized by the antics of Ronald Akunyan. I mean, the most evil fan base in the planet. And Don Madden, we've got a history with that. That's why I was curious if that would get back. I don't think Don does that this stage. But what do you think? You think next time we see him, he throws it. Is that too much to ask? No, I don't think so. Even to me, you know, Don kind of poured cold water on it myself. Right. I thought the way he spoke about it. So yeah, no, as I said, I think those were Zach comments. I think he was perturbed that he gave it up there.

16:15I would have been to. And just, you know, I just think I think ultimately he said what he was thinking versus kind of recognizing what happened, which was that, you know, Akunyan got it. He got it. He won that matchup and that ended up being a big part of that game. Took it to the upper deck, by the way. It's Tony Gwen Jr. Joining us. Exactly. Tony, did we get the best player at the trade deadline? I mean, the most impactful guy to me has been Tyler Mallie and he was good again against the Phillies. I mean, zero runs. When you talk about what he do, four hits, one walk, struck out three through six innings. And by the way, Tony, it's been six plus every time this guy's taken the hill. I mean, listen, I saw the same thing. The guy is throwing the ball at a very high level. And listen, that's the best part about deadline. There's always somebody that you're not thinking of that comes in and just has just does a tremendous job.

17:19And Mallie's done that. I think he has stabilized, which we already thought was a pretty good rotation. He's just added some more depth to it now. And I don't know if he is the exact, if he's the best piece that guy that's got moves at the deadline. But he certainly at the top of tier based on, you know, his performance since he's got there. The team performance since he's gotten there. All signs are pointed out. Now you just hope that this is this this last end of the playoffs and beyond. Because right now these are regular season games as a whole different pressure once you get to that point where you're in a post. It's our man, Tony Gwynn Jr. here guys talking about the Braves. And we started four games ahead. We left Philly four games ahead. So it's a push. We'll see them for three. They get the Astros by the way. We got a little bit easier road in the meantime. Real quick though, the pitching staff who just talked, he called just asked you about Mallie after sale. Lazardo was just crushing it, man. He was dealing yesterday and unfortunately we made one mistake and that was a Fuentes pitch to Schwarber.

18:20Good job from Grand Homes. The pitching staffs, if we see him again in the playoffs, you give him the edge or you still like the Braves. I mean, it's a hell of a pitching staff. It's really, when Nolan is like the fifth guy practically. It really is. And if Nolan is going to throw like he threw in this series, I mean, that's five guys then, you know, are legit. But I would say it's, I would say it's a push right now. Okay. I think I think these two sides are as equal as any staff in Major League Baseball. And there's, as I said, there's some depth to it. I was, I would at this point, too. I would maybe give a slight edge to Philly. As I said, if Nolan's going to be that version of himself, that's, that's a really tough staff to deal with. But now this is, this is as pretty close to even as you're going to get with two staff, especially if they face off against one another. Tony, Gwynn Jr., guest guys inside of calls brought to you by Granger for the ones who get it done.

19:22Granger offers professional grade products. You need Tony. He's been out since May 31st. I want to know first what that means for the Yankees and their push. And then O'Connor. And they're saying most likely he won't pitch again this season. My question gets back to the trade deadline. Is this why they went and got scoobled knowing that this might end up like this? I'm pretty sure I said that when they went to deal, when the deal went down because we hadn't seen O'Connor at that point. He had been hurt and the aggressiveness in which the doctors went out after him kind of had my antennas up. You know, this isn't a controllable guy. They're going out and they're going to get a guy who's going to hit the free agency market. I think everybody assumes that they're going to resign. But I always had that thought in my mind that in the back of their mind, they knew there was a chance that O'Connor was not going to pitch again. And so if that's the case, you got a fortified at rotation, they did that.

20:23And I also think given that he's had this knee injury and shoulder, I think if they said, you kind of need him to be his best version offensively for the dodges to be the team that is one back to back. I think we forget that because O'Connor is such a user from a pitching standpoint as well. But that team was as good as they were because he was at the top of that line up causing all kinds of problems for everybody on every every night on any getting given night. So I think he's going to have to not pitch in order to be his best version offensively this year. And you know, they got the they got the depth once they went out and got scuba to add the rotation. Hey man, me while the other guys, the Cubs, we talked about the Brewers a few weeks ago. I mean, the Cubs, a team you don't want to see in the playoffs. No, I don't want to see him. I don't know if anybody wants him right now. I mean, PCA is is is closing in on an MVP. It feels like I mean, that's kind of, you know, how MVP's or what it's all really about the storyline as you get towards the in here.

21:32No one is really talking about O'Connor. Everybody's talking about PCA and you kind of been a driving force on that ball clip. Now, I don't know if they're out of the teams that we're talking about that that can make a deep run. I don't know that they have the pitching that these other teams do, but if they get you in their yard, that that could be a problem. That's it. That there's a true home field advantage. It feels like they're they seem like they play lights out. But they're definitely a team that's smoking hot right now that it's a playoffs. I was going to start today and I I caught you. It's only September 8th. I like it happen between now and the end of the season that I kind of have us looking at things a little differently. So if they continue to student the season, yes, this is not a team you want to space, but little ways to go here. Tony, going to junior our guest guys as we talk baseball with him. And we will do this all the way through the end of the season. You mentioned it is September. What's the mindset, man, especially these teams at the top, right? I mean, like the braves now, I think have proven to braves country and braves fans.

22:33Like they're the real deal. We kept, you know, that that June slide made everybody feel a little bit uncomfortable. And now you've gone through this stretch where hey, not only do we feel like the pitching is better, but they can handle things. And it's not just Matt Olson all of a sudden now, Kune is heating up. And you know, this is a different team, Tony, when when Akunya's rolling like this, man. Yeah, no, it's just I saw someone that tweeted out that there wasn't this much hoop law when Akunya was having the same type of your PCA was. And I was like, you just don't remember what the whole block was. That's all we were talking about was how good Ronald Akunya junior was. Yeah, no, this is the good thing for the braves is that they're not far enough ahead to where they can just coach. Right. They they've got to play out the rest of the season. I think that always keeps the team sharp as you had into the post season. We see oftentimes scenes kind of cruise into the to the playoffs. And they have they've had problems in the past. And so I think it's a good thing that they're not far ahead.

23:38And they're they have enough season where guys can as you guys, but you see Ronald started to get hot and have a completely different like, you know, way that that offense can run. Come post season. So I think it's a great thing that the the the race is close enough where a team like to braves that start in the peak. They can't really like take their foot off the guys. They got to keep playing Tony. We've talked about Matt Olson. He's been on the MVP candidate for the truth of this team. He's kept this team afloat, but we've seen this over his career here. He gets into some really cold patches. You know, I all hit us go through it. And unfortunately right now it's one of those he batted 226 for August. He's batting what two hits for 23 in the six games this month. So is that a concern now because also looks like he's cooling off big time. It is. But again, because of the end of the temper, he got some time to kind of figure it out. He got some time to kind of get himself going in the right direction. It sucks that it's happening right now, right? You would rather the coach spell it hit you know three weeks ago, a month ago.

24:43But you know, all he can do at this point is keep pushing forward. Nobody's coming to help him. Nobody's coming to save him. So you just got to believe that when when the chips are down, they'll start to be the player that we've seen most of the season. As you said, an MVP candidate. So I would expect that he figures it out by the time we get by the time they get the post. Tony, great stuff as always, man. We appreciate you stopping by again brought to you by our friends at Granger for the ones who get it done. Granger offers professional grade products. You need delivered win and where you need them call click Granger.com or just stop by Tony. We'll talk next week. Appreciate you, man. All right. Take care. Good stuff from Tony. Great stuff from the Braves this weekend. By the way, if the play I've started today were two games in Los Colum behind the Dodges, we'd play the diamond backs. We'd be in a best of three with Arizona. Yeah. And look, you know, we talked about this. It's a dangerous spot. Right. The best case scenario is we overtake first place overall in the NL. We don't have to worry about it. That would be the best case scenario. But as he said, there's a lot of a lot of games left in September.

25:45But man, impressive with the way this team responded over the weekend. And you said it might no ground gained. Here's the thing though. Philly comes in here this weekend, guys. So you know, they get a series next three days. And then they come in here on Friday. So it's not done yet. All right. We're coming back. We got more to get to Mike was in Tallahassee last night. If you missed it, it was a mess. All right. It was a giant metaphor. Basically what happened last night. It really was. And the game, right, was like secondary to what else was going on. But we'll also talk some college football because guys, it was an incredible weekend around college football. We'll let you in on what we're thinking about. It's stay there at Suks and Bell. Hey, each Wednesday night, join Damien, day day Lewis for perhaps sports nation guys. As a conference of look at teams and athletes making news on the high school level across the state. It's brought to you by Ingalls, low prices, a love the savings that's prep sports nation Wednesday nights on sports radio, 92 9 the game. We are doaks in Bell. And it's funny because we're heading in the week one. I'm excited NFLs here. It's back as a matter of fact, we came tomorrow.

26:47Tomorrow, we get a game. Okay. A real game. One that counts. And then we head in towards the weekend. We get a game Thursday with the game in Australia. And then we wait till Sunday, one o'clock in Pittsburgh and the two announcements as we've been discussing has a lot of people feeling some kind of way. Get excited, man. Like either this is going to work or it's not. And as Mike and I have said, this is the part Mike where people just don't want to accept. If it doesn't work, there will be change anyway. Right. They're going to do something else, whether it's one guy or the other. But this is our lot in life right now. So we have to accept it and keep moving. And I'm just the negativity is just driving me insane with, oh, we won't do anything. Then I go do this or that. He's not even started yet. Let's wait till Sunday. If they look like crap, we'll be happy to kill him on Monday. But maybe that doesn't happen. Mike, maybe this offense moves the football and they do some things. Well, the only thing. And this is something we've talked about in the off season is what if to it as well. You know, what if the defense that holds up is in the bargains. We said it's not really a daunting offense against the Steelers are probably looking at us and saying the same thing.

27:51We'll take B John away to a camp beat us right now. Probably what they're saying on Pittsburgh radio. But what if two against the norrhythm? You know, what if two looks like he did against us last year. He did. You know, and then all of a sudden, you know, you go three and two of those first five games. You're going to pull him for Michael. I don't know. I don't think so unless the plan was always to is an inexpensive insurance policy. He is the stopgap. And they've got to evaluate panic. So come hell or high water. He'll be out there. Winnie's red. Winnie's right. Yeah. Mike, the worst nightmare though would be to have a situation like that put pinning sand and he doesn't look good. And then you've got a decision that that's the other part about this. Like there are many things that can play out this levels to this guys. Like it's just not hit or miss or it's wider black. There are levels to this. I mean, you know, if this happens, then this happens. If that happens and this happens. But we got to wait and see how this all plays out. Let's talk to Norris real quick. The moment I talk to him college football Norris in conures. Hey, man, what's going on? Hey, what's going on guys? Hey, man. So there's two options, right?

28:53So I called a few months back and I spoke to you and I was just directly speaking to you. Do you know about two of being the quarterback and how I wanted to. I've grown since then. I've looked at things from a wider scope and realized a lot of things. It goes back to what you were saying. One of the options, you know, was Patrick the Holmes is playing when he cut when the game rolls around in this time for into play. He's going to play. There's a difference though in that situation because. He doesn't know that he is the starter of the quarterback. He knows that he has the opportunity in front of him to become the starter of this team moving forward. Therefore, in his mind, it is all a mental thing. It comes down to his mental being able to tell himself, I am 100% ready to go because I need to be 100% ready to go. Because if I'm not, then they're going to move on to the next option. So that's in his mind. And that's the only thing that I can come down to when it comes to that is that he really is battling some of his mental and can't.

29:58Didn't help him in that situation. That's right. That's neither here nor there when it comes to that. He should have the mental regard to be able to put all that to the side and say, you know, I am the quarterback moving forward of this team. But he cannot do that. And that's, you know, that's what it blows down to. The second option is they have told him they are going to see what he is capable of throughout some process of this year moving forward. And he wants to ensure like he said that he is 100% going to be able to give himself. That's the only reason that I can fathom in my mind why he would say I'm not ready yet. Because he knows that down the road, it's his job to lose. Does that make sense? It does. And it's a very thoughtful phone call to be quite honest with you, Norris. You're thinking about this the right way. And the problem for most fans is, look, this is an emotional decision for us.

30:59We want to see if this kid has it or not. He's yet to play a full season in three years. Mike just said it. He's not going to play a full season now. We might not see him to week three or four. That's not a full season. So the evaluation process from a fans point of view is, come on, man. And he's thinking about the long term viability of his career. Because if he fails here, Mike is said it. What happens? Mike, if he fails here, that's it. You're done. You're done. You're going to be a guy wearing a baseball cap. You know, on the side. That was good money in that. You know, Joshua Dobbs is pretty satisfied doing that. But I thought being drafted in the top 10 of the NFL draft Michael Peneck's junior aspires to be a starter to earn this job to prove he can handle this this offensive to Fansky, which should help him. And let's get on with it. So, you know, I get it. You guys were just being bullies and we're mean and there were just we don't get it. And okay. I mean, but you know, Kirk Cusis was an established starter. You know, the coaching staff was incompetent. Should have said Kirk, you don't have it. We got to we got to sit you for a week and the kid will get some reps to do some basic stuff. And you'll be back. You know, when your arm is right.

32:02That's what we needed to do two years ago. But again, nobody thought to do the right thing there. Here, this is strictly how his shoulders and his fancy, but they had to pay. Kirk, that's what the rope. That's the that's the the twist that Dave was talking about. I mean, it's just we were conditioned to you've got to get out there and earn this job. And the the way that he's approaching it. It's a new style. It's not the way I would think you'd approach it if you were on thin ice as a starter in the NFL. Because they're going to make a decision this spring either to pick up the fifth year or that's it. He'll play as fourth year and he'll be gone. And he may be a backup because we made draft a quarterback next year. I mean, that's these are all these things are out there. He's got to know that. You know, but he will serve no wine until it's time. No, I said, Kanye's man, thanks for listening to sports radio 92 9 the game Atlanta's number one sports station. It's number one sports show. Dukes and Bell. Here's the deal to guys with him waiting. And again, I'm all for giving us everything you've got. Like like be the best you can be. It's just rare that you get that initially. No matter who you are, what injury you're coming off of.

33:05It's just Mike. It takes a little time to get your rhythm and to get things. We said this last year in the game. He gets hurt in Carolina. We actually felt like, oh, something clicked. Right. Like he might be seeing this thing a little bit differently and then boom. He's injured. And we don't get to see how that plays out. It may take some games. He's not just going to go in guys and throw four touch. He might. Would you be incredible throw four touchdowns and 350 yards. Mike. But it's going to take some time for him. And that is part of this. Okay, evaluation process. You we can't deny it. We can't overlook it. Well, you know, we're going to give him four games to get right and then we'll evaluate him. That's not how this works. And again, this is something which I think it crops every time we're on social media talking about it. Guys, the injury thing is part of the equation. It's how you judge a player. There are guys that had tremendous talent. They're just injury prone and their careers never turned into anything because they just couldn't stay healthy. We just went through this with Braille and Trice. He's back on the practice squad. He's trying to make a go of it. But I mean, that is all I mean, it's not a dig. It's not a shot at Mike. He's just a very injury prone guy that you're banking that all of a sudden now he's going to stay healthy. And now his career takes off after three knee surgeries. I don't buy it. So maybe he's factoring that into the start of this season. Maybe he doesn't want to hamper this team knowing that if I go out there

34:18and this team gets off to a bad start because I'm not 100% and I'm just saying I know he's caught either way. See that I'm saying so maybe I do. But here's the issue with that 90% of the fan base believes he gives us the best chance to win out of all the quarterbacks in that room. And you want the best guy on the field who gives you the best chance to win regardless of the circumstances, which gets us back to Kirk cousins. He gave us the best chance to win. It's why they didn't run pinnocks out there. He wasn't ready. So cousins are like, hell, I am. The best chance to win. I'm going to go out here, even though I'm not a fully 100% and try to do that. And then we saw the consequences of that. But there is a mindset and that's what Norris is talking about. Problem is, is he a dog? Right. Is he a dog? Dogs want to go out there. And that's the problem that some people are having day day. I feel you 4047 2609 29 is the phone number. The only caveat to the cousins thing two years ago was, you know, he never he never expected panics to be drafted.

35:18He was ticked off that panics was drafted. And then unfortunately subconsciously it played into all the things you just talked about because here's this young stud over a shoulder, you know, which he was an anticipating which made him maybe be less than fourth comment came to the injury. No doubt. I still don't think he would have came out if his backup was who was a high Mickey. I don't think he would have came out. I think it's his mindset. I do think and this is again, we're getting into like, you know, the psychology of Kirk cousins, but I mean, I always felt that it was like you journeyman backup. Then Kirk would have been fine. But there he I think he saw panics as a threat. Young guys going to come in and maybe take the job. That's why it was a particular situation to be in the first one of the other. Yeah, either sign cousins right and go draft some defense or just draft panics and spend some money on defense and free agency was one of the other to do both made no sense. You know, because here we go three years later. We're still no clearer to know what our freaking quarterback of the future is. Yeah, you know, you don't know what panics is. You know what the irony of that is two, three years later, we still don't have edge. No, and and Murfrees law by a sick twist of fate. One injury and one suspension, right? You know what I mean? I mean, they go

36:18address it and we still don't have it because well, you know, again, Jaylen walking and ask for that that, you know, and pinnocks is not asked for any of these injuries guys. It's just it's a part of the game. All right real quick, because we mentioned this and we're going to talk more throughout the course of the day. Just a real quick rehab last night, Mike, when they said we don't have power and I was like, Oh, okay, I had no idea this game would turn out to be what it was. Yeah, and it was an internal issue at Florida state at the at the dock Campbell Stadium. There was a lot of erroneous information that somebody actually hit like a car in a telephone pole right before the game started. That actually happened the night before something night. There was an accident in the college town area by the by the campus where the bars and night clubs are and a transformer got hit and the whole that half of that grid was out. So Sunday night there's connected to the stadium and the stadium is part of that. So people are saying when they when they finally went to hit the power, either it's like literally when you Hey, what's wrong? Why is my microwave beeping? So there was some and people are saying why didn't they do a better situational awareness and have an idea that maybe there'd be something when they power up. They'd have a problem. They didn't and that's what you dealt with last night.

37:21So it was residual effect of what actually happened on Sunday night down in Tellhaz. I got to be honest. I wouldn't have played this game. Now they played it. It ended up being entertaining coming down in the end, you know, and again, the three point cover. I think it was three and a half or something of that nature. But I was like, man, if there's any controversial play or anything that happens, no replay, no PA announcer, no clock, no communication with the helmets. Yeah, I was just like, he I don't know. Retlashly, you can thank by the way, thank SMU's Retlashly because he signed off on it. Yeah, and some coaches might not have. That's right. And at the end of the day, Florida States got a quarterback that can't process, can't make decisions and probably needed somebody in his head. And that hurt again, they gave up nearly 600 yards of offense, Florida State couldn't tackle. If not for the the miscues from SMU's quarterback, they gave it over to have time. Yeah, I agree. Look, I don't think the quarterback there is is good. Mike and 135 yards passing told me everything I needed to know last night. Not when I'm watching Darren Minza throw for almost 450 and four touchdowns and there are other quarterback. Hell, look around college football.

38:22Guys, you saw it. The real McCoy stood up. Okay. That's a that's a start track reference by the way. All right. They they were like, Hey, I'm here. Levitt was damn good for LSU. Clemson's quarterback. He's not in lead. They're gonna have a long year. I'm sorry, dabbo. It's just what it is. Your offensive line sucks. It's just what it is. There are teams that you weak one shows you a lot and you start going, okay. The level of competition in some of these games, I get it. Not equal, but that one's supposed to be a conference game where hey SMU we know we're getting into. I just was not impressed with the QB play. No, they got great running back to the FSU, but Ashley Daniels is an app. He's just not the guy. If he couldn't get he couldn't earn the job at Auburn, you see it. He just can't process. And Norval at this point fan base wants Dion fan base wants. And I look at this point. I'll take Jimbo. I'll take Dion. I'll take a Bobby Boutin hologram. I don't anything but Norval. He was completely, you know, resided as no way of knowing and Alabama. They play Alabama. They got a week off. They playing Tuscaloosa. I'll be there for that beat down, but that's going to be ugly. That's going to be probably what you saw with LSU in Clemson.

39:25All right, man. More college football coming up, including the Mac has issued a statement saying replay protocol was not properly followed in that Michigan game. Remember Michigan gets one second on the clock. They hit the hell Mary. Now what happens also plenty of college football news that we need to talk about, but when we come back, we're going to take more of your phone calls. Okay. Guys want to talk about pinnocks. They want to talk about two or they want to talk about the Falcons and rightfully so it's week one Steelers. One o'clock right here on sports radio 92 9 to 9 the game pregame starts at 11. We've got you covered. Stay there at Sukson Bell. Man, what a weekend it was college football was absolutely bananas. And before we talk some NFL, um, we got to talk about Clemson real quick. And, um, I want to remind you guys Mike and I are going to be out. Okay. Come hang out with us. We actually going to be celebrating the Gertie Birds Return to the field. And you can pick up your free Falcons car flag. We've done this. I don't know. Last five, six years, Mike. It's insane. It's fun. Um, but it's down south guys. You can enter to win tickets to the Falcons home opener tomorrow from five until seven at Napa Auto Parts and moral.

40:33Um, we'll be down there. It's right on prior road. Okay. It's where the location is. And it's going to feature, you know, fan photos, autographs with the Falcon legends appearances by Freddie the Falcon. Falcon cheerleaders will be down there as well. Special giveaways and more. I'm just telling you now five o'clock is when they'll start handing out those flags. So I want to just give you a heads up as people showed up early every year. And we're like, where's my flag? So as much as we want to see you between two and five. Yes. And you can chat with us during commercial breaks. Five o'clock is when the Napa Falcons giveaway for the flags to everybody wants drops. And we always we had a guy in 18. We remember the guy double parked one time. We've pulled up. We always get guys like we're coming to Southside. Well, this is our south side appearance. Okay. So South Fulton. Marley. I mean, Southville more. That's where we're going to be. That's right. So combine sees. All right. Visit Atlanta Falcons.com back slash fans for more information. But that is tomorrow guys. So we'll be down there. Come hang out with you. Boys. All right. Just real quick. Before we get into some NFL stuff. Because again, we got games tomorrow starting Patriots Seahawks 820 on NBC. We'll have that game for you. Actually on W.A. Okay, starting at seven. Our sister station. But Mike has it passed double by because this is the thing. He still has refused to go into the portal like other teams. And we've seen how these teams of transition. And all of a sudden now, you know, he's still smiling and saying all the right things. And what if we win 11 games?

41:55We go 11 and one. It's not happening. But dabbo didn't adapt. And what happened is college football over the last five to six years guys saw this transition. Kirby adapted. Nick got out. Sabin adapted before eventually getting now. Right. Okay. Either you got either you got out or you adapted. And we've seen coaches leave, whether it was basketball or football. And the deal is dabbo in my opinion didn't adapt. And so now you're seeing this come to life. We're Mike. The days of keeping a guy for four years and saying, Hey, you know, you've been loyal. And therefore you're going to be my quarterback. Even if there are other quarterbacks in the portal who may be better, he didn't risk it and take a chance to go get those guys. No, that wasn't embarrassing loss. No, and maybe Vizina gets better, but he didn't look like a guy that's an elite quarterback and an elite program. And remember, they brought Chad Morris back. And like the man says, you can never go home again. He lost his assistant coaches the way coach Bouton did. I think there's so many similarities to Bobby Bouton and dabbo, both faith-based guys.

42:55Uh, that had an amazing run. And now it's like you look at if you're dabbo and you're the athletic director, you're the boosters of Clemson. It's a $51 million buyout. I mean, what do you do? I mean, you got to hope that he adapts. Hope that he figures it out because he's showing you unfortunately, like I'm a fan of dabbo. I'm an ACC football fan. But it's just it's broken. He doesn't know how to fix it. And they're just they're all from the weeds right now. Crawl out of how you get this thing back on track. No, they are. And who do you bring it in this day and age? You've got to, you know, it's like If you're if you're Auburn, you feel pretty good about Golisch. You know, Florida, we're going to see what summer rolls all about moving forward, but it's hard to find that next guy. Yeah, you know, and look, Clemson was Georgia, Georgia was Clemson for all those years. I mean, Tommy Bouton couldn't do it. You know, and you bring in dabbo and it's an amazing. The job he did was historical. But now you're right. He just he's lost in space. I this is staggering just to put it in perspective and you say, well, assistance don't matter. Actually, assistance do. And when Brent Vennables was there, he's now at Oklahoma. Okay.

43:55This is a team when Vennables was their defensive coordinator that went 100 and 21 and 17 between 2012 and 2021. He leaves, by the way, they had 10 first round draft picks and two nettings. He leaves. This Clemson team is 37 and 18 now. Since he left, that's 22, 2022 to 2026. Huge drop off. And his other assistant is at Virginia, right? The other guy that was there when they were winning that is in Dona is at Virginia. He also had two first round quarterbacks, Mike into Sean Watson and Trevor Lawrence. There's been a tremendous drop off. And part of this is the portal has changed all of that. If he doesn't change his philosophy, he's done. Right. I mean, DJ, we angle lay. And then as we said, you know, Club neck was nothing special by Clemson standards. They also they had a chance to win the AC. They made some terrible coaching decisions. I mean, in game stuff that leaves you scratching your head, the kind of like what you saw last night would floor the state in game.

44:57All right. Who had the SEC voting to kick LSU out on their bingo card this year? No one. And by the way, why, why are they even, I mean, are they literally don't threaten something you're not prepared to do? They're not going to do. You know, I mean, this is just a great bluff. The paper works out there. The SEC filed an amended complaint against LSU. And basically they're going to vote on it. There's there's no way they're kicking LSU out of the SEC. So I mean, to me, this is just this is like playing poker and you got rags and you're bluffing. You just bluffing. I'm not going to go any and what an LSU by the way is a pretty hot brand. LSU could find themselves in a number of conferences. The big 10 would come calling it a heartbeat. Oh, no doubt. Look, this is this is flexing or attempting to, you know, say I'm bigger than you are. That's what this is. It's a retaliation to what has happened. But remember, Lane didn't dress those kids. Lane did not dress the guys that, hey, they're allowed to play as we told you, he would correct. And I said that all along. He's not going to risk not being in a national team. And by the way, they're really good.

45:59That was not a fluke the other night. That's a, that's a dangerous team that, that now you look at in the SEC and you go, oh, maybe they might make a run in a national title, but he's not good. I said he's dumb. He's not stupid. He's not going to risk it. So he doesn't dress them out. So it doesn't even become a conversation. And the joke then became him, you know, telling Holly at halftime or whatever it was. Well, imagine if we had pro players and everybody lost their mind lines. Right. So Mike, you're right. They're not going to kick out LSU of ES. It's not happening. No, but that's, that's the headline. Everyone's freaking out about it. So you can read I read I retweeted it out there at ATL bell 929. Follow Carl and put them up. See dukes. But yeah, that's, it's a bluff. And I think LSU. Now I'm not your NBC would back up the brings drug like they do a Notre Dame. I think LSU fans are, you're losing your minds. I mean, let's get a reality check. But yeah, there would be a big talent. What are they saying? We'll go independent. Exactly. Yeah. All right. Easy now. Again, what's the old line about the South Carolina before the Civil War? It's, uh, it's, uh, it's too big to be a saying to silent. And it's too small to be in some country and so country. Right. Yeah. No, and it's fair. I mean,

47:02but, but all of that conversation is still there. I'm just glad we got to games, but that that Clinton loss was just, it was really eye opening to see where they are as a program. Talent's not there, guys. No, and it's talent's not there. Miami is rolling. We're going to have to see what Franklin does with Virginia Tech. SMU, like their quarterbacks going to have to learn. He made some dumb mistakes last night. He kept Florida stayed in the game. But you're looking for who's the bell cow. It's Miami. And you saw it. Derry Metsley went to Stanford and dropped them like first period French. No doubt 4047 260929. Uh, we're going to talk to Connor Riley about the dogs and much more. Nice scrimmage, but there were a lot of those around the college football landscape this last weekend. It just was what it was. You didn't get anybody hurt, which is the good news. And you keep moving through this schedule and you continue to build and stack days and Kirby, you know, talked about it. It's about, hey, seeing a different opponent, but I didn't expect anything less. I think the surprising thing, Mike, is when you texted me and said they covered. That was the most surprising thing about the Georgia game. Yeah, man, Tennessee state. And this was one that, you know, it you saw early on everything rolling the new tie the new back up tight end,

48:07who stuck around and stuck around that kid made unbelievable catch will talk more about that with Connor. But everybody got their work in. And you just looked like a team, which that's what you're supposed to do and and not school around. But as we joked around, everybody knows Kirby's number on the spread is bigger than 38. He was like, Oh, 15 and one. Yep. Well, that make that one 15 and one because that was a big cover. That's crazy. All right, man, play more college football day day, what's on his mind? Come up a little bit later on this hour at four. We'll talk to Connor and get his thoughts about all this and much more again, the Mac also saying the replay protocol was not properly followed in that Michigan game. That was absolutely bananas over the weekend. And then, you know, this weekend, looking ahead, we get Texas Ohio State big matchup early in the season. What will it determine as far as the cost for ball playoff is concerned and how that looks. We'll see. But there are, you know, as we move along through the season, you guys know this, the matchups get more and more interesting. And conference play gets more and more interesting as well. All right, we got to talk some NFL, man. Let's get to fourth and one. Two is the starter. That's front and center right here in the ATL. What you care about what we care about. That's what we're talking about with you at 4047 260929.

49:21And not necessarily two of the start. You can comment on that. I think it's more intriguing, Mike, for me, about the mindset of what's going on with Michael pinnocks, where he's at. How long this may or may not take people are assuming because the Falcons didn't put him on the pop list. He will play within the first four weeks of the season. Maybe he does. Maybe he doesn't. Guys, I don't have that timetable. The only thing that we know is what has been laid out in front of us. And now this four quarterback thing that looked too stupid does it. I mean, now it's like, oh, okay, I get it now. Eventually, Tua, would you, I mean, would it be a market for trading to if he does well? I mean, could you, I mean, there's a lot of different ways this thing could play out. I mean, I've always felt that, you know, Cooper Rush would be a guy that somebody would come calling if there's a bunch of injuries looking for solid backup piece or a guy that can maybe get you, you know, as a bridge quarterback. You could probably fit that same bill. But first things first, when are we going to see panics? Okay, so we're not going to see a week one is going to be ready week two. And as you said, you said, by the way, Carl says these things too. You guys always killing me on Twitter. Carl is saying these same things about getting out there, but I don't know, Dade. I draw the fire.

50:26I just recently looked at some tweets. They're killing Carl. Okay. Good. I mean, not good. Carbony. Okay. Not just me. I welcome the hate. Yeah. Causes me. I said earlier, I mean, the best thing to the franchise is for panics to establish himself as the man. Now you went when that establishing begins, you just let me know. Okay, I've waited to see the establish himself establishing just self-structured you beat on the field, you know, and as we said, you know, if this was anybody else, you're a guy for some guys and so the guys feel differently, but it's just strange. It's just that's not what we're used to hearing. But okay, there will be an overabundance of caution before he is ready in his own mind. And is that the mindset of a quarterback that you want to have the NFL? It's kind of hard to wrap your head around. Yeah. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. But hey, I'm sorry. But again, there's no sense in crying over because we're not going to see him this week. So we rally around to hope he doesn't suck and we come out of Pittsburgh with a W and then you'll have this conversation going in a week to home against Caroline. All right, season begins tomorrow. Couple of things. Patriots at Seahawks again. Seahawks are three and a half point favorite.

51:28Thursday, we get 49ers at Rams in Australia. Rams are three and a half point favorite. And then the big news today in the NFL Patriots and Christian, Christian Gonzalez, Mike, four years, 135 million dollar contract extension 102 guaranteed making him the highest pay corner in NFL history. Well, until the next guy, right. But Christian Gonzalez is a guy they drafted. They love and it should be interesting to see two of the best corners in this game on Wednesday with the Patriots and the Seahawks going head to head. Also over the weekend, Roger Goodsale, go grease to a four year contract extension. He's not going anywhere, Mike. No, I mean, like he draws the fire. He draws the, he's a lightning rod for the owners. He does their bidding. You know, he doesn't, he's not the players commissioner. He's not the fans commissioner. He works for the owners. Okay. And they're happy with it because they're making money handover fist. The growth of the NFL is insane and just like any CEO and any big company, which is showing that kind of rapid growth. He keeps his job and he gets a big raise. Yeah. And the company jet and all, yeah. And all the excess. It's really it's, it's a clips like soccer. You know, you think about like into the Premier League and all the way you always said, no, the NFL is the most successful sports league in the world. Period.

52:34All right. When we come back, I think Tinker's on hold, want to hear from you guys. Phone lines are open. What do you make your opinion? Not Mike's not mine. Your opinion of Michael Pinnix saying coach, I'm not ready. 4047260929. You can hit us up. We want to hear from you. It sports radio 92 9 to get at shocking. Very strange. Not used to hearing that. But you guys are all cool with it because I don't even know what's going on there. I give up. I'm not. We don't need no. Yeah. We don't need no. We need more dogs. We've needed more dogs on this team. Let's talk to Eric. He's in Ohio listening only Odyssey app. You can take us wherever you go. Only Odyssey app. Eric, thank you for listening. Hey, man. What are you thinking about this? Hey, man. I'm all doing today. We're good air. Oh, man. Now this is air from Alpharetta. I've talked with you guys many times. Okay. Okay. You know, I moved to Ohio because it's just better. The good thing about where I'm at. No, Ohio. This is a little side just before I get it. It's a Falcon's mecca. Like a lot of people who like moved out of Georgia in the town. I moved to work. That's like 50 to 100. But I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to do it.

53:48I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to do it with those people who like to come out of their house. Shameless houses and such. Chickens sehe, like that. I wanted to get some help from home. I wanted to get the people out here and in my presence. I want to stay here. I want to stay here and save time. I'll be there for you. I'm not going to be able to do it. But listen, I'm not going to be able to do whatever I want. Just because I'm playing with you and make them home when they stay on the same side from home. Like that. I want them home. Like that, you can live with electricity. So there's a lot of people here because it's a little, like that. It's amazing how like I hate you guys. You know, one of them always or never. It's great. So what can women do? You know, sometimes people always do it to brim and now he started to decimand redder 2.0 I warned about it and I was very consistent about it. We have got to the point where he has decimand redder 2.0. Now we just have to cut our ties with them and hope that hey, you know, whoever the next young guy up, he's got to sit for one to two seasons, but sure up, cut our losses where they're at. If he was going to be that guy to bridge, he's got to be that guy to bridge. If not, we have two per rush. We have a good spot

54:48just to need to be patient as a fan base, as a organization, and now since we have Matt Ryan, whoever the next guy is, whether it be strand, whether it be the, I guess, I don't know, whatever quarter back we make it in the draft or without. I'm not going to speculate it's too far out, but they have to sit. That's just the way it is in this state. Have a good rest of your day. Thanks, Eric. Appreciate you, man. Philosophical approach. Be patient. Yeah. And look, this gets back to your gap. I'm going to be here and I told you that the day you said it to me because I'm like, no! Is that where we're at? Yeah. I mean, the good news is you got a lot of studs on this team, and you invested in them. You know, and you invested in pets, you didn't even do the tag. You switched from the tag to a contract extension. They're really, you know, some good contracts are team friendly with the way they've done it with the voidable years. So we're going to have a ton of cap space next year. We just got to find it what the quarterback is. I mean, guys, look, the whole thing, the guy has to get the

55:49skin. That's what the game has. Everyone's got their guy for next year. I mean, I like Trinidad Chamblest. I like what I saw last year. You know, he had a bit of a bump he started through his season. He pulled it out. But that's a guy that I like. But you don't know what you're going to get. You have no way know how. I mean, look at the tights. They didn't even know what they've got. First overall pick in the draft. And they have no idea what they've got. you feeling about Pinnick saying I'm not ready to go. Hey, man. First, let me just get this out of the way. Mike, you're not the only one, man. You and me might be the only two in the city, but I'm not a fan. I haven't been a fan. It's like it when we drafted him. I'm done with them ready for him to go. But for the sake of answering your question, I think it's short term and long term self preservation. I think in the short term, he wanted nothing to do with Pittsburgh's pass rush this Sunday. Absolutely not. And long term, look, the regime in this organization right now, they have no loyalty toward him.

56:53And he knows that. So he's trying to make sure that whether it's here or elsewhere, when he does come back, he plays at least well enough that his career isn't going to be over. So that's what I think, but as an Atlanta fan, I'm ready to move on. Thanks, guys. James, thank you for being honest. That's what we're looking for. We don't have to agree. We're not telling you we're right. We're just saying, where are you at on this? I just have an issue from a competitive standpoint when a guy is medically cleared. I said two weeks ago, you're healed. You've been given the clearance and that's my only concern. And that's why I thought the call earlier today, Mike, when a gentleman called in, and he said, guys, this is all mental. He's just trying to make sure that mentally he's in the right headspace. Guys, let me tell you something. Some confidence, some confidence, some confidence, some confidence. Confidence is a hell of a thing, man. It is. If you don't think your body can do what it needs to do, you're not going to play up to the capability that you need to. I don't care how talented you are. So that if it's just mental, when do you get over that?

57:55At what point does it not bother you anymore? Right. And guys, nobody's calling him soft. I mean, to go through the rehab and to go through that, all the different things he's had to go through with the different injuries he's dealt with, that takes a lot of toughness. I get it. I get that aspect of it. But this is also the reality of why you shouldn't have drafted him. I mean, here we are. We're in the year three. We have no idea what we've got. Or we're going to be, and I hope he, like, I hope he's successful. For the love of God, we want to win a freaking playoff. I'm going to be in the playoffs. Be nice. I'm going to playoff game. But I mean, it's just, if this was any other situation, you would already be looking to next year's draft. You know, I'm not a nambler with two. It's not like it's two overpenix. I just want to see penix out there. And this goes, you've got to wait. Be patient. Okay. You'll be freaking patient. Well, again, it's going to be another season where this guy doesn't play a full season. He doesn't. But a cat in the house, I said, get as a cat in the house. Get out. I'm not playing that. That was orange. Orange is playing that. He went dogs, man. Cat in the house, I said, get as a cat in the house.

58:55It's the truth though, Mike. It is the truth. Let's go. And by the way, I get it. You know, I can't, he's going to say, can't have told him. Okay. So when did Cam Newton become the arbiter of all things common sense in the world? Okay. A guy with a chip on his shoulder, the size of your brawl, who was just so ticked off about anybody you guys mentioned who was in Cam Newton in the NFL. Okay. I'm sorry. He had an MVP season in an unbelievable career. And now Cam Newton's crime here. But every, this guy, that guy, this guy, it's always the same nonsense. And I'm glad he can empathize with the guy with an injury. But even Cam Newton knew you got to get out there at some point. Yeah. That's really what I was. That we know. But that's what it was. And honestly, it was, I'm empathizing with you because I've been in those shoes and I rushed back and I should have. But yes, more than anything, I think that's what he was trying to relate to. And obviously, he won overall pick. Big difference. They were, I mean, Cam fell challenged by a young quarterback. We talked about, you know, the same thing that happened with Kirk Cousins. He felt the challenge of a panics, even though the coach stepped in at Pennix, ready. Because you know, we didn't, we couldn't even go on to Pennix after that St.

59:55game anyway. They couldn't put him in the half time at the Chargers game. No. Remember we asked coach about it. He basically told us he wasn't ready. No, he wasn't ready. And that's not on Pennix. That's on the coaching staff. Yeah. For helping him get ready and having a viable backup. But the bigger point for me is even if he was ready. Cousins, your damnner had to pull him off the field with the truck. He wasn't going to come off. That's the difference. Either you want to be out there or you don't. Do you want to be out there? Okay. We're coming back. Scott and Brad, we're going to grab your phone calls. We'll find out what it's on Day Day's mind next. Cadden House, let's get as a cadden house. Please stop it. It is Duke's in Bell. We appreciate all the input. We got a couple more phone calls. Day Day we need to take before we get to what's on Day Day's mind. I want to grab Scott. And if you're just tuning in, it's week one of the NFL guys. We get games tomorrow, first day. Sunday the Falcons play the Steelers right here on Sports Radio 9290 game. Football coverage on 9290 games presented by Xfinity School.

1:00:58The most reliable Wifi 1 price five years guaranteed. Xfinity, imagine that. And we're just getting your thoughts on what you feel about Michael Pinnix saying, hey, well, I'm not ready yet. And some people go, wait a minute to Mike's point. There's nothing wrong with that. We have a right to question like, what's going on here? Has any had ample amount of time? Nine months since the injury, he gets cleared right about the time that we thought he would. The practice time was an issue. Okay, needs more 11 on 11. Guys, this ain't 11 on 11. He's played. He's been on the field. This isn't about 11 on 11. So what are your thoughts about this? Scott, who's on the road? Thank you for listening to Sports Radio 9290 games. Scott, hey, man. Hey, you guys are the best. Give me a second. Be patient. Let me build my point here for the problem. Many years ago, Brian floors told it. I mean, Chris Greer that tool was not a quarterback. And what happened? A football player talking to a guy who never played the game, nepotistic hire.

1:02:00The guy in, I forget his name. I can't even pronounce it. The guy in Minnesota that told Sam Donald, he wasn't a super bowl quarterback and drafted Jay-Jay McCarthy. A thoughtful mentor. Terry Fontino. Yes. Okay, Terry Fontino. Don't know what he did before football. I know he was semi successful with the Saints. He does the Michael Pennick thing. Then we're going to assess the blame where the blame needs to go and point to management. Chris Greer was given like 18 years or 12 years as a GM in Miami to destroy that franchise, even with some good free agent picks. The problem is he had no idea what he was doing. But people exacerbate these poor hires. They make a bad hire. Then they double down and roll with the bad hire time and time out. If you check a box on Michael Pennicks, if you go down the clipboard, in the past 20 minutes, 30 minutes, I've heard you say he's not a leader.

1:03:02He's often injured. He doesn't want to play. He doesn't want to get, like not once did you give me any positives of what he's done. So then he won a few games at Oregon with an all-star high school team, kind of like what two of did at Alabama. I just can't for the life of me see that those trades didn't come up in a conversation. You're sitting across from a table and you have a younger kid at the time talking to you like he just talked to the press now with three years of maturity under his belt. There's no red flags. There's no red flags. Nobody of intelligence or a professional playing experience raises their hand and says, hey, Mr. Foughtnow, what are you saying that we're not saying? So we can go back and forth all day. I mean, you've got chicken crap and chicken, you know what, with between two of them. They're paying him $100 million to not be in Miami. But you, because you're Matt Ryan or whoever, think that you're different.

1:04:06You're going to create chicken salad out of this walking nightmare that is too. That can't even handle a snap in a red jersey wearing a scrimmage or practice. The problem needs to be addressed that this is Chris Greer 2.0 in Atlanta. Well, again, the good news is he's gone. I mean, the good news is we got Ian Cunningham. That's why I said it was a gap year trying to fix some of the mistakes. You know, we had all those sacks, for instance. That's great. It didn't help us accomplish our goal. We didn't get to the playoffs. So now we're realizing we have some run deficiency. They were addressing that on the fly. Didn't spend a lot of money and freeing C and you saw it. It's all a quick one year deals. But getting back to the will agree, you sound like a very bitter dolphin fan. I know many of them myself and I agree with everything you said about Greer. Greer was able to kind of, you know, jans with the raindrops for all that, you know, malfeasence with that team. But look, with Mike, I don't think Mike's not a leader. Like we saw as a leader, the team responded to the guy they pulled for him. We saw it last year in camp, but this is a moment where it kind of calls for some leadership. You know, like a the man of the mirror.

1:05:06You know, again, I haven't walked a mile in his shoes. Okay. No, I have not been through three rehabs when it comes to a tour of knees or ACLs. But there was a reason why other teams were not going to go down this road. And remember, I asked the general manager and he said, we'll never going to be this bad again. We'll never have a chance to draft this kind of talent, which was the stupidest argument I ever heard of. It was. And it still is because we still may be in quarterback purgatory that that's just the reality of this. I'll say this about your comment. Then we're going to find out what's on day days. Mine. Matt Ryan is in the building now. And whether you want to admit this, Matt Ryan was a dog. Matt Ryan showed up every Sunday. He got his ass kicked sometimes, but he got up and he kept playing. Matt Ryan was rarely hurt in a long career here in Atlanta, where they weren't great every year. Matt Ryan was a leader. And so from a guy who knows what that should look like, I told you from the day he got the

1:06:10job, we got to trust it. We got to trust it. So moving forward, this eventually will resolve itself and get fixed. But that's where I'm at to your comment about the dolphins and the comparison of who's in the building and what they're seeing versus why I think this Matt Ryan hire was really good to be quite honest with you. But there are a lot of people in this city who don't give him his due. He was a dog, man. He took a beating on Sundays and still continuing to get up, deliver passes and try his best to win this city a Super Bowl did not happen. But it's the closest we've gotten with anybody. And now he should know Mike what they want in a quarterback. If he's not seeing it with the people that are in the building, guess what? Right. He's going to make a change. Right. Guys, two is the gap quarterback. He is a guy that was brought in because he's a cheap, viable option. They want it. Look, guys, I still believe in that building. They certainly want to see what they've got with Pettics Jr. And see if he can become the guy which they didn't draft them through with the previous regime did. And you still see the arm talent. We guys go back and watch the games for Washington.

1:07:11Watch those games against Oregon. I mean, watch the semi-final game. Look at those throws he's making. The diems he's dropping. You know, that's why I think fans are so enamored and excited. When do we see that guy? When does that guy show up here? I don't think we've seen that guy since he got here. We've seen flashes of that guy. We haven't seen that guy. Until you're appointed about the arm talent, that is that's the kind of stuff that gets you drafted. How many guys have we thought? You guys remember Jermarkis Russell, right? How many guys have we've talked about over the years that you go, man, he can throw the hell out of the football. But he want to go quarterback. So yes, the arm talent is there. There are positives. We're not all negative on on Michael Pinnix. But what we have to look at is the reality of what we're dealing with. All right, one more phone call. Brad's been holding in Villa Rica. Brad, thank you for listening to Sports Radio 92 9 the game. Hey, man. Hey, man. Hey, man. What good, man? All right, well look, I'm just going to go with my fans, look, bud. V, U, L, D, the ball.

1:08:11We need to get him off the tee and we need to move on. That's the thing. I'm sick of it. It's been three years. I mean, I don't know why we got an injury from quarterback in the first day of play. But you know what? It is what it is. So let's just move on. Let's see what this season brings. And if we could go get Trinidad and Chandler, I'm all for it. I mean, hell, I've been in quarterback Saturday and Sunday. That would be a perfect fit for this outfit. So what do you guys think? No, you're right about that. Look, this particular drive is going to be very interesting. I mean, we're always from the spring in 27. All right. But from the top of the class, even to like the middle tier guys, right? This is going to be very interesting. There will be six or seven quarterbacks taken to first 15 picks. Trust me on this. Just because teams will not be willing to pass up an opportunity to get one of these potential guys and think that this might work for them long term. Half the league. Understand this Atlanta has a franchise quarterback.

1:09:12The other half is looking for one. I know you guys don't see it that way. It's just the truth. Half of the league has it. The other half doesn't right now. We're in the other half. And if you don't have it, you're screwed. I mean, you can't get where you want to go since Matt Ryan left this organization. We went through, do I have to remind you Marcus Mario and Desmond Ritter and Heinecke and then the Kirk Cousins Fiasco with Michael sprinkled in. And now we're your three and we don't know who our quarterback is. So guys, Mike can still win this job and you do all the things you want to see him do. All I've ever said is the odds are long because of the injury history. Is that a lie? That's not a lie. Is that a lie? And you guys are crying. I got guys on Twitter crying, bringing race into this. I'm racist. No, last time I checked, the guys I mentioned, I want to draft the picture. I have to be blick. So yes, I call me what you want. I'm just dealing in facts. And that's spitting hate. I'm spitting facts here. And it's time for this man to step up and grab the breast ring and take over the quarterback job. I just think at the end of the day, it's not about what they look like.

1:10:12It's whether they can play. I've said this for years, Duke says, thank you. Kenny play. It's been my phrase for 20 years. Kenny play. You bring up a name. I asked you a question. Kenny play. If the answer is yes, then let's do it. The answer's no, then let's move on. Day day, I know we've taken a lot of your time today, but we've taken all of his time. Sorry, Dave. What's on your mind, man? What's going on? I just want to give a shout out to Ralph and Amber, Ralph, a big fan of the show. Thank you. Thank you. There's a sun plays for Montenaw area. The game I went to on Friday. I heard someone call my name and he was like, yeah, man, I heard you on the radio with the guy saying you were going to come. And I was like, wow, that is going to come to our game. So I just wanted to show him some love because again, they're big fans of the show. I'm shout out to the entire community out there. Coach Reach, Coach Conno and the AD, who's the AD and then Principal Eddie Hood. They were all just very welcoming and whatnot. Good game. It started off good and then Monroe just had their way.

1:11:13Their quarterback rushed for over 300 yards. Wow. Yeah, he's like got 700 over 700 rushing yards already this season. Nine is it? Nine, yeah, nine rushing touchdowns after that game. So yeah, just wanted to show him some love. So you guys talked earlier about dabble and Clemson. And ironically, I had that in my portion because I was going to ask you guys, do you think it's a possibility? He, you know, does he survive this season? But here, you know, dabble kind of, he, remember last year, he kind of was like, I'll quit, you know, they can, whatever. Well, he's kind of already going that way with some of his commentary. This was him in response to being asked if he has any regrets in regards to his roster construction. Chapel, you come with all these questions. I'll tell you that you're the gotcha guy. Oh, boy. No, I don't, I don't man. I regret being over one right now. I regret that. Uh, but now we're, we're, uh, what can you ask me at the end of the season, you know, the season in over.

1:12:14I mean, we got one game got 11 more. Well, if we go 11 and one, you promised me you asked me that then. Okay, good. I'll answer it. All right. But I'm not answering questions like that, you know, Chapel. I know, I know that's your role when that's in this environment, you know, to, to be to, to be the guy that, that wants to create all the controversy and ask the controversial questions. If that's who you are, it's fine. Uh, I get it. But I'll answer that and say, we played one game. One game, all right. If you, did you play football? Oh, boy. Okay. Well, they, they give you 12 games. And at the end of the year, you count them up. All right. And, and, you know, that's when, that's when those type of questions are fair to me. Uh, you know, not after one game to maybe the best team in the country. Maybe the best team in the country. All right. Now, other people have good teams and coaches and things like that too. Uh, he ain't going to make it.

1:13:15Yeah. By the way, Graham Neff is the athletic director who went out from Georgia Tech with Dan and Rada Kat, where at Rada COVID? That's right. I was a butcher the name. Anyway, he took over. He's the athletic director now last five years. He climbs it. He's got to get dabbing in the room so you can't do this anymore. No, you can't. No, you can't. You can't come with all these questions. You just can't. It's cringe. It's cringe city, man. Look, the gotcha. I mean, yeah, it's the gotcha. You just got smoked on national TV. You look like the fall from grace is complete. You've gone from a team that beat Alabama national championship games. You know, you look like a team that literally looks like mediocre in the mediocre ACC. Yeah, man. I know. I've gotcha. Well, yeah. And that became very personal too, okay? That's another thing. Be bigger than that, Debo. This was my problem with the whole cut in the collar off crap a couple of years ago. Now he doesn't take call ins when the fan base wants to have that extension to you. That hand shake. Hey, I'm supporting you, but I want to know how you feel about this. And now you've cut that out. He ain't going to make it during that crap. I'm telling you right now, that's that was a little bit uncalled for. And you're right. You got 11 more.

1:14:15You go through six more of those weeks. Of this kind of stuff, it's just not a good look. And I said to Mike, they're not going to cut the check, but he may run himself up out of there. Yeah. You know, by the way, he's handling this. Take your medicine. Mike's right. Just man, you know what we weren't good enough. We were, let me tell you guys this, they're not talented enough to run off 11 games. Okay. And that's in a week or a ACC, Mike, they're not going to do that. No, I'm sorry. No, it's just these are tough times, man. You create a monster, the level of expectations, but you built an amazing program, but you have not, it's all document hasn't pivoted. He hasn't pivoted to the new face of college football in the new world. And if you're a Clemson fans, man, just look, it could be worse. You could be Florida State. But I mean, it's just, it's really, it's just really these are as dusty would say, hard times right now and ACC. Hey, man. Hey, man. Good stuff. That's, I'm shocking. Come on, dabbo. Pray on him. Watch radio, 92 9 the game is your home for college football coverage in Atlanta.

1:15:17Join us in Saturday. 8 AM is Mitch Evans and Abe Gordon set the stage for all of the days. Big games of college football game time was in the car Saturday. Listen to that. Guads of the guys. They did a great job. Check them out guys. It's brought to you by Ingles, Lil' Prices, Love the Savings and by window nation, window nation.com or call 86690 Nation. That's all this Saturday starting at 8 AM on sports radio, 92 9 the game. Hey, what about them dogs? We need more dogs? What the falkins? Well, the dogs look pretty good. We'll talk to our man, Connor Riley next. Chapel, you come with all these questions. I'll tell you, you're the gotcha guy. What a day. Well, man. It's incredible to the response and people. They're fired up. No, the things, look, football's an amazing thing. It brings us together. It tears us apart. And that's what's happening right now when it comes to the decision that the falkins are made. Now, again, this is my opinion. I don't think that this is the decision, Kevin, is the fans you wanted to make. I think Mike, he was forced to make this because your quarterback comes to you and says,

1:16:18I'm not ready. I can't run you out there. Yeah, I mean, I'm having a dialogue with a lady and I'm like, are you listening to yourself? You're rationalizing the only guy for the job is had three ACL surgeries anywhere else in football. Any other guy you'd be saying, there's nothing guy for the job. You'd be moving on. You know, I went back, I looked it up, we're just talking to our boss, my contender, in the commercial break. Just real quick. In 2003, when Mike Fick got hurt, coming back from the injury in the preseason game against the Ravens, he came back guys ahead of schedule. He was back. It was a injury in September of 2003 and he was supposed to basically miss it. It's officially said it was going to be probably the whole season. And then it was well, maybe he can come back came back in week 12 against Carolina. You know, I mean, that was the game where he levitates. Remember like the last five yards and gets in the end zone. Remember, Mike Fick with his helmet off. I still get goosebumps talking about it. It was one of those great nights at the Georgia Don't. It was an unbelievable atmosphere that day to be in that building. So I'm just saying it's like, we've been taught, and again, maybe you weren't. Maybe you just have a different mindset. But football, you're never 100%. You know, and this guy's fighting for a starting job and just we hear a guy say, he's

1:17:21cleared by the medical and he's not fighting. You're not fighting to start week one in Pittsburgh with your team. It's just strange. Okay, I'm not calling him a coward. I'm not saying he's soft. I've just said, I've never seen anything like this before from a quarterback. And how far does that go with your teammates? I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Mike Fick rushed back for a team that was eliminated by the playoffs like four weeks prior. I mean, I'm just giving you an example. You're saying it mattered. It mattered. It mattered. That's what you're saying. This has nothing to do with comparing the two or any of that. We're talking about the circumstances. That's the matter. That's the standard that as a Falcon fan, I'm putting him up against. Yeah. Okay. That's it. Okay. I came back. You know what most guys would have done? I tapped out. I'll see you next spring. I'm not doing that. Three and 10 and he comes back. That's what we're talking about when we say this competitive thing about, man, either you want to be out there, you don't. All right. 404-726-0929. More of your phone calls, but right now we got to talk some dogs.

1:18:27Well, Conor Raleigh, that was easy. What do you believe, Kirby Smart felt he learned most about his team Saturday? There are deep football team. They have a lot of guys that can make plays where, you know, Jayden Radell, who had the high-level play that we all saw score to touch down early in the game. Like, he's probably in terms of snap plays this year. He's not going to play more than lost and lucky or Elias Williams until like there are deep team, you know, and talking with people in terms of opponents that have come in the Sanford Stadium. I don't know that there's been one worse than the Tennessee State game. So it's hard to make like sweeping generalizations, but you saw a lot of the young talent on this team. Well, yes, they have a way to go and I have to go out there and prove it in SEC play. I think you can see whether there's a lot to like about this team and if this team can hit it ceiling, it has the makings of a team that can win a national championship. It just has to get there and go out and prove it against obviously better competition. Yeah. I mean, no just respect to the Tigers of Tennessee State. It's just that it is what it is. It's a classic week one and they're out manned.

1:19:29So knowing that the talent level is not what you're going to see next week, what Western Kentucky that eventually get into SEC play. But did you like what you saw from some of the offensive rotation? Yeah. You know, I was I was interested to see, okay, like which receivers they're going to try and feature and get involved early where like if you can get them the ball, they're going to go out there and do things. So that talent, Taylor, we've talked at Nazim about this offseason, got an offensive touch on each of the first four possession. That was very intentional by Georgia and you see that reward with the touchdown and you had an explosive run on a play that we've seen Georgia run time and time again. I think the other guy where there was a lot of preseason buzz about Jane Redell and while the level to which he dominated may have surprised some people. I don't think anyone that really followed this program or shocked. The guy that really impressed me on Saturday was a liest Williams. Now maybe a six foot seven to 160 pound tight end is supposed to look like that against an FCS team, but he had the touchdown where he goes over the top. And then you also caught a play action pass later in the game where you know that's something that's what was wanted to focus on and really improve over the course of the season.

1:20:30So gunner hitting a tight end over the middle on a play action pass. Even though it's obviously gets overmatched opponents, that's a nice thing to check off on the box. And then the other thing with a liest that is so impressive for me and I think it's going to open up so much down the field. It's a ability to perimeter blocker. I don't feel bad saying this because Kirby has already said it. The greatest that are done in Washington was as much as Georgia liked using him. A liest Williams is a better player than I think Darna Washington. Plus the time at the University of Georgia. And if he can hit his ceiling, that's going to be really, really I think important for what this team could be. And especially as it wants to be more exposed to because so many of the things that turn, you know, maybe a 15 year play into a 50 year play comes with down field blocking. And there's not someone on this Georgia team that does a better job of that than tie that into liest Williams. Connor follow me on this because I think Gunner sees obviously better players daily in practice. But to go out and complete 15 to 16 for 202 three touchdowns to three different receivers. I mean, did did did did he show us something and did we learn something about Gunner?

1:21:35Yeah, I came away really liking the way that Gunner played and specifically it's the little things, you know, I mentioned a play action pass over the middle of the field. There was another play later on in the game where in the past, you know, no one was immediately open. Gunner would have probably taken off and run. He fits in the pocket and delivers a ball to Craig Gandridge over the middle of the field that results in an explosive play. For the first time in his Georgia career, Gunner Stockton started a game and finished with zero rushing attempts. And that's so important for a longer college football season where you're going to want to limit hits and limit the wear and tear that comes in your body. You know, Alabama quarterback Kew on Russell and a blowout win over ECU. He let Alabama in rushing 13 carries for 186 yards and one of that looks nice on the statute. As we saw a season ago with Ty Simpson, if your quarterback is taking repeat and hits over and over the course of the season, it's just not a great recipe to have. So that Gunner stayed in the pocket, worked in the pocket. Did a good job of distributing the football and getting rid of it quickly. And I think all by against a very overmatched opponent, distributed the ball to the tight

1:22:39ends and over the middle of the field. Those are some of the biggest off season question marks we had with Gunner. The fact that he went out and answered them as cleanly as he did, I think is encouraging to where he's got to do that against SEC play obviously, but he at least showed the ability to go out there and do that. Is there anything you want to see against Western Kentucky? Because you kind of laid out Conor Riley from Dog Nation with us. You're not going to be doing the stuff you're going to be doing against Oklahoma with your game plan. It's going to be really white bread. So you just basically big box car of a little box car and run your offense. Do you want to see Nate Frazier continue to run the ball? Coming into the season, I thought that this was a game where it actually might be a little bit trickier on paper than the way that it looked like. This is a Western Kentucky team that consistently gone to bowl games. They've been able to punch it up against their weight. Last year, I know that LSU team has thrown in the towel of the season. They played LSU to a 13, 10 game in Baton Rouge. So they're not going to be intimidated by what you see. But I actually think in all the calls, one of the more surprising week one results. Western Kentucky would out to Nevada, a team that is in exactly great.

1:23:39It is not what it was when it had Concaper and I could quarterback. And they lost 49 to 14 and really got blown out. And so now they're having to fly back cross country, play George at this week and then next week they got to go play at Indiana as well. It is just a tough spot for Western Kentucky. So I think for Georgia, whereas like this may have been a game where they were going to have to strain a lot more than what you saw against Tennessee State, I just wonder with how much maybe Western Kentucky is lost to the transfer portal and the turnover that really impacts group of six programs on a yearly basis. Now, where their players just get called up to the big leagues and the power for again, I think it's going to be more the same. Where you want to see you're to start fast. You want to see a crispness with the way they play when the starters are in there and you saw that again, Tennessee State 5-3 touchdowns to start the game. 5-start three and outs. Maybe you see Georgia force a turnover this week. Something they didn't do a week ago. But again, a fast start where you're able to get your starters. The guy you know, you're going to be asking to make big plays later on in the season. You can get them out of the game early. I think that's the thing that you're really most looking forward to this week. Connor, let's take a look because we got a bunch of these teams obviously on the schedule.

1:24:41Mike mentions OU. They played Michigan watching this last weekend. Want to get a feel for them? Alabama, right? Auburn with an incredible, you know, game right here in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Florida with their new coach. Old Miss Fonds a way to win. My point is, who is the most impressive team in your opinion as you watch this first weekend? Is LSU hype or is that real? Like, are they that good? I was someone who was probably higher on LSU coming into the season than maybe perhaps the consensus I had them playing Georgia in the SEC championship game. And the way that they beat Clemson, where they were just so much better along the line to scrimmage. And it looked like varsity versus junior varsity, no matter who Clemson had out there at quarterback. And I thought they were really motivated by some of the things that have happened of late. And I've given in credit for getting that team ready to play, going out and dominating the way in which they were. It admittedly was not a great week one in terms of games that were available in terms of big name matchups.

1:25:41But I certainly think the way that LSU played Sam Loutert first came off a foot injury for him. If he gets more and more confident, I think that team can become even more dangerous. So a lot of that, yeah, it's probably Clemson not being very good. And it just so clearly seems like the game has passed out of Sweden by. But I certainly take LSU and they're much more serious team and potentially move them sort of into that title contending tier. Will you see a Georgia Ohio State a Texas in that manner? Talk with our man, Conor Riley guys about the dogs, obviously the big story. And I said a car earlier in the show, didn't really think I'd see the SEC voting to maybe kick LSU out of the conference. Seems like a big bluff. Is this just another misfire from Sanky and Company? I get it. It was like the villagers were out with pitchforks and torches and batten rouges, but they really even considered this because I think if you're not going to do it and you wouldn't do it, then don't bluff it. I think what the SEC wants here is the ability to get in writing from a court that we can actually enforce our rules and enforce punishments and make things difficult.

1:26:43I don't believe they're actually going to kick LSU out. But I do think that they want the ability to do so in case there is something this agrees just again moving forward. And I do believe that the SEC in some way wants to punish LSU for taking things to the extent that they have already gotten to because they don't think that Greg Sanky liked being embarrassed the way that he was last Thursday when he was called to testify in this case. So again, I agree with you Mike. I don't think that the SEC wants to kick LSU out. I don't think they're going to go to that nuclear option. What I do think they want to do at this point in time is leverage the current LSU situation into having the ability to play by their own rules to where they can set their own rules and have self-government shift because that's something to talk with Jerry Morehead. We've known that there are people and pockets within the SEC that have been in favor of that for a long time. I think now the SEC is trying to leverage this LSU situation into making that a reality because then that really allows them, I think, to move forward in a way that they would like and not just in retaliation to the way that LSU has behaved of late.

1:27:48Is it going to be tougher to win at Alabama or tougher to win at Ole Miss for Georgia this year? I'm going to say Alabama because, again, just the history that they have there is not great regardless of who has been the coach there for the Crimson Tide. Although, you know, Kirby Spawn has never won in Oxford. He lost there his first year and then two years ago and then went to go visit. They lost there once again. But that LSU defense has a lot of issues that I saw against Louisville and that whole team and I know they were without Kalon Lacey in the second half which impacted their ability to go out and try and ice away that game. But so much of their ability comes down to Trinidad Chambleys just being able to create magic. And I'm sure there are Georgia fans who are getting PTSD, you know, every time Trinidad dropped back and Louisville had him sort of dead to rights. And he just sort of wiggles out of it and then goes and makes a play down field. So, you know, that, you know, the Ole Miss Louisville game in a way felt like a carbon copy of that Georgia game where Ole Miss had a double digit lead in the fourth quarter. They looked like they were cruising.

1:28:49Louisville gets two scores there at the end to actually tie the game and then Ole Miss gets in in line for a long-ish field goal to have a 47-48 yards. Almost to a tee the way the Georgia game played out. All by Georgia was only down 10 and then couldn't get the touchdown on their penultimate possession. They had to settle for a field goal there. So I just have a lot of questions about Alice or Ole Miss and the fact that Kalon Lacey has already hurt the wear and tear of the burden that I think this year is on Trinidad Chambers that maybe in a way wasn't a season ago because of the defense that Ole Miss had. That makes the Alabama game a bit more worrying to me, even though I think the better the game the Georgia should still win. But obviously that's not the first time we stood there out of Georgia out of Alabama game. Right. No doubt we'll see how things go this weekend. Connor Riley, tell the people where they can find your stuff. Yep. You guys can follow me on Twitter at KConor Riley. Mike, I'm glad you have the ability to get to Twitter again after what happened to him for the last night. Yeah man. I'm glad you're back from the Stone Age. The struggle was real. No, actually, why if I didn't? Ironically, why if I worked the whole game during the stay in the game?

1:29:50And I said Connor, I said on Twitter go why can't we just watch the game the way Oliver Stone filmed any given Sunday. And everything would be very dark and moody. You know, let's do it. Crazy. Crazy stuff. Connor, thanks so much man. We will talk to you next week buddy. Yep, thanks guys. Yeah man. And he's right. You take little things from these games, lesser opponent. I hear you, but there are things that you go, hey, there's some growth there. He's right about Gunner guys and for Gunner not to run. Right. Like that's interesting. Good pocket discipline. That's it. So we'll see how's they continue to grow. I think again, first real challenge. If you want to say that is Arkansas, Mike, that third game right on the road. Right. We'll see how it goes. It's very as venable as when Oklahoma comes. That's going to be the big one because I think their defense is legit. I think Oklahoma, go ahead, put me down. Today, Wednesdays weekend, Oklahoma over Michigan. Yeah. And by the way, it should make me tear a peanut cup. See what happens. We melt. All right, man, we're coming back. We got a lot more to dive into. Mike mentioned it.

1:30:50Not one, not two, not three. We've had six starters. Come on. What's going on? It's Duke's and Bell. I just, I mean, some days you wake up and you get on social media and you talk about Duke's and Bell and you talk about things and you read and you're like, I just, you feel like you're in another dimension. Yeah. Like, we're in Bizarre World. I had another guy I just saw on Twitter, mad props to Michael Penex. For what? To make the right decision. You're a plauding a guy for not doing his job, what he's been cleared to do his job. I'm like, I just, you got to be kidding me. I know the guy today, Carl. And he's at home. He's had a schedule. What happens if he looks like terrible? You're really going to compare a first ballot hall of favor. You know, who's one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever dress out? Well, the guy who hasn't established his brand yet in the NFL being, I mean, you guys, the analogy, doesn't even make sense. Another one, Aaron Donald is not flying to Australia because he doesn't want to.

1:31:52He's also earned that right because he's also a first ballot hall of favor. And he ramped up his, his work to start. So he's, he'll be starting next week. If you can't tell the difference from where Michael Penex is in his career and where Aaron Donald is in his career, I really don't know what to say to you. Yeah, they're on a different plane that this is true. Um, and, you know, the quarterbacks are, like, J.D. Shakin is ahead. They're not on a different plane. J.D.? No, no, they're on a different plane. But you brought up a very good point. I, I, I, I, I even think about it. What? You're right. The career, Michael Penex could also be worried about his career. Third ACL. What career? Doesn't have a career yet, Dadeys. And he may, and, and if he rushes back, he could never have a career. Well, if he doesn't get on the field, he's not going to have a career either. You think about that? I'm just saying. I mean, this is for dating. This is the same. This is for G.D. I'm sorry. Now you, you guys have pulled it out of me. I was going to leave it alone. Bring it. Bring the heat. But I am sorry. I disagree. When Kirk Cousins hampered this team, you all were upset that he did not come forth and

1:32:57come forward. Here it is, Michael Penex Jr. literally said, it is not fair to this team or organization for me to go out there, not 100%. Why would I jeopardize this team getting off to a 0 and 1, 0 and 2, maybe even 0 and 3 start knowing I can't give them 100%. It was never mental with Kirk Cousins. He didn't say mental. He don't have to. He didn't say mental. He's been cleared physically by the doctors. You want to add something? Go for it. There's a difference here though. Cousins didn't tell John Grood and Febby were at the Hebeback for training camp. Oh, it's a good point. Or tell everybody during OTA. Was he at training camp? Was he at training camp? I'm just saying. Was he at training? He wasn't a fool. He wasn't a fool. The doctors physically did not clear him to be a fool. And then when he was cleared, what was he doing? He was out there for three days. 11-11. He was out there for three days. He got cleared by the doctors.

1:33:58He was out there for three days. And then Pentex followed it up with, yeah, during training camp, I'll be ready for week one. It's a four week. It's a four week. I got four weeks to my next appointment. But I might get cleared before then. At every single stop of this, it's been Pentex. It's been Pentex. It's been Pentex. Pentex is the one. It's been pushing the narrative. That's the difference day day. It's been him. You think him as the Pentex? The fans, he's like, what do you want to do? They didn't declare a start of this off season. And for that reason, right there, because they did not know. My dad had the press conference before training camp. It was, oh, the doctors didn't know my ACL was torn until they had the surgery. Then later on, it was like, yeah, they did this different procedure. Every other time with Pentex, it's been something else to either say like, this is why I'm not ready yet. I told you guys why I was going to be ready. But my point is he's telling you he's not ready. And my point is when is it going to be ready? It doesn't matter when he's going to be ready.

1:35:00The point is you're arguing you were pissed off. No, no, listen, you guys were pissed off at curses for not saying not being truthful. Now you got a guy being truthful. And now, oh, he's talking to me. I need to lie. He needs to be a better man. He maybe needs to lie a little bit there. He has a great relationship with God. He's not going to lie. You're talking to that demo. You can't tell the difference with a guy that says. He's got a wonderful relationship with God. He's not going to lie. Good to hear. Good, great to hear. You can't tell the difference with a guy who got a side for $100 million, right? And a guy who hasn't done anything yet in this league. And he wants to do something. He's not going to jeopardize. Never been able to do anything. So if you had a kid and your kid doesn't want to go to school. You want to start to feel like the guys that you're kids that say, you're starting to feel like dabble. You ever play football? You're kid. You're kid. Do you make your kids go to school in the morning? Yes. You feel right? You can't say they don't feel good. It depends because when you're a parent, you know your kid. And that's the point. When you're a parent, you know your kid.

1:36:02And you know what? Coaches know their players. So if they're not pressing the issue, why are we? Because they can't. He's making the decision. He's controlling the narrative. But they've put that in his hand. He's, they have to. Okay. So we got to trust that they know what they're doing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not about trusting them. It's about trusting the guy who doesn't have confidence to do what they're doing. What he needs to do right now. No, you got it. And by the way, as a coach, I wouldn't run him out there either if he said, no, I ain't ready. I'm not playing you. Exactly. For what? Exactly. I'm telling the win game. So if he doesn't play till October, okay. So then you're going to have on an eight, nine week audition. And you got to make a decision in May. If you're keeping this guy, you're going to pick up that fifth year option. This is my here's the station is ridiculous. Guess what? Michael Pinnix knows that. He knows the risk he's taking. He knows that. He's not dumb. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. This is great. I've never heard people rally for a guy to not do his job. I've never heard of this rally. You went car at the beginning at the end of the day.

1:37:05Two was the starter. Let's go. You can rationalize any. If he's your guy, you can rationalize any decision. Regardless of how ridiculous it is in the in the in the in the. It's not about the entire entire picture of it is. Do you want to be a starting quarterback in the NFL? Do you want to have a career in the NFL? How is this? Because eventually you are going to have to get out there on the field. And most people would say, you know, week one, I like to be out there and start the season. You know, I'm cleared medically. When is he going to be cleared mentally? And when does that happen? Because it's so open ended and we're so freaking soft as a society that you just go, oh, he's not ready. He's not ready. He's not ready. You know, and Kirk Cus is dead to a disservice, but it's completely apples to our issues. He needs to be. He needs to be. I know. Honestly, it's not apples. You guys wanted on. Did you not want? No. Did you not say you're looking at this, but what I'm looking at this the wrong way. But I'm saying you wanted honesty from Kirk Cus. Right? No. And regard so you didn't want honest. No, no, no, no, no, no.

1:38:05What we wondered about at the time was the decision, right, of I am going to risk it. This is what we're talking about. I'm willing to risk it. I'm already injured. I know I don't feel right. But I'm willing to risk it because I give the team the best opportunity to win. And I'm telling you that game respect from his teammates. He didn't play well. He'd be the first one to tell you that. But the idea was mentally, you are not going to pull him off the field. We didn't like it because we lost games. We didn't like it. But I respect the mentality. So why can't you respect the difference? And that's the difference. I can't respect refusing to give yourself an opportunity to go achieve it. Cusons did that. I didn't like the result, but hell, I got to respect the fact that he had the balls to go out there and say, you know what, I know I'm not 100%. But I'm not coming off the field. We're questioning whether this guy's got heart. Let's be honest, Atlanta. Can we be honest? You're questioning whether he's got heart.

1:39:06And you're dead. That's not the discussion we should be having. You're rationalizing it. Any other walk of life. I'm rational. Any other athlete, you'd be saying, what's up with that? It was another city, another guy. No, the reason why I'm not, though, in this instant is because dude has been hurt. Yes. I don't need him going out there. Yes, why? But this is the reality check. He's an often injured quarterback. And the likelihood of him finishing the season is probably five to one. I don't even know what the odds to quantify it. This way, it's a mood point. Never should have been drafted here in the first place because of the injury history. And now because he's coming off another injury, we're going to sit here and wait till win Halloween. To get him out there, Mike Vic came back for an meaningless season. Bushed his ass. I mean, remember the bravest break his leg in the end, so we all saw it. And he rushes back because it meant something. He's out there. I mean, this guy was an all-world guy. He's the face of the NFL at that point. That's right. And he rushes back to come back early for a team that was eliminated from the playoffs. And that's the kind of hard I'm what I just want to see that from Michael Penex. And you said he was the face of the NFL at that point. He was.

1:40:06And Michael Penex is not even close. No, no, no. He's got to get out there to establish his freaking brand. The same argument with Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes is out there because he's got he's a fighter. He's got that DNA. I want to see that same juice from Michael Penex Jr. That's a more question. So Mike's thing right there when he's talking about was the fact that like Vic was the face of the NFL, but he still came back. He did. And he didn't have to. Mahomes might be Mahomes was one of the face of the NFL. He didn't have to either. But he came back. He doesn't have to. You don't think you're going to Andy Rince on these three weeks? And he's like, cool. We'll roll with it because he doesn't have to. Let me ask you guys a question. I'm so hurt. Let me ask you guys a question. It's Duke's and Bell Sports Radio 92 9th the game. Guy hits us up. Mikey says Penex was cleared for 11 on 11, but not for contact. When does that happen? How does that happen? My point is this guys, you don't get contact until you actually play real football. That's how this works. So the idea that he was cleared, but not for contact. What are we talking about?

1:41:08He's not going to be taking contact and practice at any situation. All right, Mike, what are we having guys? Hey, man. Well, usually the incompetence with Florida stages starts an answer to the sideline, but it went to the whole stadium. Getting us what that was like to be out of town at the last night. Also hats off to CJ Nick Cowske. Got to tell you about a guy thrown into a very difficult set of circumstances for a broadcaster. I'll explain coming up and got to talk to you. And this guy can't block a, he can't block anybody. Right. And so Mike, when you start investing in these guys, you have to know that you're investing in the right players. And for dabbo, he's not only going out and not gotten the right players. When he has attempted to do the portal, which has been far few in between, but then his loyalty to keep guys in the pro. You've been here. And therefore I'm going to play you this guys that are better. And that's what these other coaches are doing right now. Speaking of the N.I. Hell and the transfer portal, the DeCier brothers of Florida State, Darrell and Mandrel. If you didn't see it, Mandrel did his impression of, I guess, Miles Garrett last night going up to the line. Did you see this day? He's doing this thing with the arms and everything.

1:42:10Kind of looks like James Harden bringing the ball up and then he gets trucked and run over on it. It's nothing. I mean, these are hard times for Clemson fans, hard times. Certainly for Florida State fans last night. It was the, that's about the craziest night I've spent in Tallahassee. And I told Carl earlier, what happened was the night before the power grid took a hit. And I guess nobody at Florida State said, maybe we should see if we're going to be okay to power up the stadium because a transformer blew the night before. And they think I've been article in the Tallahassee paper, the Democrat that maybe had something to do with it. Either way, it was all internal. And so there's all these memes out there of like other chiefs to Virginia, Miami, everybody's like, our lights are on. Oh, yeah. Everybody's piling on. But yeah, they give up nearly 600 yards of offense to SMU. If not for some SMU miscues, that game would have been over big time. And Norvell, Blue Clock Management, but we're used to that. And all I heard from the fans last night was they want Deon. I'll tell you what, Deon, you can be a six and six this year with Colorado comes to talent. Got to buy out Norvell first though. A lot of buyouts out there potentially in college, but Colorado comes down there.

1:43:11No, no, I'd love to see him. If Colorado goes six, if you get, because what's a good number date, if you follow Colorado, can they get to 500 this year? With all the changes. I think so because I think the win over Georgia Tech was key for them getting there because I think the next couple of games are kind of their lighter in the schedule games. So which would put them, you know, they should be able to get off to a three and no starters, what I'm saying. I don't have their schedule right in front of me, but yeah, I think they can't get to be in a 500 team, especially with that win over Georgia Tech. Right. Braves, by the way, we'll talk with Grant McCauley about what the Braves did, but they basically go in there with four game lead. Come out of Philly with a four game lead. Guess you can't complain about that. Three more with Philly coming up later next week. But here's the thing. Sunday was the NBC joint broadcast. Yes. So the Braves and Philly's, and what they do for that one, it was, I had to look it up. One of the voices was Ruben Amaro, the former Philly GM, and the other guy was Adam Otovino, they call Otto, a career relief pitcher. Correct. And they throw CJ Nick Kowski in that mix with the NBC play by play guy. And so it's kind of tough because you're trying to manufacture chemistry and some of these broadcast have been rough.

1:44:14I thought CJ did a hell of a job. There was a couple of plays with the Philly guys. Like I'm not saying they're bad, but it makes you appreciate like when you listen to Arch and West Durham and your West. Drew. And you listen to other NFL play by play. And it's right. Man, it sounds like amateur hour. Not saying the Philly's were that bad, but CJ was really on point. And they were like, why isn't what what's going on there? Why did Nazi try to run? It's CJ explained everything. Here's what we're doing. Here's the tactic. It's like he never played baseball. And it was like and see I almost felt and the funniest part dead out of you heard this. CJ, they were talking about, uh, I was dillianly was pitching a Bryce Harper. And so it's, it's Harper Lee, the author of to kill a mockingbird. And so CJ says, it's like, well, we got to kill a mockingbird scenario here. You could hear crickets. Nobody the broad can't spook that any idea. What's I got a kick out Harper Lee get it. Lee's throwing a Harper Harper in Lee. And anyway, but great job for him. And that was tough. I thought great job CJ because you know, sometimes it's difficult to be throwing it. You have no, you know, chemistry. You don't really know the guy. You never worked together. Right. Try to make it work and not step on each other.

1:45:15I agree. Now it's a good job. Hey, man. Uh, here's a stat, uh, which I wasn't really, I did not. I did not expect to see this today, along with the LSU potentially getting kicked out of STC. We'll talk more about that next hour. Um, Mike Tomlin does an interview. What was the format on this, uh, Orrin? It's a podcast he was doing or an interview. It's a Craig Mellivan. So I guess it's something NBC related. Okay. So of all the things that Mike Tomlin does when he's not coaching football, well, I didn't expect to hear this. I don't know. You were a game, either because my kids were got it. And, and so how do I connect with them? How do I meet them where they are and spend time with them? I started playing Minecraft, man. When my kids were young, I have a Minecraft city. I'm creative, man, that I've been working on for like 12 years. Still 12 years. And the kids are long gone. Hey, do they still play too? Hey, no, but when they come home, they're like, hey, dad, put your city up, man. Let me see what's up. Oh my gosh. Like my, my kids have, they, they've, they've, they've taken it from PS3 to PS4 to PS5.

1:46:20Yeah. Like they're in the preserving it because they know I don't have the technical knowledge. You know, but we've been talking recently about, about sharing it with the world. Isn't that wild? It is. And I got to tell you that damn Minecraft, my daughter spent so much money on that damn game. I need more money from Minecraft. What are you doing? I'm building a new state. I can relate to that part of it. But no, I did not know Mike Tomlin, but you know what he's right. What are your kids into? Can't force him to do things Mike that they're not interested in. So I'm going to come and do some things. But that's cool, man. And by the way, I hope he's that on these broadcasts. Yeah, let me in, man. I'm hoping that because we knew he was going to do at least one year at TV. Sean Peyton, like Sean Peyton, it's just a real edgy dude. And he has no charisma. And that was a tough watch on Fox. It was like, oh, and hopefully might bring some juice to NBC. We'll find out. But that, like I said, that's the last thing I was expecting to hear too. Speaking of football, I showed this image to Carl. And orna, I don't know if you've already seen this. Have you seen the image that was out there about about the week now of clay Matthews?

1:47:21Have you seen this? Well, Clay is always a big guy. I mean, you know, former Packer and you know, his dad was a NFL legend. His uncle Bruce or his cousin, of course, take Matthew. The idea that he would get plastic surgery to look like Thanos. See him a bit much. Data, have you seen the images of this? So I saw this last week and I said, there's no way in God's green earth that an NFL player would do this to his body. You know, there's other people that identify as a cat and they'll have plastic surgery. They're nuts and they're just do this. Anyway, later turns out TMZ picks it up and they basically look like he's here is Clay Matthews. It's AI. Somebody doctored the whole thing. Clay Matthews had to take the social media to say, no, I did not get plastic surgery to look like Thanos from the Avengers because it looked really weird. I mean, he's all he's all juiced up. His chin looks crazy. Yeah, when you show me that I was like, what is going on? I mean, literally like, like, look like a superhero or a super villain. Yeah, with the cheekbones and the jawbone protruding. Look, literally, it looked like something out of, well, like, sin city or like from the Marvel movies. Anyway, it's not real.

1:48:22It's end and that's the thing with AI. You can do everything. Yeah. Right. You see now in political campaign and political action. They get not that per se and an alien. It's scary. But you're going to have the other person doing stuff and then you say, I didn't do it. Yeah. It's a scary thing, man, only because most people don't realize what's real and what's not right. And unless you are, you know, again, Mike, how many times you scroll and just you see something on. Oh, that's interesting. Right. You don't know if it's AI or not. Right. The exaggerated appearance with Matthews. He's maintained a reasonable look. The guy's always in green. Oh, he's in gray. Carved out of wood. Yeah. Put some note. If you saw that, it's not real. It's a fugacy. Okay. By the way, tomorrow before I forget, we're going to be doing our, I guess we'll call our annual Napa Falcon flag giveaway. We do it basically this time of year every year. And this is like a third or fourth year when we're doing this fifth, I think. Yeah. I mean, we've been, and guys always say we come to Southside. So if you want to see us, come see us. We're going to be at Napa 5280 Jonesboro Road in Marrow, just about from Lake City, basically, Marrow Lake City. We'll be there guys from two to six. The flag giveaway though starts at five. That's right. Sometimes guys like, you know, it's a flag at that time yet.

1:49:24Fred of the Falcon will be there. Usually there's a Falcon legend. We hanging outside an autograph essentially how it works. Falcon cheerleaders us and, and hopefully people not stopping traffic. Is it happened? A few times in the past. Hey, man, we stopped traffic here. We're not. It's okay. And then we found out last time we got there. The day days got like this whole like sweet tooth. Remember, when you got the apple pie, the special pies at McDonald's? It's a star of cream. Was it? Was that like a limited time only? No, no, no, no, they have. It's just a lot of people who aren't aware of it. Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. Speaking of food, I got time. I got time for one more. So driving back from Tallahassee this morning, spent the night down there. And we always stop kind of a good place. You know, stretch your legs isn't down a cold quit. Right, right. Go up, slow down. And there's like a little hearty is down there. So I pulled in with my buddy Dave and we get out to go into hearty. Eat and come like an eating car. You can't have biscuit. Come on. I'm sure you're everywhere. Yeah. My father told me that you can't do that in a nice car. But anyway, so we go inside and day day it was like right out of central casting. You literally got four good old boys. They know, the guys got to, you know, one dude's got this suspenders up and everything.

1:50:24One dude's got his car hard. See it says hot out. But and we come in there like they see that we're in Florida state gear. And the guy goes, so you the one didn't pay the power bill last night. Of course. Everybody's got jokes. Here we go. And then here it is. And it's like, you know, there's a state trooper sits. I know where he sits. So they did. They see the other. Where are you heading to like Atlanta Atlanta? I mean, it was like, like I walk right into a time warp like the Beverly Hillbilly's. But it's a long way. Well, you got to be careful that state. I know where the state trooper sits, sir. But thank you. But anyway, that was, I thought you get a kick out of that. It was like literally old school four old guys in their in their early 60s. Having their coffee, get away from their wife at hearties in the morning. I love it, man. That's that small town. Big time. Hey, real quick reminder with the with the Falcons. We are the football starting tomorrow will of course be playing up at Pittsburgh on Sunday. But the season begins tomorrow. Seattle taking on the Patriots in a rematch, which means tonight is the fantasy draft. Have you done any fantasy? I did. I did. I did. When did I do our Sunday? Well, it's his days. Look, my days are so screwed up right now.

1:51:25I've been saying this all day to day today's Tuesday. So what's Sunday? Yeah. And I got to be John. So I'm good. Hey, Matt. Oh, you did. I'm picking eight. So I think I think eight becomes either 13 or 14 on the turn. Either way, uh, looks like I'm in the I'm in the zone for like a James Cook. Okay. Actually, you got to get running backs, man. Got to get him. And then we'll see where CD Lamb, a monoraw St. Brown are, but that's just where I'm living tonight. So picking eight. Yeah, you'll get a good 10 team lead. Oh, yeah, you'll be fine. Right. Becky's on the clock. She's taking B. John. One. Yep. Yep. B. John, she's going to I think regardless of when and when an ever Pentex gets out there. B. John is still going to have big numbers because B. John had great numbers last year with all the quarterback. Problem. Well, I think he's going to be the heartbeat, man. I mean, that's that's that's going to be the thing. It's funny. Guy hit us up. Mike on social media. Uh, Mike Bell actually, uh, Bell ATL 929 is his, his Twitter account. And I'm it put him up. See, Dukes. And the guy says, fellas, everybody's talking about all this other stuff. He says with competent quarterback play and it sounds like what we've been saying all season. All off season, you could win this division. We don't need superstar quarterback play because you've got guys that you can get the football to.

1:52:30Hey, man. Uh, we got a developing story with the braves coming up. But also before we get out of here at six, we didn't even talk. It's been such a busy show. The million things going on that debacle in Michigan terrible. The most ridiculous. You literally had Terry McCauley, the ref friend BC going, no, that clock is synced up. That's real. And then no, no, there's a super duper secret clock that we go. Where's that clock at? Like what are you kidding me? Michigan too big to fail. More on that in the five, but a breaking story with the braves. Get your football weekend started with Duke's and Bell Friday. We're going to be at Twin Peaks and Buckhead guys. We'll be broadcasting live from two to six and join all the each drinks and singing views, Buckhead. That's where we will be. Of course, we're talking constipal NFL and much more. That is right here on sports radio, 92 9 the game on Friday. We'll give you that news when we come back and more on the decision to start to it. It's Duke's and Bell. We are Duke's and Bell. We start off every day and every hour by saying, Hey, man, inactive. That was a little bit of a surprise, but was it really?

1:53:30We're talking about the decision that was made and announced on Monday as Michael Pinnix will be inactive for week one. T U A is your starter. Heading to Pittsburgh. Guys, I don't know what this looks like. Mike doesn't know what this looks like. We hopefully will have an offense that is competent and capable of moving the football and maybe scoring some points. But at the end of the day, this conversation is so much bigger than just what is going to happen in week one. Because the Pinnix thing, Mike has a lot of people wondering what the hay is going on. By the way, the game will be right here on sports radio, 92 9 the game, pregame starts at 11, kicks at one o'clock, and we will have all your Falcon action throughout the course of the season right here. So Cooper rushes the backup and as Mike and I have discussed this today and talked about it with you, we opened up the phone lines at 4047 260929 to hear your thoughts on this. And it has been a whole spectrum from, I don't think he's any good. I don't trust him. I think he's not a dog.

1:54:32When is he coming back? This may be the best thing for the team. It's fine that he made this decision. Mike, I'm looking at this whole spectrum of thoughts and and people's, you know, ideas about where this is. And here's the thing. This timetable is still not clear. After all this time, we still don't know what this timetable truly is. And remember, he was cleared medically, but he says he's still not there. He says he told Coach Daphansky, I'm not 100% and I want to be 100% when I come back and play. So we're still wondering when that's going to be in the meantime. We got a game. And now, as I said to start the show and I'll say it again for those of you who are just joining us, don't cheer or root for your team to lose because you don't like the guy who's at quarterback. I'm tired of losing. Let's go beat the Steelers. If we can, and I don't care how we get it done. If we went by one point, I don't care. But the idea, Mike, is because pinnocks is not there. There are people who out there rooting and saying, oh, well, you know what?

1:55:33I don't want this to be successful. You're rooting for the entire team. It's stuck. We're Falcon fans, guys. I mean, we want to see this guy establish himself as the man. Okay. We said this earlier, we went through a number of compared and contrasted with different athletes and how they approach it. I've got guys saying this is the greatest thing. This is the most amazing thing a man has ever done in this city because he has the, he has got the balls to say. No, not this week because you know, and again, I'd like, I appreciate saying like, I love the organization. We all of the organization were all fans. He's living with, he's living with it right now. He's, he's repinting the team said he's not 100% does want to go out there and hurt the team. And guys go, that's, that's my quarterback. Well, not really because he's not playing. But it's, you know, again, you respect it and I get it. And that's cool. It's just not what many of us, not all, but many of us have come to expect from the guys that play in the NFL. You know, it's in, and we've had guys go, well, the PIVX, he should rush back. Okay. But I mean, you cannot compare Michael to a guy who's already established, you know, to a guy who's already got a Hall of Fame track record, like a Patrick Mahomes.

1:56:35Who by the way, head of schedule comes back off the Achilles. He's going to play week one. Yeah. You know, and he doesn't have to. We are, we compare, if you missed the show earlier, we talked about when Mike Vick came back, a head of schedule, three weeks to be exact to play in a game that did not matter because that's how bad he wanted to get back on the field. So I know it's apples to arges. Day day brought up the point is you, you, you got mad at Kurt Cusis because he lied and he wasn't 100% and he did hurt the team. He did. And that did happen. And, and that's bad. And that shouldn't happen. I mean, the coach and the coach would have the common sense to step in there. But there wasn't a lot of common sense with this coaching machine in the last few years. No, but again, don't miss the point. It's the mentality that you, I'm not, I'm going to play and you're going to have to pull me off the field. That's what we're talking about here. What does it take for you to be an elite professional athlete? 90% of it is mental. All these guys are physically gifted. All of them, Michael Pinnix included. But if you're not mentally locked into what you need to do, Mike, I don't want him out there. If he's not going to be mentally able to do the things he needs to do or wants to do or he doubts

1:57:38himself. The thing with cousins, as I laid out on Twitter was simply the dichotomy of this situation is one guy's mentality was I'm not coming off the field and I don't give a damn. And we got a guy that we're wondering if he's going to get on the field and when it's going to happen and it makes you question the commitment, the heart and things that we shouldn't be worried about with our quarterback. You know what else to do while we're talking about cousins real quick. You know, we want to last four games last season. Was he great? No. He's not so average. He was serviceable baseline quality, quality, competent quarterback play. But not great. Not great. Let one of last four games. It didn't matter. I mean, it mattered, but it didn't matter because we didn't make the playoffs. But at the end of the day, that's the, that's the makeup and Kirk said, man, you know what I learned a long time ago. Sometimes you got to play hurt. I'm not coming off the field. And that's the mentality we're talking about. 4047260929. Everybody's built different guys and if pinnocks comes out, whenever he comes out and balls out, great.

1:58:39But in the meantime, he's inactive. He's not going to be your backup this weekend, Mike, because if you can't be the starter, you can't be the backup. Cooper rushes your guy. And let's hope that we don't have to go to Cooper rush and let's hope that the two of plays well. That's what I'm hoping for. This whole idea of not giving to a chance because you thought he sucked elsewhere is regardless. When it comes to your team, you want him to do well when he's not on your team, whatever, but he's on our team. Yeah, I mean, what do you want to do guys? I mean, I want to win. I want to get out of this playoff drought and it maybe win this division one way to make the playoffs. We got a lot of guys that you know, and you know around the league because we got B. John and we got Drake and we got pitch. So let's I just want to see a reliable delivery system. Now I really don't want to see two quarterbacks play this year. I was really hoping that Panic's junior was going to start the season, give us the full sample size. So another year where Michael Pentax is not going to play a full season. The first you're not his fall because he wasn't the starter. But now we also get the depth chart. And one of the things you and I were talking off the air. I just tweeted it. Very really cool. Falcons elisted it. I did the link. It's up there with Falcons. If you follow them on Twitter, one of the guys listed as a starter.

1:59:41Kendall Daniels. That's awesome. Our man from Oklahoma. We had a great conversation with him back in August. I love his game. I thought along with Zachariy Brasch, I thought he was one of the guys that popped. You know, at least the 12 to 15 practices that we saw in person. I just thought he did a hell of a job. And so Kendall Daniels listed alongside divine Diablo inside linebacker. Well, that's great. And again, I think the way this is going to work is you will see Harris. You'll see the other guys periodically based on packages and what they're going to do. But I also know this, Mike, and look, we hadn't really spent a lot of time on it because we're still trying to figure out what this is going to look like a quarterback. Guys, I'm thoroughly concerned about the past rush. Thorling. And we're about to go to a stealer team and play a stealer team, Mike at home in their place where their quarterback is not a very mobile guy anymore. And there's a chance that, you know, come Sunday, you can tell me we're going to get get after and rogues. My question is who and how? Because as we go into this season, it is one of my big concerns.

2:00:44We can talk about the quarterback stuff all day, but at the end of the, at the end of the day, Mike, one of the reasons why we work competitive last year is because we got after the quarterback. Now, we want the best defense, but you take an element like that out of the equation and you start to wonder, where is that going to happen? Speaking of dogs, where are those dogs on the edge? Right. Who's getting after this guy? Now, did we get bigger in the interior? We did, but these are conversations that we get to Sunday. I'm telling you right now and it's probably going to be one of the things that I continue to talk about because it's a major concern when you're not able to get after quarterback. You know what happens? You guys know this sound. You know what that is? That's a quarterback padding the ball before he delivers it. And when he's doing that all day, Mike, we're going to have problems. I don't care how good the secondary is. So as we look at this, that is something I'm looking at. And maybe he is a guy getting back to your guy Daniels. That can contribute in that area. I just, you know, curious to see what he's got left in the tank talking about Zadaria. Smith, he brought some energy.

2:01:45Now again, is he having anything left? That'll be a guy that'll have to step up. Cameron Thomas is actually listening to the story. Now again, I don't know if the fanciness playing loose and fast with his rosters. Maybe kind of kind of dismissed it during the preseason about, you know, that's so I don't know if this, if this is gospel, but this is what's been released. Jesse Bates is going to is listed as a starting safety. So the back issues against it, he's good to go. That's good, which is great. Mike Hughes is still starting out as an AJ Torell. You know, Abyon is listed at this as the nickel technically with Billy Bowman back in him up. Okay. And Bowman's back. Right. Yeah. And again, we really haven't had I guess a real evaluation. It's still kind of based off of what we knew about Billy Bowman, but he's a Paul Hawke, man. And so I'm just saying I really like the secondary, but nobody's covering eight seconds back there. No, and look, I don't think I'm more concerned is two are going to survive Pittsburgh with, you know, what they're going to bring to the table. You know, it's a really good defense. And it's a really bad offense. That's that's why people ask me about Pittsburgh. We're going to talk to Pittsburgh guy covers him tomorrow from the post Gazette up there in Pittsburgh, but it's just Aaron Rogers. Eat this is it. This is the. Do you really think there's still?

2:02:46I'm sure there are. So still fans are thinking he's going to lead them to a Super Bowl. I don't think he's got that. Wow. I'm sure he makes the whole season. He may not, but you know, the goal obviously is to get into dance, right? You get to play off anything and happen like last year. They, you know, but this was ugly down, right? You get down. Smoke. So, um, but one game at a time for us. And this is week one. And that's kind of where our focus is, man. So we're talking to you about it. You can text us 4047 260929. We'd love to hear from you. I Mike mentioned the breaking news and we need to tell you it's brazier later, because we're going to talk to Grant McCauley here in less than five minutes. But Bryce elder underwent surgery on his knee and Dallas today. It was a scope. So basically a clean up procedure. He's been dealing with them some things. Well, to get grants assessment on this, but Mike, he's going to miss three to four weeks, which means his regular season is done. Yeah. For all intensive purposes yet, you may see him in October. So that was one that we, again, we weren't expecting that. And Bryce was a guy that like I never thought you'd maybe see Bryce starting in the best of five necessarily.

2:03:46Maybe, maybe, maybe, you know, but we think it's early at sale in Malay. I thought it was a great job from Grant Holmes. Yeah, Grant Holmes had a shut out, you know, what he did yesterday. We'll talk to Grant. But how to play off feel you went in with four. You came out with a four game lead against Philly. I love it, man. Braves stood up, stood up. Yes, you're not yesterday, but Sunday. I thought that game was, was incredible. That was the one for me that I was just like, yes, stick it to him. All right, we're coming back. Grant McCauley, best baseball guy in the business is going to join us. Also a quick reminder for you that opening week on sports radio, 92 90 games presented by hands free sketches, slip ends. Just step in and go. Couple of things we need to mention before we grab Grant. The Bryce elder news is there and obviously discussing the Philly series and much more. First things first, Baker Mayfield in our division gets a new three year deal. And Mike and I were just discussing. It's three years of 165 million dollars on average. That's 50 plus million a year, guys. You and I kind of both went, you're now tied to Baker Mayfield for

2:04:48those three years. And I mean, we know what he's capable of, but I just, I don't know, maybe, I don't know. Maybe I'm just, I just wouldn't do it. I don't know, man. They're over barrellons. It's like any other team that's had to make this decision like the Dolphins with two other giants who dangled Jones a couple years. It's a great point. And, and you know, did this and overpay? Yes, it is. But the market is the market. He went from three years, a hundred million, which was the deal. He signed with them and he took him to the playoffs a couple of times. And I get that, but I do think this is an overpay. There's no doubt. But at the end of the, we're going to see them. We're going to see these guys and and Baker's motivated and we'll see how that goes. But they get the deal done before the start of the season. Remember, most teams say once the season starts, we're not negotiating. So they get it done before week one, Baker may feel now with the book and he is for the next few years. The other thing is live files for bankruptcy. What? And water's wet. Yeah. I mean, we knew this was common. They were trying to for who is this investor? I mean, this angel investor that was coming in, their brand was garbage, man.

2:05:48I never, I never really thought that was viable that somebody was going to come in and try to save it. Sounds like John Romance. Some of these guys are not going to get paid the full freight. They were promised. Come home. PGA's waiting. Right. And they'll take the terms they will. Let's talk to Grant McCauley. Grant, the latest on Bryce elder before we get to some of this other stuff. Tell us what you know and what this means for Bryce and more poorly for the braids and this rotation. Yeah. It's just the latest, I think, event that the braids have had to deal with injury wise for this rotation. It's Bryce elders going to miss three to four weeks at a knee scope done today to clean out some bone fragments that have been causing them some trouble really since July. And if you go back and kind of look at where his struggles were and kind of how it lines up, it does seem like this is probably been bothering him quite a bit for quite some time. And he had let on before and the braids had tried to give him a little bit of time. And we heard yesterday won't why saying for the time being that we're going to move him to the bullpen. I kind of came to the park wanting to know. All right. Well, what's different about this injury than say Ronaldo Lopez with the inflammation and how long he's been out.

2:06:49And as it turns out, it ended up being a much more serious thing for Bryce. So we're able to get him to a specialist. They did find what they believe to be the cause of the issue. And he's had a scope that could have him back in three to four weeks. His hope is to pitch in the postseason. And if he is to have a shot to do that at all, he had to get the surgery basically today to get the timetable moving because the season's over in three weeks and October will be here. Now that is a best case scenario for him. It does not necessarily mean that's where the braids are going or what's going to happen. But if you wanted any chance at all to participate in the postseason and goodness knows who wouldn't, this is what he had to do. Where was he in the rotation if it was a five game series for you? I think it's a good question. Yeah, I don't really know that the braids have really sketched that out. We know where Chris sale is. We know Tyler Malley is going to be there. But beyond that, is it grand homes at three? Is it some other kind of iteration of right? Well, we could use AJ's mishover and Martin Perez in a piggyback situation. Would it be Perez opening and then somebody else coming in after that or somebody opening for Perez if you want to kind of dial it around?

2:07:51There's just a lot of different ways they could go. But I don't think anything was a given other than Chris sale and Tyler Malley. And clearly that whole picture is going to come into focus here over the next two to three weeks. All right. Did it give you? Did it give you more optimism of what you saw in this fairly series? I think a lot of braids fans me included feel more confident about what could happen in the postseason grant with the way they handled their business in this series. The more poorly Ronald Aquino man, he's heating up at the right time, right? Yeah. And that's the big story coming out of Philly. I mean, whether people wanted to talk about it in a good way or a bad way, he certainly was right in the middle of everything the braids were doing. And you needed to see those adjustments against the four seam fastball that we've been talking about for a number of weeks now that that's been plaguing him for a while. I mean, it's just a very strange thing to struggle with, especially when you're a hitter. As good as he is with the bat speed that he possesses. It's not like he lost his bat speed. It was just being able to connect with and make the mechanical adjustments to be ready and on time for that fastball. And it appears that he has cracked that code at this point.

2:08:52And that I think, and as we saw over the Philadelphia series, could be an indicator of some big things to come for Ronald Aquino Jr. But this has just been an extension of some really important baseball for the braids. So we've been that Dodger series should obviously have given everybody a good dose of confidence being able to go into Philadelphia and have a chance to win three out of four. And yes, maybe it was a chance you could have lost three out of four. And that's really how close this series was. It was played extremely hard. You were in an enemy territory in a place that is not very hospitable as the braids well know in the past. And they were able to come out of that four game series with a split and a very good chance in the finale if they could have scratched across a run here or there, maybe to win that game. But it was one of those series where I think to your point, Carl, you needed to see at the very least a split in order to keep the Phillies at an arm's distance with three more big games looming this weekend. But you can't overlook the Tampa Bay race who are one loss better than the braids are as far as records are concerned overall, the top to A.L. East. And he got the Chicago Cubs waiting for you after the Philadelphia Phillies. So the first two weeks of this month are really a playoff primer to the braids.

2:09:53So you're going to need to see them play some of their best baseball. Again, we get the raise. I said it was easier, not really. They get the Astros, the Phillies get the Astros. What did you think of Ronald Acunio? Like I love tormenting Philadelphia fans because they deserve it 99% of the time. But knowing the history with Maddenly, I mean, we talked earlier with Tony Gwyn Junior. He said probably not going to see that smoke with him go over throwing it, Ronald, something like that. But it was just one picture reacting basically and not Don Maddenly and the Phillies as a hole to what Ronald did. No. And like we said, I like we saw there wasn't a whole bunch of head hunting or things that went on after that. Usually it's the fan base gets fired up and you feel like it's this old school baseball and Bob Gibson's name comes up or Don dry sales name comes up and we get into the old school stuff. But I had no problem with that. I'm of the opinion celebrate your home runs, celebrate your strikeouts, you know, if you're a pitcher, celebrate your great plays, whatever it is, the emotion in the game is better for the game. And I don't think that there's really any reason to devolve into this back and forth thing where somebody's got to get hit every time they do something different than the next guy

2:10:55does it. But I thought was interesting was that big home run that he hit off the Phillies reliever, you know, there was so 100 miles an hour after the game. He's asked, you know, what did you make of Ronald the Cuny Jr. round in the bases? He's like, I made that I needed to get him out next time. He hit a homer. That's for him. That's not for me. I need to execute pitches better. Little different than the Zach Wheeler thing, which I thought kind of caught maybe a little bit more flagged than it should have. I thought it was kind of ridiculous. It's we live in a work in a business where narratives are obviously interesting to people. I just don't think this was a narrative that was really worth exploring at this point. The braves home run celebration is three plus years old. It really shouldn't have been that interesting. Yeah. I don't know. For us, I mean, it's not, but I think as other people see it around the country, what are they doing? You know, they lose their minds. Grant McCauley joining us here. If you're just joining us, Price Elder having a scope surgery guys is going to be out at least three to four weeks. So, does the regular season? Yeah. That news coming down for the braves today with Walt Weiss.

2:11:56What about Grant Holmes, man? Max Innings pitched in four of his last six starts. What does this mean for Grant Holmes? It means that he has pitched himself into the conversation that he very much wanted to be a part of, which was October usage. The thing that we've just been talking about and we'll be talking about for the coming weeks, Grant Holmes has just been making a case and it's not just, hey, at the end of the night, you look at the numbers and you're like, oh, wow, wow. He went six innings and kept the team in the game. Good for him. But you're kind of starting to watch him do this and think, wow, like I liked the way that he's pitching. And Walt Weiss talked to me a little bit about the arsenal that he's using and also the fact that he's been able to limit the walks that had been plaguing him at times during the season. He's been a little bit more aggressive using the curve ball off the slider. It's something else that Walt pointed out. And we started to see a little velocity from him on the four-seam fastball. I mean, he struck out Luis Arise swinging. And if you don't think that's a big deal, go look at the strikeout column and Luis Arise is baseball reference page or on the back of his baseball card for all the folks that like analog stuff. You'll see that he doesn't strike out very much.

2:12:56It's about 20 times a year. So you get him swinging on a fastball down the middle. You've certainly done something. And I think Grant Holmes has kind of just been quietly compiling a lot of really good starts. And it's the way that he's doing it. In addition to the output itself, it's starting to, I think, make at least a case that Grant Holmes has a potentially significant role to play as the braze are figuring out the game three and game four scenarios for their playoffs. A. We know Matt Olson has been the MVP for this team. He's kept the team afloat and he's cold now. How worried are you? Last seven games, man. It's rough. Matt, no 87, 255 OPS for the last seven. Yeah. There's no way around that. And I actually talked about this one from the diamond. You go back three weeks, Matt Olson, sitting below a buck 50 with one homer and three runs knocked in and striking out at a 33% clip. So we're seeing the numbers. We're noticing it. He's noticing it. He's been feeling it. It's not often I see Matt Olson slamming a bat in a helmet after a strikeout, but it happened over the weekend in Philly. He's just one of those little things that I take note of. And you know, we kind of joked a little bit with Walt Weiss. Hey, you get Ronald a day off, but you can't really do that with Matt.

2:13:58And Walt said that he has many times. I'm not going to be the one that screws that thing up this consecutive game streak. But even if he didn't start a game, he's going to find a spot to pinch at him and keep that streak going. I would assume and Walt pretty much said as much today. But Walt said also, we're not to that point yet. Matt's going to keep grinding it out and they're going to figure out a way to get through this. You've done it many times in the past. So you're not alarmed necessarily, but man, it would be nice, especially with Ronald swinging the bat well and some of the other guys in front of Matt Olson to get some big innings going and some RBI opportunities for Matt Olson to continue doing the thing he's done all year, which is you pointed out was basically be the brazen VP. Grant, how does a Jace Smith show our ref in into this mix? I know he's going tonight. It's a good question. And I think he's still answering that question because it's commanding and control and finesse, I guess, that is the last thing for a lot of Tommy John pictures to be able to really reclaim as they come back. His fastball has been good. Walt said that's actually been maybe a little bit more competitive than it was even last year when he was pitching well for that first couple of months.

2:15:01But the swing and miss pitches that he has, the breaking stuff and being able to control counts and put away hitters. That's been an issue for him. A lot of base runners hits and walks have been a problem for him. Some home runs here and there of all the bit him. He's just got to find that consistency. That's what he's going to be searching for. And that'll let us know exactly how much you can reasonably or I guess responsibly put on him or ask from him to be a part of their playoff. I guess either rotation or just their pitching plans in general, but they do see him as far as his profile is concerned and the arm talent that he has as a guy they very much like to have playing a role if he can step into it. Great stuff. We'll see what happens in this series. As you said, it doesn't get any easier fillies and they'll and then Cubs. So guys, I mean, we got to finish strong. I mean, the months just started. I know it feels good coming off of that filling win or at least, you know, the way we handle that series at Riley triple was huge. Yeah. There were moments, man, where you just felt like, okay, you know what? We're going to be fine and grant you. Like I said, the confidence for me has been continuing to build.

2:16:01We've all had doubts, you know, as we've gone through this season, but now we're in September man. And I think it's coming together. I don't like the Bryce thing, but that is what it is. And hopefully he can come back and maybe help us. Yeah. And they've had to overcome this stuff all year long. We've talked about these stories on a good note. Robert Suarez through two bullpen's completed those. His next step is to face hitters. If that goes well, we have assignment for him and hopefully back before the regular season closes. So get away with it. Give me give me a percentage on that. What do you think? I think a high probability. I would say a better than 90% chance that he's back unless he suffers a setback, which would effectively, I would imagine in his season, they are expecting and Robert Suarez told us before the road trip, he is expecting to be back before the end of the regular season. All right, that is good news. All right, man. Thank you so much. Follow Grant man. Stay up on all the things. Braves related and baseball related. Braves split with Philly. And now we'll see what they do against the race. We'll talk tomorrow. Thanks again. Thank you guys. All right, guys, it's Duke's and Bell. We'll come back. He says he's not 100% and that is his reason for not being active this week.

2:17:05Not only is he not the starter, he's not active. Okay. We'll get back into that conversation as we've been talking to you all day about it. And then I got to tell you guys, Pittsburgh is not feeling sorry for us at all. It's Duke's and Bell. He's not 100% Duke's and Bell sports radio 92 9 the game. It was a long fun labor day. Hope you guys enjoyed it. But as this news dropped on on Monday, Mike, you know, I think Falcon Country and Falcon nation was like, what's going on? And again, Mike said it. If the quarterback comes to you and says, I'm not ready to play, what are you going to do? You're going to force the hand? No, you're just going to let it play out. But we got to make decisions and you got to try to do what's best for the team. The thing that we've discussed today, or at least one aspect of this is, all this is coming from him. The coaches are not forcing this. This is not Kevin's defense key or Tommy Reese going, you know what? We can't play him. They're asking where are you at?

2:18:07Where I think Mike, if it was left up to them, they would want him to try to play. But they're not going to say that publicly, right? They're not going to force that issue. And then you go, all right, well, this is why again, they kept four quarterbacks. And that whole thing seemed weird when the roster is, remember the roster cuts, but now, you know, you look at this in Phoenix being inactive. It totally makes sense. So two is starting on Sunday. We've got Cooper rushes the backup. Strand is the emergency guy, Mike. And that's how this will look at least for the time being. Right. So whether they knew this all along, and this was always the plan now, I'd like to say, okay, or so the ceiling game's out the window. How about week two against Caroline? How about that at home? Phoenix? Yes. Carolina Panthers. Week two. How about that? Okay. And the other thing is, and this is probably the one that most of our audience doesn't buy is what if two does well? You know, because everybody's written two off already. Yeah, they have. I mean, I'm not really interested in two, but what if he, you know, he is a veteran. He has experience. He has a high percentage, a completion percentage of his whole career. But you're not throwing a rookie out there.

2:19:07No, I mean, it's not like he hasn't seen tough defense. And so again, he, the guy was, he was a top 10 quarterback, then he wasn't. Now what's he going to be? Okay, he's also got his own crossroads here. And he doesn't give a flip about Michael Pettex, you'll say all the nice things, but he's trying to, he's trying to go get another job. Yeah. You know, so what if two does well? And what is, what is well enough if the Falcons, if Matt Ryan, and he, not that they have, but if Matt Ryan and Ian cutting him and the brain trocess, and we really got, we got to get this evaluation for Pettex. Well, I, we got to get, we got to see what we got, which we got to make a decision on this guy. It's interesting to me because if you're losing, but the quarterback is not the reason why, then what's your excuse for making the change? You follow me? You're losing, but Pinn or, or Tua is playing at a, a high enough level where you go, wait a minute, I've said this to you, Mike, 250, 275, two touchdowns, no turnovers, but we lose on him. No fumbles. No silly, silly giveaways. Like those are the things where you go, all right, if you're being competent and you're

2:20:10playing that way and you go, well, yeah, we're just going to make a change. You make the change because you say, well, we're losing, but really the quarterback has not the reason why. And so I think again, we're going to see Michael Pinnix at some point. I do not know what the timetable is. We've been talking about the stem timetable guys for six months, six months. We've been talking about the date. And when are we going to get the timetable? Didn't we have a sound by it from Mike from earlier this camp where he said the doctor said he'll never ever problem with that knee. He did, like right, or maybe that sound by it. Like we were talking about forest, like magic legs, you know, I mean, okay, it was a bold promise. I mean, I don't know if the orthopedist really say that, I don't know either way, but if Mike needs that to get some confidence, fine, guys, at the end of the day, we just want to see him after that's why if you feel you guys are being petty, being bullies. Now, you want to see my franchise quarterback get established. Otherwise, you're going to go right back to the drawing board next year and draft one. That's why all these guys are like, yeah, man, he's not ready. Well, so when is he going to be ready? When do we get the full sample size? It's already by definition, not a full season for him.

2:21:11I mean, this is why I get frustrated and I don't understand why people aren't as frustrated. You've got the patience of jumping. This is any other player who you didn't identify as you for whatever is you identify as it's a good guy. No one debates that you would have already been like, whatever. Nobody's, nobody's texting me about braille and trice. You know, nobody's telling me to give, I bang the drum for braille and trice because I think he, I thought he had promise. And now he's in the same boat as Pettics. You say it's probably not going to happen for him, but you guys are in denial over it. Here's Michael a few months or a few weeks earlier. I went and saw the doctor, you know, before camp starting, he's like, this, this is amazing. He's like, you should never have any more knee problems for the rest of your career. Like, that's worth for what he told me. So it's like, okay, I hear that. But it's like, all right, now I got to, and now I'm like, all right, do I trust that? I went, see, do I trust that's why we've said, guys, no one debates the guy's toughness. We've seen him play and make big plays already for us. But this is the mental aspect that you keep bringing up, but it's a valid point. No, it is. I don't know if it was, listen to it in his own words, day day.

2:22:11But let me ask you something. You guys ever had any injury, not in trying to be funny, but injuries that you had to recover from when you were like, when you did play sports in your days and stuff like that. Color bones. Right. Knees. Did you ever at times feel something when you were like, I don't know if that's how that's supposed to feel? So did a one. I'm just asking. No, no, no. Because I didn't go pro and I wasn't a professional. So I don't linger on my college stuff, but on the injury injured my career. And I was never the fastest guy. It was there were things that I knew I was up against. But because of the recovery, and we're going back guys, this is again late 90s, technology is a lot better than it is now. But at the end of the day, like I knew, okay, you know what? I can come back, but it's an uphill battle. And they're recruiting better guys than I am right now. And I'm coming back off this injury. I'm still not the player that I was. In my head, I knew I wasn't going to win.

2:23:13I wasn't going to be what I wanted to be. Cool. There's a lot of guys that are listening right now who know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm resolved to saying, I'm all right with that, right? But I wasn't a quarterback. And the point I'm making is at that position, it's different. It's different day day. It is offensive lineman. Offensive lineman, ask Mike Johnson offensive lineman. Get hurt all the time, okay? They come and go quarterback is different. And I just feel like there's a lot more pressure to show up. And certainly if you're physically cleared to go out and perform and show your teammates. It's not even about, it's not even about us. It's not about the fans. So yes, to your point, yeah, there's been injuries. I've experienced that and that three. I don't know too many people who have, but the idea is there have been injuries for many guys who are listening right now who said, you know what? I ain't coming back from this and I can't be the same dude. I'm good.

2:24:14And here he is battling this and what I'm telling you is mentally, I'm about to cuss. That blank is hard. It is hard. So I get it from where he's sitting. I really do, but it's also something you have to overcome if you're ever going to be great again. And that is the point that I don't know if he knows he can tell me he wants to and he can tell me he's doing all the work and he can tell me he's walking his walk in which he's doing all those things. But if you don't mentally overcome that bro, I'm telling you right now, you know what happens? Ready, set and I'm getting rid of this damn thing because I am not confident to sit where I need to sit and look around the pocket and do the things I need to do because I don't want to get hurt again, man. Does that make sense? It does. You know, I only asked that question because when he was asked, and I think we, I don't know if we have that cut on there or not if they got to that one, but he was asked what what hurdles do you need to get over and his exact answer was I'm just not 100%.

2:25:15You didn't say in what capacity. Yes, but what might so what I'm saying, but Mike's playing that sound by to tell you that doctor is telling him. I'm fine. I understand that, but what I'm saying is going back to my question, like sometimes you, you may, they may tell you one thing, but you know your body. And when you've had three ACL surgeries, you know what feels right and what doesn't feel right. And I'm just saying maybe that's a place he's in right now where he knows he's in real bullets. Yeah. He's not feeling right. All right. Well, again, I hope, I hope he finds the confidence to get out there and I hope we get to see him out here before the season passes. Oh, I mean, let's be honest. I mean, it's his career is on and this is what I'm trying to explain. I ladies have, everyone cousins exactly where we're talking, we already explained that and we talked about it. And again, if you can't tell the difference, who in a guy who was established in this league, who made a hundred million dollars guaranteed, who again, coached a bench for a week to get him to heal up. It was a black and common sense on a number of levels versus a guy who hasn't established himself yet, who has got an injury history.

2:26:16That's the thing. All these guys like, well, he's had three. Exactly. You're making the argument for me. He's had three knee injuries. You never should have drafted him. The odds of this guy surviving a five or six year NFL career, probably a thousand to one, let's just let's find out what this guy is and let's get on with it. So I know you can either take the heat, do the job or I draft another freaking quarterback next year. Hello, the clock is ticking. But Mike, you don't think he knows that? Well, okay. Well, then you don't think as you're, like you said, when is the professional quarter of Wednesday? So when's the right time, Dayday? Whenever he feels it's the right thing. You don't think he realizes that if I'm waiting too long, I don't know. I don't know that. You don't think he knows that? I don't know that. I don't know why Mike has to realize that. He's an NFL player. Well, guess what? Not for long. He was going to his ass out there. Sorry, I'm laughing at this. I mean, like I'm above the line, Dayday, you're below the line. You're making excuses. I'm making a reality. He said, no, reality is this dude has been to your point.

2:27:18You've said it over and over. Three ACL surgeries. He knows what he needs to feel like. He also knows that he is putting, he is taking a major risk by saying, I'm not ready to go yet. He knows that. Can I ask you this because we're up against it? Trust us. There's more of this to come out. Six weeks. Six weeks. Give me a number. I mean, I don't know. I would say three. I would say three. So when do you get impatient? When do you, Ryan? I'm not impatient because I just want to win. But we do have two is the guy that can get us gazed and so big. He comes back whenever he comes back. When do you actually get to a point where I'm at? I'm passing. I'm passing. I'm passing. This is his decision. This is his decision. Yes. This is his. This is his risk. He's rolling the dice. Passing him by. He's rolling the dice. All I care now is like, look, can two get the job done? That's it. I would the YouTube video right now. Carl just kind of just sitting in the middle just watching, just looking.

2:28:20How did that happen? That's great. No, I love it. And Day Day is very passionate about this and he's giving Michael Pinnix some grace. Many of you are not. Right. And many of you are like me who want to question the mentality of where his head is at. And any more like a doll. We need dogs. We do. All right, guys. We are live tomorrow, Mike. Napa Auto Parts. Yeah, man. We're going to be hitting the road. It's down on Jonesboro Road. It's the moral lake city. We do this every year. I think it's our fifth year we've done this. We don't give away the flags until five. Now you're welcome to come by hang out. Say hi. And by the way, don't feed the DJs. We're last time everybody was breaking this stuff. But anyway, we always appreciate that. But we'll be at Napa and the Falcons will be there with their promo team. And the flag giveaway starts at five o'clock. So if you're heading on the south side, everyone always says, when you're coming to south side, we're going to be down there, guys. It's always a blast. So get there and be ready to rock. And five o'clock flag. All right, turtles out there. I just spoke with them. He's got a lot on his mind. Stay there. He's got a full show for you. Coming in hot. I think so. All right. Maybe day days going to stick around for it.

2:29:21Hey, let's get out of here. We're clear. Oh. Hey, thanks to all of our guests today. Tomorrow we're heading to Pittsburgh. You want to know what the latest is on the Steelers? Be here. We will get the 4-1-1. And all the details and tea on the Steelers as we get ready for Sunday's matchup. Also, Wes Drew Ham is set to join us for his first weekly visit, guys. As we'll talk to the voice. We'll get some calls for Paul Conversation in there as well. Wes is always great about that. So make sure you're here starting at two o'clock tomorrow. And if you come down, man, to Napa Auto Parts, we'd love to get a chance to see you. Again, flags won't be handed out until around five o'clock. Right now. All right. And then it's first come. Great. Oh, great job. Dade. Executive producing. Great job as well. And thank you guys for being here and making us the number one sports station and number one sports show. Mike Bell. Clear throw. Hey, man. You guys play poker, whether it's Texas Holder, you play with your boys, you know, five, ten blinds.

2:30:24You got rags. You can't bluff, man. You can. We got to see it through. You got to hope that the other guys chicken out. Game of chicken with the SEC and LSUs, what I'm talking about. If you're really thinking about having to vote to kick LSU out, you're going to be prepared to see it through. I think this is just another and a litany of a guy. I thought was pretty good at his job, but I'm losing confidence. And I wonder if other folks are on the SCS cards and Greg Sanky. What are you doing here? Yeah, LSU. Now the governor's back down. So maybe the game of chicken is working. But I always said, man, if you're going to threaten something, you better be prepared to do it. Yeah. There's no doubt. Hey, we learned a lot. Well, did we? The first week in a college football. It was entertaining. But there were a lot of cupcakes. And sometimes you can learn things. And sometimes you don't learn anything. I'm looking forward to the bigger matchups. But there were moments this weekend where you went, that guy's good. That guy's not. That team looks like the real deal. They don't. College football is a marathon. It is not a sprint. Week one doesn't define you. Before a guy like dabble, sweetie, it just might have.

2:31:24If you didn't hear the pressurator day, where dabble, attacks the reporter and basically ask him the question, did you play football? That's irrelevant. You're the head coach. You have to answer to what your team is doing. Dabble, come on, be the bigger man. If you love the show. You tell your friends. Eeeeeee! You don't? Your team didn't pay its power bill. Ha ha.