ITG 92 - Week 4 Recap, Week 5 Picks
ITG 92 - Week 4 Recap, Week 5 Picks
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - In the gun episode 92,
00:07 it's time to recap our big 12 weekly picks,
00:09 get into some new ones and see how you guys did.
00:12 Because that was the first week
00:14 that you were able to compete against us.
00:16 Jed will lay out the details for that
00:18 if you want to participate and try and knock one of us out.
00:22 The way the season's gone, it's not gonna take you much.
00:24 I've struggled of late, Jed has really struggled.
00:28 Owen's kind of getting some momentum here going.
00:30 Wes has been batting a thousand until this week.
00:32 So we'll get into that.
00:34 Let's just go ahead and get in right to it, Jed.
00:36 So the recap, we'll get into that first,
00:40 but if you want to go and hit on
00:41 how people can join the competition.
00:44 - Yeah, last week we initiated a link
00:49 that you can enter your information
00:51 to a Google poll and be part of it.
00:53 And what we're gonna do is if anybody hits all four,
00:56 we pick passing offense of the week
00:58 to throw for the most yards,
00:59 rushing offense of the week to rush for most yards,
01:02 lowest scoring defense
01:04 and highest scoring offense in the Big 12.
01:06 So if you go four for four,
01:08 we're gonna have a nice cool prize for you.
01:10 Like Owen's gonna autograph a rookie card
01:12 from his NFL days and it's not gonna be easy.
01:15 I'll say this, we started this with the fans last week
01:19 'cause we each pick one category, right?
01:21 Like I signal caller pick of passing yards,
01:23 beer truck picks rushing.
01:25 You pick offense and Wes picks defense.
01:28 It's hard enough for us to hit one and win, right?
01:31 But to hit all four, that's really tricky.
01:34 So what we found out, we had several people
01:37 that all you do is enter your email and your name
01:41 and enter your picks and boom, there you are.
01:44 We had several people do this
01:46 and only two of them got two out of four right.
01:50 That's how hard this is.
01:52 So it's not a layup.
01:53 If you do it, you earned it.
01:55 And I'll give you the two.
01:57 We wanna give them a nice little shout out.
01:59 We'll probably even throw your name up on the screen
02:01 if you're watching on YouTube.
02:03 We had a guy named Albert Morsey.
02:05 - Go Al.
02:08 - Go Al.
02:09 He hit the rushing offense with Kansas State
02:13 which rushed for the most yards
02:14 and he had the scoring defense.
02:16 Texas allowed six points.
02:18 So there were two defenses that allowed six points.
02:20 So even the tie, he got that.
02:21 So he hit two of those.
02:23 And then there was another guy
02:25 and he just entered his name as Jim.
02:28 So Jim, good job.
02:30 Now I don't know if it was Jim McMahan
02:33 because he's the only person
02:35 who got the passing offense right.
02:37 He picked BYU to throw for the most yards in the Big 12.
02:41 - Really?
02:42 - He nailed it.
02:43 He's the only guy that picked BYU.
02:46 And he also hit the scoring defense
02:48 because he had picked Oklahoma
02:49 and Oklahoma and Texas each allowed six.
02:52 So great job to Albert Morsey and Jim.
02:55 I assume it's not McMahan.
02:56 But yeah, we encourage you.
02:58 We're going to put this one on Twitter this week.
03:00 We'll post a new link.
03:01 And each week we want to get you kind of interact
03:04 with the listeners and the viewers and the fans.
03:07 And that's a really fun part of it.
03:09 As we try and do it, we recognize how challenging it is.
03:11 And it also gives us some frame of reference.
03:13 So the four categories,
03:15 here's what we found out with all the people
03:18 that entered into the lottery themselves
03:19 or into the picks themselves.
03:21 The one guy that got the passing offense right, only one,
03:26 only one got the passing offense.
03:28 And that was Jim.
03:29 Only three got the rushing offense right.
03:32 This is not easy.
03:33 13 got the scoring defense right.
03:38 But that's in part because of the ties count, right?
03:40 Nobody, nobody out of all the pickers
03:46 got the scoring offense right.
03:49 - That makes me feel better.
03:50 - Again, guys, this is,
03:52 we're going to encourage the listeners, guys and gals,
03:55 get involved in this because I'll tell you what,
03:57 if somebody hits this with all four,
04:00 we're going to make it fun for you.
04:02 We're going to give you a shout out and then some,
04:04 because you know some football
04:05 or you're the luckiest person on earth.
04:07 One or the other, we're both, we're both, right?
04:09 So with that being said,
04:12 let's double back to last week's results.
04:15 And then we're going to hit a break after that.
04:17 And we'll come back and make this week's picks.
04:19 Last week, I picked as the offense,
04:24 the signal caller of the week,
04:25 the offense to throw for the most yards.
04:27 I picked TCU, which of course by law means they didn't.
04:32 I ended up not scoring again.
04:34 I got zero points.
04:35 We can put the totals up on the board,
04:37 but I'm not going to bore anybody with the top five
04:39 that I didn't qualify for.
04:40 But I sent it to you, Skylar,
04:42 so you can throw the graphics up.
04:43 Owen, rushing offense of the week.
04:48 You picked TCU.
04:49 Now remember what I told you last week?
04:51 I said, I like your chances
04:52 because I picked them to throw for the most.
04:54 I know they're not going to do that.
04:55 So, well, they had a pretty good game.
04:58 They ran for 192 yards against SMU.
05:01 That was good enough to finish third most in the Big 12.
05:05 K-State went nuts, ran for 281 against UCF.
05:09 Of course, one dude in Giddens ran for over 200.
05:11 What a game he had.
05:12 Kansas ran for 221 against BYU.
05:17 So TCU with 192 comes in third, so you get three points.
05:21 So again, not easy.
05:23 Wes, last week, picked,
05:26 and this looked like a really good pick on paper.
05:29 It really did.
05:30 They were hosting a struggling Oklahoma State team,
05:34 but you know what?
05:35 He didn't fare so well.
05:37 Allowing the fewest points in the Big 12
05:38 were two different teams at six.
05:40 Texas and Oklahoma each allowed six.
05:42 Houston allowed seven against Sam Houston.
05:45 WVU, shout out to the Mountaineers,
05:47 Jordan Leslie and crew, holding Texas Tech to 13.
05:50 That might be the most impressive
05:52 out of what we've seen in the so far mentioned.
05:54 TCU allowed 17 against SMU.
05:57 Wes's pick of Iowa State came in at a tie in eighth place.
06:01 So he doesn't get any points.
06:03 Skyler, you picked as the highest scoring offense
06:06 in the Big 12.
06:07 You picked Oklahoma at Cincinnati.
06:12 - No. - State scored
06:13 the most points with 44.
06:16 You had three teams score 38,
06:18 couple teams score 34, UCF scored 31,
06:22 couple teams scored 27,
06:25 and then here come your Oklahoma Sooners with 20,
06:28 with a 10th place tie with West Virginia for scoring 20.
06:33 So you get zero points like Wes and like myself.
06:36 So tough week, Owen.
06:38 Any points scored this week,
06:40 'cause this was a bloodletting this week.
06:42 - It was, it was.
06:43 Unfortunately, you know, Jed,
06:45 you win some, you lose some.
06:47 I beat you always.
06:49 - Well, yeah, I just think you win some,
06:51 or you win some, you lose some,
06:52 you still, I just lose some.
06:53 - It's like you win some or you're Jed.
06:56 - I lose some.
06:56 (laughing)
06:58 I lose some, but I lose some.
07:00 - And I'll have to.
07:04 - Yeah, I'll throw up the standings here.
07:06 So Wes is sitting atop at 17 points.
07:08 He's been killing it all year.
07:10 Last, this past week was his first week
07:13 where he didn't really hit anything.
07:14 - We're going to tell Wes when he gets back on here,
07:16 when he finds Las Vegas in February.
07:19 (laughing)
07:20 We're going to tell him when he gets back on here.
07:22 Dude, 13 people got the scoring deep.
07:25 - Yeah.
07:26 (laughing)
07:27 This is going to make him feel great.
07:29 But Owen, with the three points,
07:33 he's knotted up with me for second place
07:35 at 10 points on the season.
07:37 And Jed, I hate to tell you,
07:40 you're still not on the board yet.
07:41 So you were, and then you took a point off
07:44 because of, what was it, two weeks ago?
07:46 - I told you, I told you, anybody places finishes 14th,
07:49 which I almost did the week before.
07:50 I said, I'm docking myself a point.
07:52 You're going right on.
07:53 (laughing)
07:54 So when that happened last week,
07:55 I was like, absolutely, I'm doing it.
07:58 Almost happened with West Virginia, but.
08:01 - Man.
08:02 - It almost did happen with West Virginia.
08:04 That's what happened.
08:05 - Don't place your bets on what Jed says,
08:08 or for what I say, for that matter.
08:09 Speak of.
08:10 - Oklahoma's the number one in the league every,
08:11 well, in the top two in the league every week,
08:14 except when I picked them.
08:15 - Yeah.
08:16 And of course I picked them last week too.
08:18 And that's a good time for me to mention Bet Online,
08:20 which I should have done earlier.
08:21 But this episode of In the Gun is brought to you
08:24 by Bet Online, where the game starts.
08:27 And I mean, I don't know.
08:29 I don't know where I'm going to go this week.
08:31 We'll get into that here in just a second.
08:32 But I mean, you're right, Jed.
08:34 Like for anybody to hit all four,
08:37 I mean, we've done this for four or five weeks.
08:40 I've done this for four or five weeks.
08:41 You guys did it all last year.
08:42 Any of you ever like all hit in the same-
08:45 - No, that never happened.
08:46 - Like that's-
08:47 - For any of us to hit, it was,
08:49 that only happened four times.
08:51 - I don't even think we all three hit the number one
08:55 any last year.
08:56 - No, we didn't.
08:57 We didn't, no one.
08:58 I don't think-
08:59 - Like all three of us collectively,
09:00 like we never even did that, so.
09:01 - I don't think we did either.
09:02 It's tricky.
09:03 - Just 'cause the show how great analysts we are.
09:06 (laughing)
09:08 - Owen, you've seen what we do with Phil.
09:11 We come up with our own little handicapping
09:13 for that specific West Virginia game.
09:16 That's kind of,
09:17 'cause we get to make up the bets, right?
09:19 That is kind of fun to come up
09:21 with what we're going to bet on for that one.
09:22 - We're cooking with a lot of stuff here.
09:24 I'll tell you, like,
09:24 we've kind of made this show
09:27 a little bit different this year.
09:28 We've got the Peach Lot thing brewing and off the air.
09:31 We haven't got into yet,
09:32 there might be something brewing at the tailgate situation.
09:35 We've got an ITG sports book maybe coming.
09:37 There's a whole lot of stuff that we're working on here.
09:39 So, you got to stay tuned.
09:42 But, so we're going to go ahead and take a quick break.
09:45 And then when we come back,
09:46 we'll make our picks for this week.
09:48 Again, Wes is somewhere flying in the air.
09:50 So we'll have to just either make a pick for him,
09:53 maybe make the worst pick.
09:55 And it'll probably end up being the number one
09:57 off or defense that week.
09:58 So we'll figure that out when we come across the break.
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11:46 - Let's go, Mountaineer fans.
11:50 You're tuned in to In the Gun with Wes,
11:53 the runaway beer truck and the signal caller.
11:56 (logo whooshes)
11:59 All right, so it's time to make our picks.
12:01 And as always, this episode of ITG
12:04 is brought to you by our friends at Toothman Ford.
12:07 We all know cars cost less in Grafton.
12:10 And guys, I have no idea
12:14 where I'm going with my pick this week.
12:16 I'm still bouncing it back and forth between three schools.
12:18 So hopefully one of you will go first
12:22 because obviously Wes isn't here right now.
12:24 And usually I get just to sit back and listen to you guys.
12:28 I've already texted my pick into Wes.
12:30 He gives a one sentence thing for me and I'm good to go.
12:32 Now today, I've got to explain my pick.
12:34 So I got to figure this crap out.
12:36 So Jed, Owen, one of you go first, whoever wants to go.
12:39 - I'll take a crack at it since we were just talking
12:41 about reminiscing some old stories about Coach Herb Hand
12:46 and the fighting Herb Hands down there at UCF.
12:48 I'm going with UCF against Baylor at home.
12:52 First big 12 matchup they got there down there.
12:55 And come on, Herbie, I need a handy brother.
12:58 - Owen tells us during the break
13:03 that he's going to pick UCF.
13:06 And that ends up with me and Owen just for the next,
13:09 in real time, half an hour telling Herb, right?
13:12 Spanning 15, 20 years.
13:15 But yeah, Herb's a good dude down there coaching
13:18 the O-line doing a great job of it actually
13:20 at Central Florida with his boy Gus Malzahn,
13:23 who he's been with on and off since their days at Tulsa.
13:26 But Owen, I'll tell you what,
13:29 I'm looking at UCF's rush totals in four games,
13:32 389, 258, 251, even at K-State last week,
13:36 they still managed 143.
13:38 And this is without John Rhys Plumlee,
13:40 their dual threat quarterback,
13:41 who hasn't been playing last couple of games.
13:43 That's a good pick, but what do I know, right?
13:48 Because here's what I'll say, passing offense,
13:50 I got bad news for Texas Tech, I really do.
13:54 They're going home with their season on the brink
13:58 to host the Houston Cougars and Dana Hogerson,
14:02 who knows a little thing or two about the love of Texas.
14:04 I think that they want to make this a get right game.
14:08 I think Baron Morton's going to obviously get the start
14:10 because that poor Tyler Shuck,
14:12 I don't see him playing football anytime soon.
14:15 And I think Texas Tech has an opportunity
14:18 to throw for some yards.
14:19 And if I didn't pick them, they probably would.
14:21 But I think what this does is it kind of makes the path
14:24 a little easier for Dana.
14:25 Dana might owe me one after this for picking Texas Tech.
14:28 He might sneak in there and steal one from most red Raiders.
14:31 But I'm going to go with Texas Tech, Baron Morton.
14:34 I think Zach Kittley's going to have a nice plan together
14:36 with a week to work with the young Baron Morton again.
14:39 And we know what that looks like
14:40 after he's had some time to work with him.
14:42 And I think Texas Tech has a chance against Houston
14:45 to put up some numbers.
14:46 - Well, looky, looky here, just in the nick of time,
14:49 Wes text me his pick of the week.
14:52 And it is, we'll show it on the screen here,
14:55 the Baylor Bears for his best defense of the week
14:58 against UCF.
15:00 - Whoa!
15:01 - Yes, I'm coming after you, brother!
15:04 - First of all, Wes is still trying to work his way back
15:07 from Vegas on two mules, a super loader helicopter
15:10 and a fan boat.
15:11 But-
15:12 - I can tell Wes is tired.
15:14 I can tell Wes is tired.
15:16 - Yeah, I mean, that's going out on a limb, I tell you,
15:20 but no, we're just kidding.
15:22 Wes did not pick Baylor.
15:23 At least we don't think yet.
15:25 We're taping this.
15:25 We're going to get his pick.
15:27 (laughing)
15:30 We're going to get Wes's pick at some point.
15:33 And I'm going to slide this in here.
15:34 So, drum rolls, please.
15:36 Wes picks.
15:37 All right, great pick by Wes, by the way.
15:41 - Yeah, excellent.
15:42 (laughing)
15:44 - So for the highest scoring offense,
15:46 I'm going to go, all right, I was-
15:48 - By the way, Wes picked the lowest scoring defense.
15:51 - Yes, but the lowest scoring defense,
15:52 I'm going highest scoring offense.
15:55 And I had a hard time this week because like Cincinnati,
15:57 BYU, that's a low scoring game.
16:00 West Virginia, TCU, I still see a low scoring game.
16:03 Houston, Texas Tech, eh, Baylor, UCF,
16:06 don't want any part of it.
16:07 The only two that I kind of came down to
16:10 was Oklahoma against Iowa State.
16:12 And then you guys kind of talked me out of it.
16:14 And I was like, I can't go back to the well again.
16:16 I went with Oklahoma last week and they killed me.
16:19 I'm going to go with Texas against Kansas.
16:22 And I could see this being a shootout.
16:23 I don't think this is going to get out of hand.
16:25 It seems like every time these two teams play,
16:27 it's always some sort of a close game.
16:29 One possession, two possessions,
16:31 sometimes Kansas wins the dang thing.
16:32 So I'm going to go with Texas
16:36 because I think they're maybe the most high powered offense
16:39 of the Big 12.
16:40 And I mean, they've scored 30 plus points
16:44 every game this year.
16:45 So I feel like if I get to 30 with these other matchups,
16:48 I feel like I got a good shot.
16:50 - So what you're saying, Skyler,
16:52 is Jared Casey's not walking through that door
16:54 for Kansas, right?
16:55 Or Jared Casey, the hero two years ago
16:58 when they shocked Texas 57-56 at DKR.
17:02 So you see Texas on the better end of a shootout.
17:05 - I do, but I think, again, I think Kansas can,
17:08 they could be in the top three or four
17:10 of this week's scoring offense too.
17:12 So I actually thought about that too.
17:13 I'm like, well, if I say that,
17:15 people are going to think
17:16 I'm automatically picking them to beat Texas.
17:18 So I'm not going to get into that just yet.
17:20 - Is anybody outside of Austin
17:25 pulling Texas in the Big 12?
17:28 I mean, it's like the world against them.
17:30 Everybody wants Kansas to beat them, Cedric.
17:33 I don't want- - They do.
17:34 They do.
17:35 And I mean, it's just funny, right?
17:37 I mean, even when they did it when they were terrible,
17:41 it was just like, that was the greatest thing-
17:44 - Do you remember that was kind of the coming out party
17:48 with that first Lance Leipold season.
17:49 Remember, strange hiring cycle.
17:52 He was hired after the spring.
17:54 So he didn't really even have an off season
17:57 to get that team ready.
17:59 So they come into that year,
18:01 they knock off South Dakota barely,
18:03 and then they go on a long losing streak,
18:05 which was snapped at DKR
18:09 in that crazy 57, 56 overtime win.
18:13 And then we got them a couple of weeks later,
18:15 because remember, the week after the Texas game,
18:17 then they went on the road and played TCU tough at TCU.
18:20 - Now I'm starting to think about it.
18:21 - And we got them back in Lawrence.
18:23 So that was a strange little stretch for them, but-
18:26 - So was that Sark or Herman?
18:32 - That was Herman.
18:33 That was Herman's last season.
18:35 - And I know Charlie Strong lost to Kansas.
18:37 This is Sark's second season.
18:39 - I thought it was his third.
18:41 Okay, so you're right.
18:42 - You know what?
18:42 Let me think about that.
18:44 - 'Cause I had a feeling this was his third.
18:46 He lost it to them in year one, but maybe I'm wrong.
18:48 - Yeah, you're right.
18:49 You're right.
18:50 This is year three for Sark.
18:51 - So the last three Texas head coaches
18:53 haven't lost to Kansas, we think.
18:55 - Yes, 'cause think about it.
18:56 That was that same stretch.
18:58 If you go back and look at Texas that year,
19:01 I could tell you right here what was going on,
19:03 'cause one of the other things
19:04 that I remember about that season, there you go.
19:06 It was the loss at Iowa State.
19:08 Right before that, up on the team bus, that was Sark.
19:13 That was on the team bus when they got blown out 30 to,
19:17 after a close game at halftime,
19:19 they got blown out 30 to seven at Iowa State.
19:21 And then they had the big blow up.
19:23 The thing went viral with the video on the phone
19:25 with the coach and the player on the team bus.
19:28 - I remember that now, yeah.
19:29 - It was the week after that that Kansas beat them.
19:32 So that was Sark.
19:33 Yes, it was Sark.
19:34 - Wow.
19:35 - Man, a big program like that, and they've lost to Kansas.
19:38 Which again, this is a different Kansas now
19:40 that we're talking about, but at the time that it happened,
19:43 that's not the scenario.
19:45 Like, this is three straight Texas teams,
19:48 their coaches that have lost.
19:50 - Like I've heard people say,
19:50 "It's frustrating to see Kansas with all the success,
19:52 "and so many teams in the Big 12 can't match their success."
19:55 I'm like, "At what cost?"
19:58 Don't act like Kansas just showed up and didn't miss a beat,
20:01 and they were always really solid.
20:02 No, the price they paid for getting
20:05 to where they finally are now is being the worst team
20:08 maybe in the history of college football for 15 years,
20:12 which gave them not one, not two, not three, not four,
20:15 not five, but six chances
20:18 to get the head coaching hire right.
20:20 And even then, they kind of backed into it
20:22 in the off season that he wasn't their first choice.
20:26 They've had a strange situation
20:27 with Les Miles working his way out.
20:30 So it took a lot, a lot for the stars to finally align
20:35 for Kansas to get to where they are now,
20:38 playing meaningful football back in the top 25.
20:41 So all these people saying,
20:42 "Well, even Kansas is doing this and doing it."
20:44 Whoa, whoa.
20:46 Kansas had every chance in the free world
20:48 for a decade and a half,
20:50 and at long last, made the most
20:53 out of all those endless chances to hit on one.
20:57 - Win the D3 guy, too.
20:58 Lightfold is obviously the right guy at the right time.
21:01 - Yeah.
21:02 - Yeah, and they go at it.
21:04 - Yeah, went with the D3 guy from the WIAC, maybe.
21:08 Played against him back when I was a old River Falls Falcon.
21:13 But, you know, had to go outside the realm a little bit,
21:16 and some of those guys have been getting opportunities
21:18 and making the best of them.
21:20 - Sure have.
21:21 - And Lance is doing great things with them right now, man.
21:24 - You know what's cool?
21:25 His staff has been together since you played against them.
21:27 - Yeah, and that's the thing.
21:29 - That's remarkable.
21:30 - Well, and that's how it really has to be, sort of.
21:35 - Nobody means something.
21:36 - It means a big thing,
21:37 especially with the coaching staff.
21:38 I mean, we could go back and talk about Rich a little bit,
21:41 and how that staff, for the most part,
21:43 for a long period of time, was those guys.
21:48 And if you look through the history of, I mean,
21:51 really coaching, definitely in football,
21:55 I think of Green Bay.
21:58 Well, when I was in Green Bay,
22:00 and then I get drafted to,
22:01 or sorry, when I was living in Wisconsin,
22:04 and I used to go to the Green Bay practices,
22:06 I'm seeing all these coaches.
22:08 Well, hell, I get drafted to Seattle.
22:10 Those coaches are there in Seattle.
22:12 - Seattle, yeah.
22:13 - You know what I mean?
22:14 It's the same crew.
22:15 So it's like, they just, you know,
22:17 and it'd be hard to really,
22:19 it's one thing, you know, getting the players on board,
22:23 but trying to get, you know,
22:25 and they do bring in, you know,
22:27 maybe a guy here, a guy there,
22:29 but for the most part, it's very,
22:32 it's very a good old boys network, right?
22:35 And those guys have to stick together.
22:37 I mean, that's really the true, you know,
22:42 effort in what makes those teams go,
22:44 is just the continuity, like you said, Jed,
22:46 of the coaching staff.
22:48 - That's actually a good point too,
22:50 because like, with West Virginia,
22:53 even like in Neil Brown,
22:54 like the first few years,
22:56 there was assistance kind of going in,
22:58 coming in and leaving like within a year.
23:00 And I know that they still have the rotating door
23:02 receiving coach a little bit,
23:03 but I mean, you look at these last couple of years
23:06 and he's been able to retain pretty much his entire staff
23:09 for the last two or three years.
23:10 That shows not only the commitment,
23:13 but it's also showing that if you have the same guys
23:16 teaching the same principles,
23:17 you're going to get a hang of it.
23:19 (audio cuts out)
23:22 - Inside out, Chad Scott, Matt,
23:27 those are guys who have been with Neil Brown forever,
23:31 dating back to his Texas Tech days,
23:33 in some cases dating back to his first, you know,
23:36 run at Troy in the late 2000s,
23:39 before he was a head coach,
23:40 when he was still a coordinator.
23:41 And on the defensive side,
23:43 look at his history with Jordan Leslie.
23:45 There's a lot of other moving parts
23:46 in the staff around him,
23:48 but the nucleus of that staff,
23:51 the guys that he leans on the most,
23:55 as far as coordinator titles and things like that,
23:58 by and large have been with him for a long time
24:00 and he understands the value they bring.
24:02 He understands their philosophy.
24:03 He knows they're synced up.
24:05 And to Owen's point,
24:06 that's kind of the way Rich saw a lot of things.
24:08 There's some moving parts on any staff,
24:12 but there were also some critical elements
24:14 that as a nucleus were always in place.
24:17 And that's what you're getting with Lance Leifold.
24:19 I mean, when you look at Borland,
24:21 when you look at Kotelnicki,
24:22 when you look at his coordinators on both sides of the ball,
24:24 these are guys that have a ton of history with them.
24:27 They had tremendous success at the D3 level,
24:30 and they moved on to Buffalo and had success in the MAC
24:33 and rebuilding another program with them.
24:35 And now they're enjoying similar success
24:37 in the Big 12 of Kansas.
24:38 I mean, now all the pieces around them,
24:40 or a lot of them have changed through the years.
24:42 Of course they have.
24:43 But to have those core guys with you for that ride,
24:47 for that long, that means a lot.
24:49 There's a shorthand that exists there
24:51 because of that continuity
24:53 that helps you have some of the success that they've enjoyed.
24:55 There's no doubt about it.
24:56 - Yeah, absolutely.
24:58 So, I mean, again, this is the first year also
25:01 that I think people kind of tend to forget about
25:04 where Ren Baker is in the AD chair
25:06 and things are a little different.
25:08 So there's a way that things were operated in the past.
25:12 It's a little different in terms of that.
25:14 So I think now that you have a new AD,
25:17 you also have the Country Roads Trust
25:20 that's been doing phenomenal things
25:22 with NIL and all that stuff.
25:24 There's a different feeling, I think,
25:26 around this program than maybe it was two years ago.
25:29 And I think when you have that continuity,
25:31 it's only gonna help the cause, right?
25:33 I mean, it can't do anything but help the cause.
25:36 - It's gonna have to play a critical role in all this.
25:40 Right down to, we lost Matt Jansen
25:42 from the scouting department.
25:43 - That was a tough loss.
25:45 - And Notre Dame grabbed him.
25:46 They recognized what was going on with Matt Jansen
25:48 as a football guy, right?
25:50 So we reached out and tapped an NFL guy
25:52 who's been around the league for 18 years
25:54 and is a very high value advanced scout.
25:58 So that's where all this is kind of going.
26:00 You've got to target assets in the portal
26:04 that you know fit what you do
26:06 and can compete in the Big 12 and Power 5 football.
26:09 And that takes a very high level of scouting.
26:11 And we're not Alabama and Georgia.
26:13 We can't just go tap a superstar
26:14 like Jameer Gibbs in the shoulder
26:16 or a superstar like Jordan Tech and say,
26:17 "Hey, superstar who's already established
26:19 and there's no risk attached to you at all,
26:21 come be a superstar for us."
26:22 That's not how it works.
26:24 The people we target are guys that excel at a lower level
26:28 or a group of five school that we think,
26:30 based on our scouting, are ready to take the next step
26:32 even though nobody else wants them from the Blue Bloods.
26:35 So that takes scouting.
26:37 So you've got to have a lot of faith in that room.
26:39 That hierarchy kind of matters.
26:41 But the continuity you're talking about on the staff,
26:43 oh, that serves a tremendous purpose
26:45 because those guys have to work in tandem
26:47 with the scouting department and everything else
26:49 in determining, "Hey, this is the type of kid we want."
26:52 You know, we talked in the previous episode
26:54 about guys playing the football on the back end
26:57 when it's in flight, passes defended,
26:59 beanie bishop on down the line.
27:01 Well, that was a skillset
27:04 that the scouting department targeted
27:06 very specifically in the portal.
27:09 We want players, it's great to cover,
27:11 but covering doesn't help
27:13 if you are exceptional with the football in the air.
27:17 And these were guys that we brought in.
27:19 Now, unfortunately, a couple of them are on the shelf
27:21 for the rest of the year in Keyshawn Cobb
27:24 and in Montre Miller.
27:26 But those guys were also targeted
27:28 because of their ability to play the ball in flight,
27:30 as was Beanie.
27:31 So, you know, that's where we're going with this
27:35 is you're looking for a skillset,
27:36 but the continuity that you have on the staff,
27:38 like I was talking about with Rich,
27:40 there's something to be said for all that.
27:42 - Yeah, and it's crazy now that we're in that era
27:44 of college athletics now.
27:46 The football team's got a GM.
27:48 So we have free agency that we label as the transfer portal.
27:52 So salary cap, that might be the next thing
27:55 that comes into play.
27:56 I don't know how that would be work or police,
27:58 but that's way above my pay grade,
28:00 but it's really starting to resemble
28:02 more and more like the pro football model.
28:05 And I think that's probably how it's going to end up being.
28:08 So final words, anybody got anything else
28:11 before we get out of here?
28:13 - A lot of content this week.
28:14 Again, remember, we're going to post on the Twitter account
28:17 an opportunity for the fans to engage
28:20 and jump right back in and make an air peg.
28:22 And we want to keep this thing rolling
28:23 until somebody does hit four out of four.
28:26 And as we said, stated earlier, once somebody does that,
28:29 and it's going to be volume,
28:30 throw it up on the wall, something that sticks.
28:32 Somebody's going to go four for four at some point.
28:35 Once you do, we're going to make a worthwhile.
28:38 - Absolutely.
28:38 So as Jed said, make sure you're following
28:41 all of our content, follow us on X or Twitter,
28:44 whatever you want to call it, In the Gun Podcast,
28:46 subscribe at In the Gun Podcast, give us a like as well.
28:50 And one final thank you here to Fortis
28:52 for roof performance and financial security guarantee.
28:55 Make sure to visit fortis.us.com.
28:58 And as always, be in here and tell in here
29:01 about your new favorite WU football podcast.
29:03 For Jed Drenning, Wesley Euler, and Owen Schmidt,
29:06 I'm Skylar Callahan, and you've been In the Gun.
29:10 (door opening)
29:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]