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The Jim Rome Show — Bills/ NFL interview, Lane is doing fine. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
Pretty crazy day breaking news. A broken stream. We fixed the stream. Welcome back. Moving to our number two. I'm Jim Rome. The show is brought to you by Fandall. Always presented by Fandall. I appreciate that very much as you know. All right, 1-800-636-8686. I've got Eric Wood, former NFL, or joining me next segment. He's a game analyst for the Bill's Radio Network Buffalo. I'll quickly, Josh Allen. Looks amazing for his year head coach, Joe Brady. After a good start, we will get into all those things with Eric Wood and we'll do that next segment. If you want to give me a call, we're talking about the giants and you know, the information is interesting. See, John Harbaugh gave a different update than what we heard from Adam Schaefter. Now, remember going back to yesterday and even earlier this morning, the initial report seemed to be that it wasn't as serious as it appeared. I mean, even last night,
Jackson Dart reportedly was trying to get back in the game. And not only that, it seemed to be somewhat encouraging that he stood on the sideline the entire night. Remember, he walked off the field on his own power. According to the broadcast last night, he did not walk directly to the X-ray room. He walked to the locker room and then he came back out and he stood on the sideline the entire night. And then there was a report that they had to take his uniform from him because he wanted to re-enter the game. So as kooky as this all is, especially that part, it actually was encouraging. And the initial reports weren't encouraging. And then right before I hit air in our number one, Schaefter drops that bomb that now there is concern after some investigations this morning, and evaluations that he may require season ending surgery. Now at S and Y giants on X reports,
quote, John Harbaugh gives an update on Jackson Dart. Quote, evaluations are ongoing. We have not gotten any final decisions yet. We've learned a lot more. I wouldn't want to share too much until decisions get made end quote. Well, you accomplished that fact. You didn't share anything at all. So he neither confirmed nor denied the Schaefter report. In fact, I don't even know why he said what he said. What does that even mean? Evaluations are ongoing. We haven't gotten any final decisions yet. We learned a lot more. I wouldn't want to share too much until decisions get made. Good, bro, because you didn't share anything at all. And Schaefter just reported that evaluations indicate that things are actually a lot more serious than they first seemed and that he might be looking at might be looking at season ending surgery. So that's where we are right now. Hey,
thanks for nothing. Hey, John. Let's go to the phones. 1-800-636-8686. We got a cliffed in park. Tim, appreciate you calling the program. Tim, what's going on? How are you? Hey, Jim. Thanks. Thanks for the extra. Hey, you know, I don't get it. This guy spends more time in this in his blue comb and tent than anything. You know, Monday's game was over in like seven minutes. I like you need to get a chance to make my sandwich. You know, and besides that, the worst part was you James Stunk. So this guy better get the playbooks. Remember, he gave him the playbook and figured this thing out. I purchased my first, my first giant scare this year. And a good thing I didn't cut the tags off because I got to bring that thing back. That's it. 15 more weeks of Lousy Giant football. I'm out. I appreciate you, Tim. Thanks, man. Thank you for jumping in here and sharing what it's like. To be a giant's fan. To be a mess.
Or a giant's fan. Bro, keep the receipt. Good thing you didn't cut the tags off yet. Yeah, that didn't last very long. Like I said, giant's fan might hurt a pile on, but hope you enjoyed that. That week. You want to trade one horrible decade for one good week. That's too bad. Just like the jets. 1 800 636 8 686. You're not going to run James out there for the next 15 weeks, right? Not unless you're playing for a draft pick. So what are the options quarterbacks are dropping? That is notion again that, yeah, well, at least we have James. And James is one of the best backups in the NFL. No, he's not. James is one of the goofiest backups in the NFL. James is one of the more entertaining people in the NFL. James is not one of the best backups in the NFL. Did he look like it? Did he look like he was in any way ready for that? Now, I'm not saying
matching up against the Rams was an easy ask. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. But you know what? And I'm not saying that James is Jackson Dart. I would never say that. But Dart was moving the ball pretty well. So I don't accept that. Yeah, well, they pin their ears back because they knew that he had to pass. Not when he came in, not at that point, not until James started doing James things. James was like, wait, wait, who me? Me? On the next man up. James, you've been in the league forever. You were the first pick overall. You have all people should understand. Next man up. Next man up. League, especially if you backup a guy who's known for going down. Next man up. So who's the next man up? Is it James? Oh, wait, according to John Harboh, we don't know yet. We're still getting more information in. We have to wait and see.
Yeah, so let's wait and see. It does not sound good though. It doesn't. It doesn't look good. Sometimes things are exactly what they appear and that appeared really bad. Dear Jim, without the YouTube stream, I can't post my 60 comments. How am I supposed to post my 60 comments? Welcome to the bleeping NHL. Thanks. Roy Malauker. Roy Malauker did not send that. Paul and Albany, the other tape. Oh, Kauharski having another donut. Somebody puts a stick on you. Fall because that's what it's really turned into. All because a bunch of the prima donnas in this friggin league don't want to get touched. They're whining. They can't get their goals. I can't get my 60 goals. How am I going to go? I got my 60 goals. I can't get my 60 comments. Welcome to the friggin national hot stream. This stream is down because that's what 90% of us have to go through night in and night out. Welcome. Welcome. It's getting sticks on us. Being held up. That's what we all have to go. This room can go down. We got a few. A few chatteries that can't get on the air.
I can't even get my chatted. How am I getting my 60 chats in? How am I getting my 60 chats in? How am I getting my chats? Welcome to the friggin national hot stream. Welcome to the freaking jungle. All right. It happens. We're running a hell of a lot of things going on out of a small building right here. I'm running a full on global broadcast. Welcome to the freaking jungle. Welcome to my freaking life. How am I getting my 60 chats? How am I getting my chat? I'm getting sticks on us. Being held up. I've got a nationally syndicated radio program. It's on 200 radio stations. It's also on satellite radio. We also have a TV program. We also have a stream. We're sinking it all up at one small building with like four people. Welcome to my freaking life. Welcome to the freaking national hot stream. Welcome to the freaking jungle empire or what's left of it? I can't get my 60 chats. I can't hear this dream. I can't get in the chat. I can't super chat you. How can you
want to read my chats? That actually worked out pretty well. Wining little babies. Welcome to the freaking. I can't get my chat. Good job, Albie. Good job, Albany. Yeah, one more. And Marty underscore Blick is talking about Kauai. If you want to talk about Kauai. Again, I can't believe this guy. I cannot believe that Kauai remains and emerges unscathed. Look at what powder did to the clippers and I'm glad and they deserved it. But what about Kauai? Kauai is unscathed. It's a slap on the wrist. He not only is it not punitive. Not always in a slap on the wrist. He's rewarded. He's rewarded with a new contract. I don't think powder was getting out of the clippers and saying, you know what? That that was not a good thing. Here's some additional first round picks. You can keep all those other ones and we're going to give you
two more for free just because you know, you're the clippers effectively. That's what happened to Kauai. Kauai gets traded. He's not stuck in a franchise that just lost five first round picks and gets to go someplace where he won a world championship. So they'll be happy to see him by the way. Nobody in LA would be happy to see him. But everybody in Toronto will be pretty happy to see him because the last day, remember he won them a championship, the freaking raptors and he gets rewarded. This dude and Marty Blake, quote, Jimmy crazy. How no team has the balls to tell Kauai Leonard to just pound sand. It's like he can put at NBA teams GMs into a trance and get them to back up the bring struck just to sit in luxury boxes every single season. Here's the thing. Nobody's making the
raptors do this. And it's not like the uncle can come around either because the powder, the powder pounded Uncle Dennis. So it's not like they're afraid of Uncle Dennis. Uncle's lucky he didn't get the for life for life treatment. So I don't know what the raptors were thinking. I don't know if they're thinking, yeah, well, you know, we don't want an unhappy Kauai because we know an unhappy Kauai while the sun get hurt and go into operation shutdown or or even worse, they're thrilled to have the guy and they can't wait to pay him money. It's that the raptors can't wait to get this guy in and chip him off and it has no one hundred and fifteen mill. Again, as I mentioned in fairness to the raptors, the freaky raptors now one in NBA championship
with this guy. Of course, they're happy to see him. They have fond memories of him come home. They're bringing back the product of the sun. Welcome home, Kauai. Here's a hundred and fifteen mill. Great to have you back. That's a nice gift basket. Not with like apricots and dates, but a hundred and fifteen mill. Rick resonator 42. Kauai will retire in Kauai. Hey, hey, oh, can I say something? One, yes. Two, my man will retire wherever the hell he wants. I would imagine Kauai will have several retirement homes and one of them will be in Kauai. Hell, never mind Kauai. He'll have that island. He's going to go there and kick everybody out and just make it Kauai. What do you live? Kauai? Oh, that's cool. No, you don't understand.
I live on an island named after me. No, you don't. It's Kauai, bro. There's like thousands of people there. Not anymore. There's not. I paid them all to go away with all the money I keep making. Joe, surprise three, two, one, one, quote, can we drop the stream again so I can get things done? Bro, you got to make a choice. The stream is back. Can you do both? If not, make a choice. Eric Wood joins me when we hang. Good one, Lauren. Eric Wood joins me when we come back. We're talking bills, football next. Want your data internet? Sure. All you have to do is find every data broker that has it. There are hundreds. Each one has its own opt out form. Some make you upload a photo of your ID to the people selling your data. Some just ignore you completely. And a new government report found brokers making opt-outs harder on purpose, broken links, buried forms, requests that go
nowhere, deleting yourself by hand isn't a task. It's part time job that never ends because deleted data creeps back like weeds. This is why I now use incogni. I wish I knew about it sooner. It sends the removal demands. It files the follow ups. It keeps checking month after month so the brokers can't quietly relist you. Incogni has scrubbed me from over 220 sites while I did exactly nothing. My kind of jaw go to incogni.com slash room and get 60% off. That's I N COG N I dot com slash room. They built the maze incogni brought the map incogni. You're listening to that Jim Rome show. Welcome back Jim Rome with you in Southern California. What we are doing is going all it's cool with it. At least in the way of the interview, the stream is up, but the zoom is not.
So I'm going to do this old school. We are joined right now by a former NFL center. He played his entire nine year career at Buffalo bills. He was a pro bowler in 2015. He is a game analyst for the bills radio network. He is the host of the centered on Buffalo podcast. He is Eric Wood. Eric, my brother is always great to have you on the show. How you doing, dude? I'm doing great. It's always great being on with you, brother. Man, it's great to hear your voice. I wish I could see your face. Sorry about that. But you know, you're in the content game. Now this goes sometimes. Let me ask you appreciate you, man, very much. You had the best seat in the house to broadcast a pair of offensive showcases with the bills hanging 77 on the Texans and the lines in the first two games. I get that it's only two games, but Eric, can you recall Josh Allen ever looking better than he has to start a season as he has this year? No, I really can, especially to start a season. I mean, you could think back of at a bunch of incredible Josh Allen performances, but through two
games, I think we're seeing the best version of Josh Allen where he looks to be in complete control, whether it's checking plays at the line of skirmishes or the proper run playlist to checking protections to airing the ball out when it's appropriate and taking the shots down the field, taking at other times where the defense gives him utilizing his legs without completely putting his body in harm's way. I think we're just we're getting an incredible version of Josh Allen and you can credit that to maturity at this point in his career. You could credit to experience that he's gained. Maybe the weapons, this offensive line that continues to perform year over year, the use of 13 personnel with the group of tight ends they got, or you could say maybe it's Joe Brady who's at the helm now and potentially allowing him to play for here. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but this this version of Josh Allen right now is pretty scary. You're good, Eric. You
be me to my follow-up. I was going to say he's all those things, but what is it and then you just kind of touched on what it might be. What about Joe Brady? I love Joe Brady and not just because Joe Brady told me that he's a clone and he listened to the program right after he got that job. We had a conversation, but I love the guy because I love the energy that he brings to it. It seems to me that he's even more aggressive with his play calling. Now that he's become head coach, what are the differences overall have you noticed since he took over? Yeah, I mean, the players will point to a different energy in the building, which there's always going to be a different energy. When there's a head coach and change, I had plenty of them throughout my career Buffalo. I know how that goes. So there's always going to be different messaging. There's going to be, you know, you hire a younger coach or whatever it may be, there's going to be a different energy about it. But, you know, Joe Brady's a guy that was in the building already. So he's got a relationship with a number of these guys and then he takes over. And I mean, Dion Dawkins always, what's he calling? He's got some Florida swag to him. I think he relates
really well to these guys. He's given them a confidence to, you know, go out and play free as his messaging. And we've seen that through a couple of weeks where we're seeing standout performances, especially on the offensive side of the football. So it's been fun to watch and we'll see if they can keep a role in this week against the chargers who are going to be completely desperate coming in at 0 and 2. I'm going to get to that in a minute too. Eric Wood joining us and glad you brought up our guide Dion Dawkins. I mean, you spent nine years in the trenches. So what do you make of the collection of talent that's up front this year protecting Josh Allen, including Dion who's leaned out and looks great. He does. Yeah, he was listed at what, 325 last year. He said he lost 45 pounds. So everyone thought he was going to play at 280. That ain't the case. He's probably 325 now at this point, but he's playing well. And I always appreciate this. Coming from a reinvention guy like yourself, a guy like Dion Dawkins who's been in the
pro bowl each and every year for countless years, decides, you know what? My game might be slipping a touch or maybe I can't age throughout my career the way I want to if I play at an extremely heavy weight. And so he drops a bunch of weight this off season and he's got his juice back to him. And he's played really well through a couple weeks. And then this offensive line, you return everybody but the left guard, the left guard that filled in is Alec Anderson who's maybe the meanest of the bunch up front. I mean, go search Alec Anderson highlight through a couple weeks if you want to see some kill shots on guys. And you might not want to bring them on the program unless you got the bleep button ready because he doesn't quite understand what national media appearances look like in the language that you should generally present yourself in. But that's what we love about Alec Anderson. He's the tone setter up front and he's been a great addition to an inford David Edwards who got paid a ton of money to go down to the Saints. And then Alec Anderson's a guy
they've been grooming up front to fill in. So those guys that protected Josh Allen through a couple of weeks week one against Houston last year they gave up eight sacks of that group. They give up two in the first game to the Texans, but Josh was barely hit throughout that game. Eric Wood just bringing it joining us talking about the bills. Eric, so you let me ask you about a high mark stadium. For instance, the atmosphere there, just watching it on TV on Thursday night was just electric. And they opened up that building with that beat down to the lions. You played and called games in the old stadium. How does the noise level of the new stadium compare to the old one? It's louder. It truly is. The last stadium was built more outward and and then obviously had nothing on top of it. This one is built straight up and down. So even though we reduced the capacity by 10,000 seats, this one's built straight up and down and then 60% of the stands are covered by these awnings, which then trapped the sound in. And you know, guys on
the on the field were saying it was like nothing they've been a part of to the point of where the offensive line when we're saying when the defense was out on the field, they could barely communicate on the sideline with the coaches and they would have to wait until just after a play before the crowd got going again to try to affect the lines off and even be able to communicate on the sideline. So credit to the bills, even though they reduced the size of the stadium, they made it so that every seat in the house is a great seat based upon the design of the stadium and the upward nature of it. And then what they did with those awnings and how they built the stadium, it is extremely loud and new high mark. All right, so you can't hear yourself. Thank. Let me ask you this. Like, high mark, it's state of the art. It's beautiful. Is the intimidation factor still there? I would say so. I would say so. This isn't like when Atlanta went to their new building and it got really corporate and you felt like they kind of lost the essence of the Balkans fan base, that that rowdy fan base that you know, you would you would see on TV or that I played in front of,
you play in that new building and it's kind of got a stale corporate feel to it. That's not the feel of this new stadium. Those mobbius still out in full effect and I would say it's it's simply intimidating atmosphere and then you still get the elements. Now we cut out the wind with you know, the wind confusion design that they did on the exterior of the stadium to block the wind. But when it gets cold, it's still going to be cold in there and you're still going to see some snowflakes out on the field. So, you know, that that was important to Mr. Fervula that in western New York, it still looks like a western New York football game. It still gets cold. Eric would joining us. Eric, so what about the news that team gets DJ Moore avoided serious shoulder injury when he went down early in that game last week. He's considered day to day as of the last report. When you look at him, like knowing what you know about him in his career and what you've seen from him since he arrived, does it seem like Buffalo now has its first legitimate WR one in the last couple of years? Yeah, I would say since digs left, this is our our first legitimate number one.
And you know, it's rare in this league that when you trade for a guy, you're trading for another team's Walter Payton man of the year from the previous year. And I understand that Chicago has drafted a lot of the skill positions. You can't keep everybody, but it's rare you can get a guy like that on your team. And so he comes in. He's a mentor towards the young guys. He's a can still be a game breaker at this point of his career. You know, he's opened up things while he's been out there for Dalton, King Cade to have two big games to start the season or Shakira to make some more plays down the field. He on Coleman made some plays last game. Josh Palmer's got two touchdowns through two weeks. And you know, James couple leads the league and rushing a year ago, but the bills face the most stacked boxes in the NFL because there was no one that you were overly concerned with taking the top off the defense. And when DJ Moore's out there this year, that's not going to be the case. So Eric, I talked to Stevie Johnson in the week of Super Bowl. And we talked by Ken Coleman. You just mentioned him. What about Keon? Do you think that he has he is he taking the next step like
in terms of maturity, physical play? Basically, what do you think when you look at him right now? Where's he at? Yeah, I think I think he's continuing to develop into a pro. And last week was maybe his best game as a pro. And you know, this is a guy that's still extremely young. I believe he's 23 years old. Yeah, he's 23 years old. And so still extremely young. And look, he he had some maturity issues through his first couple years. And you miss enough meetings in the NFL to get to get suspended in miss games. That doesn't happen often in the NFL. But you know, you worked with Stevie. This offseason and you know, Stevie had great things to say about him as a player. And as a person, Joe Brady has his back, which maybe he's given him some extra confidence out there. And you know, I think this kid has a bright future in this league. And when you have a DJ Moore, when you have a Dalton King Cade, when Josh Allen also runs the football, when you have James Cook, you know, his number might not be called six, seven times a week. But for him, it's about making the plays when
your number is called. And then last game, he comes up with some big third down catches. He's blocking in the run game. And so I would say he's definitely on the nut. I'm glad you're right. We're talking Eric Wood just breaking it all down. I'm trying to pick my spots here. I kind of want to take too much of your time. You know, the one guy we haven't talked about. And it's another guy that I really, really like because of my Wisconsin roots. Well, I wouldn't call him roots. But I'm a Jim Leonard guy. I loved him as a player. I talked to him at Wisconsin one day when he was there as de-coordinator. It's still early yet. But what do you make of his scheme and his defense? And how do you think he'll do? I love Jimmy Leonard too. I played with him. He was with us with the dill under rack. I played against him when he was with the Jets and in other teams. And I got I've always had a lot of respect for in, you know, when when we made the higher with Joe Brady, he was definitely one of my recommendations for defense, a coordinator. A guy that I felt like was a rising star based upon his work at Wisconsin. What he did with the Broncos last year.
Really excited about getting him in the building. And I do believe that this scheme is going to be extremely beneficial for us in the long run with how multiple it is. Now on the back end of the defense, we've struggled through the first couple weeks. And, you know, those guys are getting used to a new scheme and everything that's involved with that. We also had both of our safes missed time in the preseason and a number of injuries that happened in the preseason. But through two weeks, they've really struggled on the back end of the defense. Now the guys up front have already seen the benefit of a three, four defense where you don't necessarily know where they're going to be every time these guys on the edge standing up at a two point stance. Greg Rousseau's got four sacks through two games. Dion Walker looks incredible out there at defense at Taco right now. So the guys up front have adapted a little bit quicker. The guys in the back end looking for them to take a big step this week. I thought Joe Brady made a good point. When you go Sunday night, when you play on Sunday and then go into a Thursday game in the first two weeks,
it's almost like playing two week one games because you don't have time to make a whole lot of corrections from the first week. Well, now you got 10 days off and they're looking for that back end of the defense to take a big step before next week. But I think Jim Lenders is going to be a star in this league. I truly do. Former player, communicator players well, extremely smart, competitive handles this business in Jim. You know, this like when you watch these coordinators step up for their weekly press conferences, some of them look and act like head coaches extremely fast when they're putting the spotlight in to me, Jim's one of those guys. I love hearing you say that about Jim Leonard. We're talking to Eric Wood. So bring me up today. Like obviously you've gotten so good at this, so good at this. And you're pushing out so much quality content. But when you first retired, you wrote a book, which I thought was great. And you had a podcast, what's next with Eric Wood? So is this what's next with Eric Wood? What else are you doing? You have time. Obviously, the family is the thing. You're getting a lot of quality family time. But with everything you're doing with Buffalo, are you still pursuing the other stuff? Are you doing public speaking? Are you
motivating? What's next? Yeah, I'm doing a little bit of public speaking, but just kind of let them fall into my lap when they come. And you know, for the bills, I'll do some content for them throughout the week. And I have this bills podcast. Now you were a guest on the what's next podcast and having 200 episodes similar to your reinvention project to have those types of people pour into you. Definitely helps me with my transition out of the NFL. But yeah, I'm playing a good amount of golf, trying to be a president, husband and dad and having some awesome experiences along the way. But yeah, this bills gig is pretty fun. I grew up in Cincinnati and Dave Lappen was a legendary color guy for the Bengals. And I don't know if I'll do it for close to 40 years like he has. But when I see him around at golf tournaments and whatnot, I tell him now, I'm like, I understand why you've done this gig so long because it's fun. It's fun to be around the team that you played for. And you know, we don't have to work the coaching hours of the front office hours, but you're still there on game day and at times throughout the week. So you still feel somewhat involved in
vested in the team. But you get to be home a little bit more than than the guys that that work in the coaching in front office. I love that. I'll take exactly how long you'll do it. You'll do it as long as you want to do it. If you want to do it 40 years, you'll do it as long as you want to do it. That's how good you are at it. Eric, appreciate you so much. Great to get caught up. My brother, great job. Great talking to you. Thank you, man. Absolutely. Thanks for having me on. All right, Eric, Eric Wood joining us. He's so good. Sorry that I couldn't get that on the stream. Sorry that I could not get up out that on the stream because that was so excellent. Great bills talk. Oh, clones. You're upset that your chats are not a part of the break take. Don't make me bring that focus group back. They'll cancel your ass for good. Did ever dawn on you that if we're having a technical issue or two that maybe that might be the problem. Let's just take that under advisement. We are doing what we can. We are a small operation.
I can't get my 60 chats. My break takes. I can't get my 60 chats. My break take. I don't care if your interviews. I don't know what I care about your interviews. Interviews don't make the show better. My chats. My chats do. My submissions do. I don't care about your interviews. I can't get my chats. My chat's in the break takes. I can't get my 60 chats in the break takes. What's the matter with you, Vance, man? I don't care that Eric Wood was incredible. I don't care that was just an amazing interview. I didn't see. I only care about my core boss submissions. I can't get my chat. I can't get on the break takes. Where the break takes? What is the focus group in this? Maybe he's in this week. They don't want to get touched. I mean, I looked at the I'll be back now. They'll be back. It's like they were yesterday. All right, quick break. Again, my thanks to Eric Wood. A few years ago, a lost in our family was a reminder that life is unpredictable. That's why having life insurance became a priority for my family, protecting your loved ones with life insurance. All right, Clowns, Quick Reminder. Not all beef jerky is the same,
old trappers, original, fashion, teriyaki, hot and spicy and peppered all coming for ounce bags. So you can sample it in flavors and find the best one for you. Ask for a trapper by name because one of the jerky comparers or trapper, which are beef. I like that one guy in chat who said, I think we're getting clowned. What, just because I did the I can't get my 60 chats. The Larry Robinson voice. Let's say you're getting clowned. All right, so let's talk some college ball that the dust is finally settling in Oxford. The hangovers from Saturday night are finally fading, but Lane Kiffin does not look any better 72 hours out from getting his ass handed to him in his old house. In fact, it seems like it's only getting worse for Lane with columns like this popping up everywhere at Dan Wulken. It's good writer too. When Lane Kiffin left Tennessee for USC in 2009, he made the logical move, but ultimately bet on the wrong horse. Did he do it again by leaving this old mis team for LSU? Quote and a quote. So
there it is, the real question. And the real reason why there was so much pressure on Lane Kiffin going into that game, regardless of what he tried to tell us, even if Lane kept telling us that all the pressure was on Ole Miss. No, the pressure was on Lane because it was obvious that people were going to make that game a referendum on his entire choice to leave Ole Miss. The pressure was on Lane because you just knew that once LSU lost that game, everybody would rush in to say see, see, he never should have left. He never needed to leave. See, LSU isn't any better. See, he could have won with Ole Miss. See Lane Kiffin obviously made a mistake by going to LSU. The type of mistake that he has made before like when is this dude ever going to learn? That was going to be the narrative. That is the narrative now. Now, having said all that and there is a
discussion to be had as to whether or not it was the right thing or the wrong thing. I knew this would be a very common reaction, but I do have to say it's not my reaction. I have plenty of reactions to that game, but to me, Lane clearly messed up going to LSU is not one of my reactions because I don't agree with that. I don't agree with this notion that one game proves he made the wrong choice when he's now got the type of resources that he has to work with. Help, the governor is the AD practically. The governor of the entire state is running the entire athletic department. He's got the whole state behind him. He's got whatever he wants or needs behind him. So, there's that. In reaction to the game, Ole Miss is going to be just fine without Lane, at least as long as they have that witch, Tritidad Chamblis. As long as that witch is around,
they're going to be fine because that witch is still a witch. Andy's a gamer. Andy still has more juice than any quarterback can call it football and Chamblis brings all that juice and all that it even when it isn't Lane, dialing up the plays, even when he's not going up against Lane. I'll even go as far as to make this statement after watching that game Saturday night. Tritidad Chamblis was more important Ole Miss than Lane was, which is why they're still fine. Even though Lane is in Baton Rouge, it's because this dude is the most electrifying player in football and he stayed behind in Oxford. I'm happy to say all that. I believe all that is true. I just don't believe that one game means that we know for sure that Lane messed up again by leaving Ole Miss for LSU. Lane did not have his Brian Kelly fake accent moment.
And now he's clearly doomed no matter what happens. Saturday night did not go his way and it was not a good look and it was rough but it was still nowhere near jug band levels. It was nowhere near this guy in this town and this program and then it's just never going to work because of the family and the jug band. I actually think the opposite is true. I still think despite that loss, Lane is still the perfect guy to be the football coach at LSU in this moment at LSU. Just like Will Wade is the perfect guy to coach the LSU basketball team right now. Just like Kim Malky is the perfect lady to coach the LSU women's basketball team. I mean all of them it's who and what they all are and given who and what they all are, this is exactly where they
belong. In fact, I'm not sure there's ever been a better philosophical match between an athletic program and a football coach. And I'm actually being serious when I say that. A guy who grabs attention and considers chaos his oxygen and steps over lines and is not afraid to get litigious or challenge authority. And that's exactly what LSU is. That's exactly what LSU wants. And they've got the perfect guy to tick every one of those boxes. So no, one game does not convince me that Lane made a huge mistake or that Lane is going to be a giant failure. If I had to take a wild guess, predicting the ending of Lane's time at LSU, I would guess that it's going to end badly only because of precedent, only because it always ends badly with Lane and Lane never ever changes. But it doesn't mean that this dude won't get a natty first. Before it does go badly because it
will go badly, but it doesn't mean that he won't win. It doesn't mean that he won't get whatever he wants out of LSU because he just did the exact same thing at all miss. My point is Lane can still win even if it ends badly in Baton Rouge. And I'm just nowhere near ready to say that he made some enormous mistake based on that one game. In fact, like normally when Lane says something, I don't really believe him, but I actually believe him when he says, you know what? Yes, we want to win, but we're pretty much where we thought we'd be. They are. They are. It's just that they beat the hell out of Clemson to start the year. And everybody thought that was so big and then, oh, wait a minute now. Even I got kind of sucked up in it. Wait a minute now. They're an actual national championship contender. Look at how they destroyed Clemson. Well, Clemson is nowhere near what Clemson used to be. So destroying Clemson does not make you a national
championship contender. You know what LSU is? LSU is a team looking to get into the playoff. And if they get consistent quarterback play, they should be in the playoff. That's a big if because we've seen their quarterback play really good and really bad. So with Levitt, we'll see what we get, but no, they are what they are. But I'll tell you what I am ready to say. I am ready to say that Ole Miss is still a damn good football team. I am ready to say that Trinidad Chamblis is still the most electric player in college football. So no, what I'm not going to say though is C C Lane did it again. Lane made another terrible mistake. Lane should have stayed exactly where he was. No, Lane is exactly where he should be. He loves that they'll let him be him. Now, I'm not saying that Ole Miss wouldn't let him be him. They did. Lane found a place though where there are more resources and more money and more of
everything he wants. The governor is involved. Effectively, LSU has more to offer him than Ole Miss. How do you say that, Rome? Ole Miss just kicked his ass this year right now. But if you're looking farther down the road, I'm still going to say that's the right place for him. But good for Ole Miss, good for them kicking his ass. That had to feel great. But no, I would not say he made a mistake. I would not put it this way. I would not say he quote, better on the wrong horse. He still has a better runner in LSU. Stay tuned.
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