Speaker 1: So they leave and it's just literally me then Senator Obama,
Speaker 1: secret Service and our camera and a producer, so I
Speaker 1: have there. I'm there for thirty to forty minutes, just
Speaker 1: the two of us, and we'd already done the interview,
Speaker 1: so we're just talking. Were talking about basketball, dada da,
Speaker 1: and I just literally just had an epiphany and I said, hey, Senator,
Speaker 1: if you win, I want to come to the White
Speaker 1: House and do the bracket. And he said, hey, that's
Speaker 1: a great idea, and to their credit, they kept the promise,
Speaker 1: and months later, two thousand and nine, I did it,
Speaker 1: and we did it every year throughout his presidency.
Speaker 2: This is the Larravian La Peye Podcasts, a production of
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio Podcasts with hosts Wayne Larravie, the voice of the
Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers, and Matt Lapey, the voice of Wisconsin
Speaker 2: Badgers football and men's basketball. The Lavian La Pey podcast
Speaker 2: is presented by UW Credit Union. Here for every you.
Speaker 3: Hi, everybody, I'm Wayne Larabee. On this episode of the
Speaker 3: Lara of Ila Pay podcast, we check in with Andy Katz,
Speaker 3: Reporter Extraordinary for Turner Sports and the Big Ten Network.
Speaker 3: Was a busy weekend as college basketball starts lapping over
Speaker 3: college and pro football. We'll discuss it all. Stay tuned.
Speaker 3: Good stuff coming up on the Laraviela pay podcast. Got
Speaker 3: Cheddar on your Mind? Uw Credit Union can help with
Speaker 3: fee free checking and great rates to let you keep
Speaker 3: more of your cheese. Join at WCu dot org insured
Speaker 3: by NCUA Equal Opportunity Lender. We welcome in Andy Katz,
Speaker 3: who's been an outstanding reporter and analyst along with the
Speaker 3: sidelines of college basketball with a Big ten network NCAA tournament.
Speaker 3: A University of Wisconsin Madison graduate, a history and political
Speaker 3: science major. Andy, that was kind of I had a
Speaker 3: political science minor. These are interra times outside of sports,
Speaker 3: are they not? Well?
Speaker 1: And here's the crazy thing. You know what my certificate was.
Speaker 1: My minor was in Soviet and East European studies.
Speaker 3: Wow, so let's talk about Ukraine? How about that? What
Speaker 3: is that ever? Covered? Handy? Yes?
Speaker 1: I use it all the time. Also shows that I'm older.
Speaker 1: The fact that when I went to school, the Cold
Speaker 1: War was still happening and the Berlin Wall was still up.
Speaker 4: So you were you were on campus covering the Wisconsin
Speaker 4: Arizona game last week? You are back on campus from
Speaker 4: from time to time when you get back to town,
Speaker 4: where's the first place you need to visit?
Speaker 1: Well, because I'm also on the board of visitors for
Speaker 1: the School of Communications, sort of just drawn to Vilas
Speaker 1: Hall and so I feel like I'm always there, and
Speaker 1: I really spent most of my four years in that building.
Speaker 1: And the crazy thing it has not changed. In fact,
Speaker 1: at our meeting they were talking about all that. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's crazy to see all the incredible, you know, buildings
Speaker 1: that have gone up and redone in business school and everything,
Speaker 1: and that's the one building that has not really been
Speaker 1: touched yet that in Humanities and literally the furniture everything
Speaker 1: looks the same. I'm sure it's filled with asbestos and
Speaker 1: lead and everything else, you know, just because it's been
Speaker 1: there since probably the forties, I don't know, but you know,
Speaker 1: I always go there. This was kind of quick, so
Speaker 1: I felt I missed my opportunity to get to the Union,
Speaker 1: which I usually go to and Bascom Hill. I love
Speaker 1: taking walks along the water or run along the water,
Speaker 1: so I missed on that opportunity, especially because the weather
Speaker 1: was so great. Just because it was kind of an
Speaker 1: in and out quick trip. But hopefully next time. But
Speaker 1: those are sort of the spots that I always feel
Speaker 1: like I got to go.
Speaker 3: To Andy, tell us a little bit about how you
Speaker 3: got to where you are now. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: coming up the ladder, the way you have to to
Speaker 3: be a sideline reporter, to be an analyst, that kind
Speaker 3: of thing. How did you get going after you left Wisconsin?
Speaker 1: Well, one thing I wanted to say that that and
Speaker 1: I say this to now students, you know, and we
Speaker 1: met with students, and I do this every time is
Speaker 1: first of all, never burnt a bridge, and you never
Speaker 1: know when someone will help you. And I'm really conscious
Speaker 1: of that now, of paying it forward. And so one
Speaker 1: of the spots that it's not like a Michelin restaurant
Speaker 1: or anything like that, But what has a warm spot
Speaker 1: in my heart is the nitty gritty because Mars Shapiro
Speaker 1: actually was the first one who gave me outside of
Speaker 1: like the Daily Cardinal, like a real shot. And I
Speaker 1: cannot remember, and I wish I could. I can't remember
Speaker 1: what the connection was, but I knew someone who knew him,
Speaker 1: and we were introduced and at the time he was
Speaker 1: working for wiv A, and so he hired me to Uh,
Speaker 1: to basically go get sound at the time with literally
Speaker 1: like a sid Hartman recorder. Okay, we're all dating ourselves
Speaker 1: by saying that, you know, with the handheld mike and
Speaker 1: the pushing the button the cassette tape. And I went
Speaker 1: to lambeau Field a number of times, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: to get Packers sound. I went to Brewer Games, Buck Games,
Speaker 1: and you know, that was sort of my first foray
Speaker 1: in the in the professional sports of of just being
Speaker 1: in locker rooms outside of you know, being a student reporter.
Speaker 1: And then at that, you know, then it went from
Speaker 1: there to to the State Journal and then and the
Speaker 1: thing I also brought up that I really because we
Speaker 1: talked about how this, you know, the current landscape is
Speaker 1: so difficult and one thing again, I'm I definitely owe it.
Speaker 1: The beginning of my career was we had a deal
Speaker 1: that the current sports edt of the Daily Cardinal was
Speaker 1: essentially like a paid intern of the Milwaukee Journal backing
Speaker 1: up the full time person. So the year so prior
Speaker 1: to me it was Rob Heerrnandez Phil Treewan, and then
Speaker 1: it was me. Those were a three in a row
Speaker 1: and my year. Here's a name from the past it
Speaker 1: was Dennis Chapman who was the beat writer, and so
Speaker 1: I was his backup, and he was new because he
Speaker 1: was a news guy and he was brought over to
Speaker 1: do sports, and so he kind of leaned on me
Speaker 1: a lot because I knew everybody, and so I got
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunities back then and covering football and basketball,
Speaker 1: and then they gave me the hockey beat, and then
Speaker 1: they went and won the national championship. Wow, And they
Speaker 1: sent me to Detroit and that team was littered with
Speaker 1: NHL players, and so I had like front page stories
Speaker 1: in the Milwaukee Journal as a senior in college and
Speaker 1: like that just does doesn't happen, and so you know,
Speaker 1: and that springboarded me to ultimately do it, going to
Speaker 1: Albuquerque and then to to Fresno to cover tarc and
Speaker 1: while I was there, that's when I was freelancing for ESPN,
Speaker 1: which then catapulted me to ESPN. So they're like all
Speaker 1: these dots connect. And the one other thing I got
Speaker 1: to just tell you that another thing I always tell
Speaker 1: young people, and not to sound like the old guy,
Speaker 1: but I mean this is true. You never know what
Speaker 1: someone is going to be interested in that might hire you.
Speaker 1: And that year, I was working with the Milwaukee Journal
Speaker 1: of all things. Aaron Pryor was making a comeback in Madison.
Speaker 1: The boxer wait, and I knew nothing about boxing. This
Speaker 1: is zero, but they sent me to cover it. And
Speaker 1: so I covered this boxing event Aaron Pryor as this
Speaker 1: comeback and I can't even remember where Madison was, but
Speaker 1: it's just this bizarre whole scene. And I write all
Speaker 1: these stories. And at the last second, when I was
Speaker 1: getting the job to cover well, when I was applying
Speaker 1: for the New Mexico job, I think, you know, let
Speaker 1: me just throw this in as something like just different.
Speaker 1: Turns out the sports editor in Albuquerque huge boxing guy huge.
Speaker 1: He sees that he and he immediately says, oh, this
Speaker 1: guy can do pretty much anything. And I mean, at
Speaker 1: twenty two, I got hired over a lot of other people.
Speaker 1: And he told me that that was one of the
Speaker 1: main reasons that he hired me, because I showed I
Speaker 1: could do more. And so, like you never know how things,
Speaker 1: you know, how it all connects.
Speaker 4: I remember I covered that deal too with their implier
Speaker 4: who was from Ohio. I was on the phone a
Speaker 4: lot with a reporter at WLW radio in Cincinnati, because
Speaker 4: he had to get cleared. He had an eye inject
Speaker 4: I had medically cleared, and the and the event was
Speaker 4: on again, off again, on again, off again. I can't
Speaker 4: even think of where, like you, I can't think of
Speaker 4: where exactly it ended up. You know that some church
Speaker 4: or something I think it was. And he couldn't even
Speaker 4: tell you the guy. I think it was a phantom
Speaker 4: punch that knocked the guy out. But it was a
Speaker 4: bizarre It was a bizarre day. I appreciate what you
Speaker 4: said said a couple of minutes ago that never burnt
Speaker 4: a bridge, because you never know what could come back
Speaker 4: around for you. And I remember while I was talking
Speaker 4: to your Friday night and you mentioned working out at
Speaker 4: the Fresno b and covering Jerry Tarkanian's PRESDO state team.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, the stories, the personalities, and you know,
Speaker 4: from Chris Harron to Melo Eli, that's probably twenty years
Speaker 4: worth of stories into what two or three years you
Speaker 4: were out there with them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was there four and I will say that
Speaker 1: was by far the most challenging part of my career
Speaker 1: outside of when you know which I can tell the
Speaker 1: second boat when I got laid off with the money
Speaker 1: cut back to ESPN because so then I was only
Speaker 1: like twenty five or twenty six, and I'm thrust into
Speaker 1: basically there's news every day. And the columnists at the
Speaker 1: time was Adrian Wadronowski. Okay, so we were there together
Speaker 1: and because we had both applied to be the beat writer,
Speaker 1: and then they they said they want to take us both,
Speaker 1: so they made him the columnists, me the beat writer.
Speaker 1: But then they basically essentially at one point said that
Speaker 1: I had to be the good cop in him the
Speaker 1: bad cop, because they wanted because they had all these
Speaker 1: loyal fans that you know, loved Tark and they want
Speaker 1: copying the paper. Yet there was constant chaos, and so
Speaker 1: I constantly had to walk this fine line of getting information,
Speaker 1: helping our news side, but at the same time talking,
Speaker 1: you know, just doing basketball and covering Tark and all that.
Speaker 1: And it was a hard straddle that I was. I'll
Speaker 1: be honest, I was very stressed the whole time I
Speaker 1: was there because something was always happening something.
Speaker 3: Well tell you know, and I don't want to make
Speaker 3: this just about Tark, but he is one of the
Speaker 3: most interesting, polarizing, endearing figures all wrapped into one and
Speaker 3: in the history college basketball, what kind of when you
Speaker 3: peel back the layers of that onion, what kind of
Speaker 3: guy was he?
Speaker 1: Well? And so I had an interesting vantage point because
Speaker 1: I caught him at the end, and so he was
Speaker 1: a little softer for lack of a better term. You know,
Speaker 1: he wasn't as I mean, I just I wasn't. You know,
Speaker 1: I didn't cover him in the heyday of UNLB in
Speaker 1: the eighties, so he you know, I he was older.
Speaker 1: I mean, he had he would forget things, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it was kind of like when I would
Speaker 1: I mean, I took many trips with him, and you know,
Speaker 1: because they wanted me to like always be with them,
Speaker 1: and it was almost like I was, you know, with
Speaker 1: my grandfather or something. But I mean because I had
Speaker 1: sort of shaper him around sometimes. But no, he was
Speaker 1: the people that he that attracted to him. It was
Speaker 1: care It was like a it was like a sitcom,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, or like sopranos more like
Speaker 1: you know, because there was I'll never forget his buddy
Speaker 1: from Piero's, the Vegas restaurant. There was one game after
Speaker 1: they played Santa Or State and he goes into the
Speaker 1: locker room, and uh, he's congratulating all the players for
Speaker 1: the money that he made off of them because they
Speaker 1: covered the spread and you know, like and just that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff just happened, just happened. But you know
Speaker 1: the thing it's crazy is his whole career was fighting
Speaker 1: the NCAA and all these rules. And it's really I
Speaker 1: do really wonder what would he think now when essentially
Speaker 1: everything's legal, you know what I mean, it's now above
Speaker 1: the table, And like I do wonder, like, well, what
Speaker 1: would you think of all this because like there's no
Speaker 1: shady deals, it's just all happening.
Speaker 4: It is where thinking about the Wisconsint they had the
Speaker 4: shoe box deal like twenty five years ago, and now
Speaker 4: it's like, really that's all you got? I mean, have
Speaker 4: you get ramped up?
Speaker 3: Baby? This is not good enough.
Speaker 1: And idear to God that that when I talked to
Speaker 1: Bow at the Hall of Fame, I forgot that's when
Speaker 1: he came in.
Speaker 4: Yeah he inherited that, Yes, yeah he did. They had
Speaker 4: a couple of guys they had to kind of monitor,
Speaker 4: you know, or minutes or whatever they were. They had
Speaker 4: a couple of guys maybe the previous year had to
Speaker 4: sit for a couple of games. The football guys that go.
Speaker 4: But yeah, the sanctions, I think we're still a little
Speaker 4: bit in existence there. We'll go back to tark though,
Speaker 4: I mean, love him or hate him, a true character
Speaker 4: of the game. And people now they watch college sports,
Speaker 4: who are the characters? Who are the coaches that you
Speaker 4: genuinely you know they're they're really good at what they
Speaker 4: do what you would describe as a character. Is there
Speaker 4: still a cluster of coaches who fit.
Speaker 1: Well, it's unfortunately declining because guys are retiring or passed.
Speaker 1: You know, there's no question that cal John cal Perry
Speaker 1: is a character, and he continues to be now at Arkansas.
Speaker 1: You know, I think Tom Izzo is in his own way.
Speaker 1: Uh So those two jump right out, you know to me,
Speaker 1: you know, the I mean we just you know, Beehon
Speaker 1: just left, you know, Roy Kay like Kay was as
Speaker 1: much a character. But you know, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: those are the sort of the two that jump out
Speaker 1: the most. I mean, Bill self obviously is you know,
Speaker 1: one of the winningest coaches now at Kansas and all time,
Speaker 1: but he's not He's a little more reserved in that sense.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't have John Cheney anymore, Nolan Richard's
Speaker 1: and Bob Huggins. So it'll be interesting to see if
Speaker 1: any of the younger guys, you know, go in that direction.
Speaker 1: I mean, like, you know, someone like Pat Kelsey who
Speaker 1: constantly sort of puts on a show. I don't really
Speaker 1: know what the real person is there. We'll see if
Speaker 1: he can be successful at Louisville to where that is relevant.
Speaker 1: But he tries to be that. I will see if
Speaker 1: that plays out that way.
Speaker 3: All right, guys, I got to tell you, in my
Speaker 3: early days of doing television college basketball, it was the
Speaker 3: Missouri Valley Conference back in the eighties. You talk about characters,
Speaker 3: let's start with Dick versays, Nolan Richardson, Jean Smithson. Goodness,
Speaker 3: and they had players, My god, that they have players
Speaker 3: on that level. Nothing like the I mean, the Valley's
Speaker 3: a good league, don't get me wrong. It still is
Speaker 3: to this day. But back then they had real meat
Speaker 3: and potatoes kind of players. It was really something to cover.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, I feel like coaches today are
Speaker 1: a little bit more. They're more guarded, you know, and
Speaker 1: and and some of them maybe don't have the equity
Speaker 1: that they had. And I think this is happening in
Speaker 1: football too. Oh yeah, you know I know that that
Speaker 1: that there. I mean I think back just when I
Speaker 1: was in college. You know, we had Hayden Fry at Iowa.
Speaker 1: Bo Schambeckler was a Michigan. I think I think what
Speaker 1: he's was already gone. But you know there was definitely
Speaker 1: well turn state, Yeah, you're Joe fraternal.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then and then in his old way sort of
Speaker 1: Barry comes in. I mean, but you know, and he's
Speaker 1: a presence, So there was definitely I mean, that's definitely
Speaker 1: dissipating as well.
Speaker 4: On Wisconsin off fees, get fee free checking options in
Speaker 4: war at UW credit Union, join at u W, c
Speaker 4: U dot org. Terms and conditions apply ensured by n
Speaker 4: c U. A. You mentioned a few minutes ago you
Speaker 4: were in Springfield when when Bo Ryan was inducted into
Speaker 4: the Nasement Basketball Hall of Fame, a character in his
Speaker 4: own category. Yeah, I guess people around here were pretty
Speaker 4: impress that he actually stayed under the shop clock with
Speaker 4: his speech, which was really good. And I mean you've
Speaker 4: gotten to know him, You've obviously interviewed him dozens of times.
Speaker 4: When I say the name, you know, coach bow Ryan,
Speaker 4: what's the first thing that comes to your mind.
Speaker 1: Well, I just think of being a winner. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the word that pops in my head. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't have the stats in front of it, but
Speaker 1: I don't know if he even had a losing season.
Speaker 1: You know, he just he just always won and he
Speaker 1: did it his way, stubborn. And actually, you know, he's
Speaker 1: another interesting you know, how would he handle this current
Speaker 1: situation and also how would he handle the change in personnel?
Speaker 1: And that's one thing not to get ahead, but I'm
Speaker 1: really impressed. Even just two weeks in, already we're feeling
Speaker 1: like greg Gard has adapted to the personnel and not
Speaker 1: like this is the way we play. You come here,
Speaker 1: this is how you play. He's got guys that can
Speaker 1: go up and down and score. Okay, let's go. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't I'm not saying bow wouldn't you know it
Speaker 1: was hard to get that kind of player at Wisconsin
Speaker 1: and so you know, who could just fill it up.
Speaker 1: I mean they had the great run where they had
Speaker 1: some scores, but even like Frank Kaminsky, no one thought
Speaker 1: he'd be that kind of a score. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: so would he adjust to the way the game is played,
Speaker 1: what do you deal with nil and the collective? And
Speaker 1: you know, like the one thing we don't I mean,
Speaker 1: I've talked to coaches, but I don't really have a
Speaker 1: full grasp of how much time they have to spend
Speaker 1: on that that pulls them away from I mean, I
Speaker 1: know that's why they're hiring specific people for that at
Speaker 1: a lot of these schools, including Wisconsin. But the time
Speaker 1: spent that you got to.
Speaker 3: Deal with that.
Speaker 1: And I go back to like last March, I'm doing
Speaker 1: sideline in the in the region in Boston, and I'll
Speaker 1: never forget during the shoot rounds that day for the
Speaker 1: for the Sweet sixteen, Brad Underwood comes in and he
Speaker 1: was like sort of hurrying in and he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I was just on the phone dealing with the portal,
Speaker 1: you know, for next year, and he's about the coach
Speaker 1: of the Sweet sixteen.
Speaker 5: You know, if it had been the Elite eight game,
Speaker 5: then maybe people would have been critical because so poorly,
Speaker 5: but they won the Sweet sixteen yet, But yeah, I
Speaker 5: mean the fact that you know that they're dealing with
Speaker 5: this stuff all the time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Andy, you bring up such a great
Speaker 3: point of how coaches and I don't care if it
Speaker 3: if it was Bob Knight, any of these number of personalities.
Speaker 3: We talked about bow Ryan, anyone like this, and I
Speaker 3: am really impressed, as you are, with Greg Gard and
Speaker 3: the way he has adopted. He came from the bow
Speaker 3: Ryan tree. They do things a certain way. They get
Speaker 3: a player as a freshman. He doesn't probably see much
Speaker 3: light of day as a freshman, but a little bit
Speaker 3: more as a software they develop, and he's in All
Speaker 3: America as a junior and senior and he goes on
Speaker 3: from there. That's the type of thing. And I talked
Speaker 3: to Greg Guard about this about two years ago when
Speaker 3: I was in there to do a game, and he said,
Speaker 3: you know, this is where a program like ours is
Speaker 3: getting hurt because we develop our players, and that's not
Speaker 3: the case. These players don't. They don't have that long
Speaker 3: an attention span, they don't have that much patience to
Speaker 3: wait on their careers. And then you've got people say, well, hey, listen,
Speaker 3: if you come over here to Akron, we'll get you
Speaker 3: a nice little stipend and you'll play right away. That
Speaker 3: kind of thing, and so the kid flips in a year.
Speaker 3: It's really changing. But I think the great coaches, and
Speaker 3: Bob Knight probably begrudgingly would have changed, so would Bow
Speaker 3: as you pointed out, And I think we're seeing it
Speaker 3: with Greg Gard very much a system type of coach,
Speaker 3: but a guy who's had to adapt to what's going
Speaker 3: on in the game today and player movement, and that's huge.
Speaker 1: Well, and I will say this, I think you know,
Speaker 1: there are collection of schools that do this. Marquette Shak
Speaker 1: has been able to do that, certainly Matt Painter for
Speaker 1: the most part, Toime Izzo. I think you can include
Speaker 1: Mark fu doing that, Gonzaga and obviously Dan Hurley Yukon
Speaker 1: where yeah, they're bringing in some guys, but they really
Speaker 1: are also developing and that's obviously, you know, important to
Speaker 1: have consistency in the program, and so that allows them
Speaker 1: to do that. I mean, I will say that I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, but I kind of feel like
Speaker 1: that the coaches might have going from era to era
Speaker 1: having a harder time, would have a harder time than
Speaker 1: if we were to pluck a player from another era
Speaker 1: and put them into this one.
Speaker 4: No, it's a great time. I need a lot of
Speaker 4: ways to be to be a player. My question is,
Speaker 4: and we were all trying to figure out how this
Speaker 4: is going to look in the next couple of years,
Speaker 4: even with revenue sharing coming on the path to that
Speaker 4: effective for next season. But the biggest complaint that I
Speaker 4: hear is not the players are getting money, is that
Speaker 4: every year a players a free agent. What's the most
Speaker 4: realistic solution to that? Is there a way to get
Speaker 4: a binding if it's two years whatever, some multi year
Speaker 4: agreement where okay, you will make this from revenue share.
Speaker 4: You could get such as such from nil, but we
Speaker 4: need two years from you.
Speaker 1: So last summer, but this past summer, I was on
Speaker 1: a panel at the NCAA Basketball Academy in South Carolina
Speaker 1: and it was me Julie ed Zachie's mother, Ranolph Childress,
Speaker 1: you know, former Wake Forest player and Lasting Hicks. I'm
Speaker 1: drawing a blank from the NCAA. And what we were
Speaker 1: talking about was that collectives, and I do think there's
Speaker 1: donor fatigue, Okay, yes, that some of the collectives are
Speaker 1: starting to put in their own guardrails. So for example,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're going to make the number up,
Speaker 1: if it's two hundred thousand, whatever it is, and you
Speaker 1: have two years left, well you get seventy five and
Speaker 1: you get one fifty, you know, sort of an incentive
Speaker 1: to stay. They're also putting in deadlines that at you know,
Speaker 1: the transfer portal, if you leave before May thirty first,
Speaker 1: we're gonna ding you a little bit. And they're also
Speaker 1: starting to put in some clauses, like in a coach's
Speaker 1: contract of behavior. You know, if you you know, misdemeanor,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, there are going to be fines. And
Speaker 1: so I do think more teeth will be put into
Speaker 1: this going forward, because I think it has to. It's
Speaker 1: not sustainable in the current format. And clearly the other thing,
Speaker 1: and I was talking to one of the administrators Friday
Speaker 1: Night schools and even in the Big ten and all
Speaker 1: that they're gonna have to make some tough choices in
Speaker 1: the next couple of years with some of their Olympic sports. Okay,
Speaker 1: where are we good? Okay, so Wisconsin, we've always had
Speaker 1: good soccer programs. Maybe these other programs aren't as strong.
Speaker 1: So now we're gonna make those club or you know,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna fully fund those scholarships. I mean, it
Speaker 1: can't they can't.
Speaker 3: Have it all.
Speaker 1: You can't have this unbelievable, you know, medical training, travel
Speaker 1: for everybody and the other thing. I just think at
Speaker 1: some point we're gonna have to have regional Olympic sports.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't make sense for Wisconsin's soccer team to
Speaker 1: be flying to Seattle. It doesn't. I mean, there's just
Speaker 1: there's enough schools that aren't bustible around you know, play
Speaker 1: to Paul, play Notre Dame, play ui C. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of schools, and I knew they'd do some
Speaker 1: of that, But you could form your league, do all
Speaker 1: those games and then meet, you know, for a regional
Speaker 1: or a national championship. It's just it, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a breaking point on the money spent on all the
Speaker 1: other sports if the goal is to make sure your
Speaker 1: money sports at you know, football, men's basketball, and and
Speaker 1: you know, you guys know better than I do. Like
Speaker 1: at Wisconsin, I probably would put when volleyball three right now,
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe ahead of hockey. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I mean, but you know, certainly women's volleyball is up there.
Speaker 1: So you have to decide, Okay, it's not maybe it's
Speaker 1: not all our traditional sports. What are our best sports?
Speaker 1: Where do we have the best attendance and make money,
Speaker 1: and it will differ from school to school.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you could be.
Speaker 4: Women's women's hockey maybe on the line, but volleyball right
Speaker 4: now because the popularity, you know that the fans can relate,
Speaker 4: They see the athletes, they know what they look like.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it would be it's football, men's basketball, and
Speaker 4: volleyball right now. And that's the Yeah, that's the challenge
Speaker 4: being an athletic director. You're well compensated, but you're probably
Speaker 4: having a lot of very uncomfortable conversations with the coaches
Speaker 4: now about what Liza had, So you're probably not winning
Speaker 4: any popularity contest, doesn't matter if it's Wisconsin or any
Speaker 4: place in America. I would think, right, and yes, and look, you.
Speaker 1: Know, I mean I don't want to get in the
Speaker 1: weeds and you know of coaching firings in season, even
Speaker 1: on a staff. But maybe I'm wrong, like I don't
Speaker 1: feel like that happened ten years ago, fifteen years ago,
Speaker 1: that the pressure to win is so great, but also
Speaker 1: the salaries for the assistant coaches in football, men's basketball,
Speaker 1: especially football is so high that if you are you know,
Speaker 1: not you know, competing at the level you want, you're
Speaker 1: subject to getting fired just like a head coach, which
Speaker 1: I don't. I just don't feel like we saw that
Speaker 1: and maybe I'm wrong, but am I right?
Speaker 4: Like we're seeing them more now, I think as.
Speaker 1: Well, next level the assistant the coordinators, you know, getting
Speaker 1: fired in the middle of the season because but but
Speaker 1: I think it's also how much money they're making and
Speaker 1: because we've got to be a certain level.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, a coordinators now are being paid seven figures
Speaker 4: not to coach. If there's time remaining on the contract
Speaker 4: and you were fired without costs, it's just yeah, with
Speaker 4: the money comes to as you as you say, as
Speaker 4: you say the pressure. I know you're on the but
Speaker 4: I want people to know where obviously you were covering
Speaker 4: doing work for the Big ten network, but you wear
Speaker 4: many hats at where could people see slash read Andy
Speaker 4: Katz these days?
Speaker 1: And that was my point, just to circle back Wayne
Speaker 1: about never burning bridges, that when I left ESPN, I
Speaker 1: left in good standing. I didn't trash the company, and
Speaker 1: I still had two years left on my contract, and
Speaker 1: that allowed me to work for the Ncable and Turner
Speaker 1: and the Big ten Network even you know, sort of
Speaker 1: a carve out even while I was still finishing my
Speaker 1: ESPN contract. And that's because I didn't burn a bridge.
Speaker 1: I left, not my pall because it was a money thing,
Speaker 1: but in good standing. So that sort of circles back.
Speaker 1: So yes, Big ten Network, March Madness, social media accounts,
Speaker 1: ncuble dot com. Obviously we'll be on Turner during the
Speaker 1: naw tournament and yeah, so that's that's sort of the
Speaker 1: main at the Andy Katz, at the real Andy Canas
Speaker 1: on Instagram, some of the other Eddy Cats out there.
Speaker 3: So I had to do beths gotcha, hey, Kate before
Speaker 3: I let you go. I was fascinated by earlier in
Speaker 3: your career, I believe the forty fourth president of the
Speaker 3: United States. You he became tight Barack Obama, who was
Speaker 3: a huge basketball fan, a huge college basketball fan, especially
Speaker 3: you and him. He got together and used to do bracketology. Yes,
Speaker 3: how did that come about? What was he like to
Speaker 3: deal with?
Speaker 1: All right, so I'll tell you the quick story. So
Speaker 1: I did all eight years, uh, and went many other
Speaker 1: times to the White House for other things, like you know,
Speaker 1: when teams would come and we did some Title nine
Speaker 1: stuff and interviewed him on the USS Carl Vincent when
Speaker 1: we did that Michigan State North Carolina game. But I
Speaker 1: was doing a story at the time for Outside the Lines.
Speaker 1: Before the eight election, I had the Obamas, someone else
Speaker 1: had in the mccains, and I did basketball in the family,
Speaker 1: and so the whole summer I was interviewing is brother
Speaker 1: in law Michelle Obama. We went to the convention, and
Speaker 1: the last interview was ten days before the election, and
Speaker 1: that was with him, and I met him at a
Speaker 1: Hampton in and done, North Carolina. He was about to
Speaker 1: speak at Fort Bragg. And the nugget here is that
Speaker 1: morning I meet the press, Colin Powell endorsed him over McCain.
Speaker 1: And the reason that's important is David Axelrod, who was
Speaker 1: in the room, says, hey, we got to rewrite your speech.
Speaker 1: Stay put. I had already done the interview. So they
Speaker 1: leave and it's just literally me then Senator Obama, secret
Speaker 1: service and our camera and a producer.
Speaker 3: So I have there.
Speaker 1: I'm there for thirty to forty minutes, just the two
Speaker 1: of us, and we'd already done the interview. So we're
Speaker 1: just talking or tam about basketball, da da da, and
Speaker 1: I just literally just had an epiphany and I said, hey, Senator,
Speaker 1: if you win. I want to come to the White
Speaker 1: House and do the bracket, and he said, hey, that's
Speaker 1: a great idea, and to their credit, they kept the
Speaker 1: promise and months later, two thousand and nine, I did it,
Speaker 1: and we did it every year throughout his presidency.
Speaker 3: Wow, amazing.
Speaker 4: Refresh my memory. What was the deepest he had Wisconsint going.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to remember, I should I kind I snuck
Speaker 4: up on you with that one. I don't know if
Speaker 4: he had him in the maybe maybe once in the
Speaker 4: final four. I can't remember. I can't remember either. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's a lot of teams you got to cover there,
Speaker 4: so yeah, we'll google it. We'll google it.
Speaker 3: But it would have to be a lot of fun
Speaker 3: to do it right. We would see is stuff right?
Speaker 1: Yes, and he got to write once the first year,
Speaker 1: but that was kind of easy. Remember that was that
Speaker 1: North Carolina team that was loaded brush Michigan State in
Speaker 1: Detroit in two thousand and nine, So that was kind
Speaker 1: of a layup because they were heavy favorites to win
Speaker 1: the title. Tyler hansbro that whole crew.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were pretty good. They were pretty good.
Speaker 4: God, Andy, we appreciated man. I know you've got a
Speaker 4: lot lot going.
Speaker 1: On, but well, thank you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, hopefully we'll see you back in Madison, I know
Speaker 4: somewhere along the circuit, so uh say, travels and we'll
Speaker 4: see us soon again.
Speaker 3: Special thanks to Andy Katz for dropping by. Man. I
Speaker 3: know we could go out on a number of different
Speaker 3: directions with him. Very interesting guest. We've got to get
Speaker 3: him back when he has a little more time and
Speaker 3: probably get into the Eastern European inspect that in background
Speaker 3: in terms of his degree in political science. But he's
Speaker 3: an interesting guy. Really great guest. Hey, what a weekend
Speaker 3: you had in Madison. You had bo Ryan being acknowledged
Speaker 3: by you know, the u W crowd for his recent
Speaker 3: induction to the probe and to the the Basketball Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame, just the Basketball Hall of Fame, pro and college.
Speaker 3: And then you have ninth ranked team in the country
Speaker 3: Arizona into play basketball against the unranked Badgers. That's Friday night.
Speaker 3: The next night it's the number one team in the
Speaker 3: nation in football taking on the Badgers. What a weekend
Speaker 3: in Madison. Yeah, it was quite the roller coaster.
Speaker 4: It was a chance for Bull Ryan to get his
Speaker 4: name out of banner and it's up in the rafters now.
Speaker 4: Alongside Ab Nicholas and Frank Kaminski and Michael Finley very
Speaker 4: much deserved recognition for bow They brought back as many
Speaker 4: players who could get back here from the final four
Speaker 4: teams of twenty fourteen and twenty fifteen. It was interesting too.
Speaker 4: I was talking with Andy friday night and his thoughts
Speaker 4: on those teams that he thought the fourteen team was
Speaker 4: maybe the one with the best chance to win it all.
Speaker 4: They lost in that late shot by Aaron Harrison in
Speaker 4: the semifinals. He believed they would have matched up really
Speaker 4: well with Yukon in the championship game, and it was just,
Speaker 4: you know, it's kind of those what might have been
Speaker 4: kind of moments. But it was fun seeing those players
Speaker 4: get back and I know they stay in touch as
Speaker 4: best they can. That was a team with great talent
Speaker 4: and big personalities that fans really embraced. And then a
Speaker 4: game itself against a Zona. It was a foul fest.
Speaker 4: Wisconsin's forty one to forty seven at the free throw
Speaker 4: line in that game against Arizona. But they they're scoring
Speaker 4: points and you know, and Greg guard you talked about
Speaker 4: it with the Andy and Andy mentioned it too. Greg
Speaker 4: and the offense it's involved. You get the influence of
Speaker 4: Kirk Penny, you got Greg Steams about coming back. He'd
Speaker 4: worked first with the Minnesota timber Rolls and were recently
Speaker 4: with the San Antonio Spurs and just bringing some new
Speaker 4: concepts into what they're doing offensively defensively. Will say they're
Speaker 4: a work in progress. But it was a magical night.
Speaker 4: I mean a court storm in mid November. That's you know, okay,
Speaker 4: that's cool. And then Saturday, that's another what might have been.
Speaker 4: The defense played as well as you could possibly hope
Speaker 4: for against a really explosive Oregon offense, but the Badger's offense. Now,
Speaker 4: Oregon's defense was really good. Let's set that out there
Speaker 4: on the table. But beyondgoing inconsistencies and not just this year,
Speaker 4: not just last year, but really the last five seasons
Speaker 4: if you want to count the COVID, ye're just very,
Speaker 4: very inconsistent. And that was one of those, again, kind
Speaker 4: of heartbreaking losses for Wisconsin. A chance to do something
Speaker 4: magical against the top ranked team in the country. By
Speaker 4: credit to Oregon when it had to make the plays
Speaker 4: it did, and that's what championship teams do. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: felt the same way watching that from Afar Matt. Just
Speaker 4: an excellent game, great effort by Wisconsin, but that you know,
Speaker 4: championship caliber team that they seem to have at Oregon.
Speaker 4: Like you said, when they had to make the plays,
Speaker 4: they made the plays, and that's often the way football
Speaker 4: games go. Phil Longo let go as offensive coordinator. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we talked about it with Andy earlier. I mean, things
Speaker 4: like this are happening.
Speaker 3: More now than they ever have. You know, there's so
Speaker 3: much it used to be the head coach and you
Speaker 3: talked about the head coach of Bo Shambeckler, who is
Speaker 3: his offensive courting? Who knows? Who cares? It's Bo Shambeckler,
Speaker 3: you know that kind of thing. Whereas today these offensive
Speaker 3: and defensive coordinators are in the headlines a lot. They're
Speaker 3: in the story as much as the head coach, and
Speaker 3: there's a lot of pressure of that spot, isn't there?
Speaker 4: Yeah, there really is.
Speaker 3: I go back.
Speaker 4: Wisconsin made a move early in twenty twelve under Brett Belamm,
Speaker 4: and this was the first time and it probably happened before,
Speaker 4: but it's the first time I really started to notice
Speaker 4: it in college football.
Speaker 3: There was another.
Speaker 4: Program I think like a week prior, may have made
Speaker 4: a change with its coordinator, and we're here, we're laughing, like,
Speaker 4: what are they doing? What are you doing letting the
Speaker 4: coach go. One week later, it happens that Wisconsin Brett
Speaker 4: Let's go of his offensive line coach. But you are
Speaker 4: seeing them more in the NFL certainly, and at the
Speaker 4: college level. The move itself wane. I'm not going to
Speaker 4: say I was surprised by it. You never know when
Speaker 4: you know, when the news comes down on a Sunday afternoon,
Speaker 4: you know, not long after the Packers blocked the kick
Speaker 4: to hit the end of the game against the Bears,
Speaker 4: you're like, oh, okay, But it's just I do think
Speaker 4: with if you want to call it, pressure to win,
Speaker 4: the expectation of being better, and the offense just continues
Speaker 4: to spin its wheels. I do think two things can
Speaker 4: be true. One, you can be very good at your
Speaker 4: craft in Phil Longo, is the record proves that you
Speaker 4: know what he did, you know more most recently at
Speaker 4: North Carolina before he came came to Madison. But maybe
Speaker 4: the fit wasn't right for whatever reason. And if you
Speaker 4: need a different voice, whatever the messaging is or whatever
Speaker 4: you're trying to do, if you feel like you need
Speaker 4: to make a change. Then I guess why. Wait, I
Speaker 4: think that's the philosophy, not just with Luke Fickle specifically
Speaker 4: with this case, but we're seeing this with coaches around
Speaker 4: the country.
Speaker 3: You know, you mentioned something that I don't know, and
Speaker 3: I know you talk to a lot of groups and
Speaker 3: I do too, and sometimes they're business groups, and sometimes
Speaker 3: you know, they want they want to know how sports
Speaker 3: teams operate. I mean, what do they value? And I
Speaker 3: often tell them And you just mentioned it fit. Okay,
Speaker 3: whether it's a player, a coach, whatever, Fit is important.
Speaker 3: And what is fit I don't know. It some intangible
Speaker 3: out there that's hard to explain. But the fact is,
Speaker 3: if you're in a business and you have somebody to
Speaker 3: hire for your office, you better be considering some of
Speaker 3: the things besides that are not on the resume, like personality.
Speaker 3: How will this personality fit with the people in our office?
Speaker 3: And they do the same thing in sports. How does
Speaker 3: this coach fit on our staff? Does he fit in?
Speaker 3: Does he rankle people? Does he blow it up? Same
Speaker 3: thing with players. We see it all the time. And
Speaker 3: Ted Thompson was so mindful of this over the years
Speaker 3: in Green Bay. Oh yeah, I'd like to have that
Speaker 3: free agent, but you know what, he doesn't fit us.
Speaker 3: He's not one of our Jerry Krause that Chicago with
Speaker 3: the bullsos always used to say, Okay, Pete are kind
Speaker 3: of people, and you know, that's so important. And sometimes
Speaker 3: you hire someone and you don't know until he's on
Speaker 3: staff as to whether he's going to fit or not,
Speaker 3: and then at some point maybe the fit changes and
Speaker 3: all of a sudden it's not working out. It's but
Speaker 3: that part of it, that the human aspect of how
Speaker 3: will these people get along, how will they work together,
Speaker 3: especially in team sports, that is so important, and I
Speaker 3: think it translates very much into the office world, the
Speaker 3: real world where you're hiring people to be a financial
Speaker 3: this or that and the other thing. You know, how
Speaker 3: do they fit in personality wise? All right, the guy
Speaker 3: graduated from Harvard, that's fine. This other guy graduated from Stanford.
Speaker 3: So who do you pick? You know, you try to
Speaker 3: pick the guy that's the person, woman or man that's
Speaker 3: going to fit mess into your team from a personality standpoint,
Speaker 3: because they all have ability, and that's not the final
Speaker 3: determining factor in success, certainly in sports, team sports and
Speaker 3: I think certainly in the outside world. I don't think
Speaker 3: the business world does matching of personalities, and I don't
Speaker 3: think they pay as much attention to that as maybe
Speaker 3: they should sports teams, I know sports organizations do. Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, it's a great point. And you know around here
Speaker 4: there's the Jolts with the philosophical change of what they
Speaker 4: were trying to do offensively. Yeah, what Badger fans have
Speaker 4: seen for thirty years to this air raid concept. But
Speaker 4: I mean, you know every bit as much, if not
Speaker 4: more than I do as a fan or whatever. You
Speaker 4: just run the system that works, run what mukes, and
Speaker 4: it wasn't working great the last few years. Even with
Speaker 4: they with an excellent running back like Braylan Allen, there
Speaker 4: wasn't enough else. And the team scoring twenty five points
Speaker 4: a game in college football. That's not going to get
Speaker 4: you a whole lot unless your defense is just lights
Speaker 4: out good. But you're not going to be a true
Speaker 4: championship level team in college football averaging twenty five points
Speaker 4: a game, and that's where they've been hovering, maybe slightly
Speaker 4: less now the last almost two seasons. So I applaud
Speaker 4: what they've tried to do here so far. You're taking
Speaker 4: a swing. The landscape has changed. You don't have the
Speaker 4: Big ten West anymore. You're going up. You know, this
Speaker 4: team has played three top five teams this season. That
Speaker 4: just doesn't happen with Wisconsin and football, and they've swung
Speaker 4: a mist those games. This system, whatever it is they're trying, system,
Speaker 4: whatever the coach, it hasn't worked yet. So that's what
Speaker 4: makes this next move really really important. I think for
Speaker 4: Luke Fickle because they've changed the offensive line coach year
Speaker 4: one year or two. This guy, aj Blosick seems to
Speaker 4: be a perfect fit for Wisconsin now. But I just
Speaker 4: I hope for their sake Waye that they could find
Speaker 4: somebody who can stay here a while because there has
Speaker 4: been such a lack of stability on his coaching staff.
Speaker 4: Jack Nelson, the left tackle, it's playing for his fourth
Speaker 4: offensive line coach in four years. You go Joe Rudolph
Speaker 4: to Bob Bostad, to Jack Picknell junior and now aj Blosick,
Speaker 4: And you can point to other position groups you're going through.
Speaker 4: What's the same thing. If you're a developmental program, that's
Speaker 4: a lot of banana peals you're throwing in the middle.
Speaker 4: Still the road there to try to you know, to
Speaker 4: try to develop there. That's a lot of obstacles in
Speaker 4: trying to get guys to develop. So whatever direction Luke
Speaker 4: Fickle goes with here, hopefully it's someone who can offer
Speaker 4: stability and give these guys who are going to be
Speaker 4: here two, three, four years a legitimate chance to develop
Speaker 4: under the same voice.
Speaker 3: And that's almost always, I guess primary to a winning
Speaker 3: program is that stability, and especially on the college level,
Speaker 3: coaching stability, not just players, but coaches especially, you know,
Speaker 3: and I look at you were just mentioning h third
Speaker 3: offensive coordinator or a third offensive line coach, whatever it was.
Speaker 3: And we're in Chicago and Caleb Williams is nine games
Speaker 3: into his rookie year and is already on his second
Speaker 3: offensive coordinator and he'll probably be on his third starting
Speaker 3: next year. And you know, those things that that retards
Speaker 3: the growth of a program, There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it'll be fascinating to see. And then how they
Speaker 4: finished this season, because I try I had to take
Speaker 4: a step back with this because we both know the
Speaker 4: emotions of it. And then you get attached to, you know,
Speaker 4: to certain people within the program, be they players or coaches.
Speaker 4: But I try to look at this, as Mark Antonassio
Speaker 4: would say about the Brewer stuff, as agnostically as possible,
Speaker 4: in other words, without a great emotion.
Speaker 3: The feeling going.
Speaker 4: Into the season with Wisconsin football is that it could
Speaker 4: have a very similar record to last year and actually
Speaker 4: beat better given the schedule that they've played. Well, that's
Speaker 4: about the path they're on right now. We'll see how
Speaker 4: these final two games go. They were seven and five
Speaker 4: of the regular season last year. They're winning their last
Speaker 4: two games to get there. But how they've gotten to
Speaker 4: five At five and five, which is where they were
Speaker 4: through ten games last year, you know, not being able
Speaker 4: to score in the second half, being in position where
Speaker 4: you are seemingly in a place where you could take
Speaker 4: control of the game and they haven't, and the emotions
Speaker 4: of the moment. In sports, that's where the frustration is
Speaker 4: is with the fan base. And this is a game
Speaker 4: with Nebraska where two programs you just can't get over
Speaker 4: the hump or square an. Yeah, I am still wrapping
Speaker 4: mind around the fact that Nebraska has the longest bowldless
Speaker 4: streak of any power for program in the country. This
Speaker 4: is freaking Nebraska. We're talking about where the ceiling has
Speaker 4: historically been much higher than Wisconsins, but the floor has
Speaker 4: been lower. They have been to a bowl game since
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen, so you know, that's a big thing for
Speaker 4: matt Rule down there, and it's their senior day. I
Speaker 4: think it's going to be a team playing with the
Speaker 4: level of desperation. So is Wisconsin. I'm very curious what
Speaker 4: the Badgers have left in the tank after another gut
Speaker 4: punch loss, and it could have shot a kind of
Speaker 4: game against the top ranked team the country.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they had a shot at the top ranked team.
Speaker 3: It's hard to come back from that. And we know
Speaker 3: in football, we tell you this all the time, folks.
Speaker 3: Football has played so much with emotion and one of
Speaker 3: the reasons why we say in football, it's not who
Speaker 3: you play or where you play, it's when you play.
Speaker 3: That's what that's all about. Where are these teams today,
Speaker 3: you know, the Chicago Bears team. John Coon and I
Speaker 3: were talking on the broadcast the other day about this.
Speaker 3: By midway through the game Sunday at Soldier Field, Kon
Speaker 3: says to me, you know, these guys aren't like anything
Speaker 3: that we saw on tape, you know, and most of
Speaker 3: us that do these games. And I don't know what
Speaker 3: your process is, Matt, but I go back and look
Speaker 3: at the last three games of an upcoming opponent last
Speaker 3: three games. You don't want to go much farther back
Speaker 3: than that, because it's really irrelevant. Where are these teams now?
Speaker 3: Football is a game of where are you now? How
Speaker 3: are you today? And that Chicago Bears team that played
Speaker 3: the Packers on Sunday was different. It played at a
Speaker 3: much higher level than the previous three weeks, and you know,
Speaker 3: for any number of reasons. But there's so much to it.
Speaker 3: And people will say, well, that boy, the Packers should
Speaker 3: have blown them out. Love the Patriots blew them out
Speaker 3: the week before. Yeah, but that doesn't really have much
Speaker 3: to do with what's going to happen today or next
Speaker 3: week or the week after that. I know it's hard,
Speaker 3: it's a hard concept to explain to people, but the
Speaker 3: fact is, this is not a video game. This is
Speaker 3: not These are not stratumatic cards out there. These players
Speaker 3: perform differently these teams week to week to week.
Speaker 4: No, I do the same thing. That's what I've just
Speaker 4: I've taken a look at the most two recent Nebraska games.
Speaker 4: I'll look back one more game and you know they
Speaker 4: changed coordinators to Dana Holders in an air raid background.
Speaker 4: Coach is now calling the plays for the Huskers. He
Speaker 4: just worked his first game this past weekend when Nebraska
Speaker 4: went out to USC. But Wayne, I'm curious too, because
Speaker 4: you know, I'm watching and listening obviously to the Packers
Speaker 4: on Sunday, and there's a part of me at the
Speaker 4: end of that game thinking, are they the luckiest team
Speaker 4: in the NFL? Or is the better description? They expect
Speaker 4: to make the plays when they have to. If it's
Speaker 4: Christian Watson laying out, if it's the field goals at
Speaker 4: the gun, the block field goal, that to me be
Speaker 4: on the obvious talent of a college team versus an
Speaker 4: NFL team. The Packers have seen it, they've done it.
Speaker 4: They've made the big plays when it's had to be made,
Speaker 4: and Wisconsin has noted. So you could call it luck,
Speaker 4: call it whatever. But there is a belief, with concrete proof,
Speaker 4: with the Spring Bay Packers team that when you have
Speaker 4: to make a play, they make it.
Speaker 3: That's an intangible matt And again I struggle as an
Speaker 3: observer as a fan to you know, why do some
Speaker 3: teams win and some teams listen like that. Why do
Speaker 3: the Bears how come they can't beat the Packers because
Speaker 3: they have the talent to do it, and they had
Speaker 3: it done. I mean, here we are three seconds ago.
Speaker 3: They're setting up for what should be just to you know,
Speaker 3: knock it down the middle type of field goal, and
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, the Packers get a block. And
Speaker 3: you know, I can't explain it why some teams, some
Speaker 3: teams players would say, oh, we know how to win.
Speaker 3: What does that mean? What do you mean you know
Speaker 3: how to win? You know what I mean? There's some
Speaker 3: teams have a knack for making the right play that
Speaker 3: type of thing. The Packers are the youngest team in
Speaker 3: the NFL, so I don't know if that's set in
Speaker 3: stone yet, but they got fortunate in Chicago and Carl
Speaker 3: Brooks and you know, the special teams coach Rich Bisacia said, hey, listen,
Speaker 3: this guy, Carlos Santo's kicks the ball low, especially on
Speaker 3: longer field goals. Get your arms up, be ready for it.
Speaker 3: And in the end they were. Carl Brooks got his
Speaker 3: big right hand of the air, they knocked that kick
Speaker 3: away and the Packers survived on a day when Caleb
Speaker 3: Williams did everything you could expect the Bears to do
Speaker 3: and had him in position to win that game. So
Speaker 3: I don't know, And what does it mean for the
Speaker 3: Packers going forward? They've got San Francisco coming up. San
Speaker 3: Francisco is we talked a couple of podcasts ago, not
Speaker 3: the team they were a year ago, but a team
Speaker 3: that still has a lot of talent and a lot
Speaker 3: of talent that's been the Super Bowls, been the championship runs,
Speaker 3: that kind of thing. You know, it'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 3: This is a game that Leaflora has kind of struggled,
Speaker 3: Matt Leflora struggled against his old mentor Kyle Shanahan in
Speaker 3: some big places. The Packers have lost playoff games to
Speaker 3: the Niners. It'll be interesting to see the emotion that
Speaker 3: goes into that game on both sides. And then from there,
Speaker 3: can the Packers make a stretch run as they did
Speaker 3: a year ago. They're a different team than they were
Speaker 3: a year ago. I don't know if they're going to
Speaker 3: be able to make a stretch run like that. A
Speaker 3: year ago, there were four and six at this time.
Speaker 3: Now there's seven and three. Everybody's expecting much bigger things,
Speaker 3: And I'm not sure from this vantage point in the
Speaker 3: league and the schedule with what it is. I mean,
Speaker 3: they've got to go to Minnesota, they've got to go
Speaker 3: to Detroit. Can they put together a run through those
Speaker 3: two places? I don't know. You know, they're in a
Speaker 3: better position than they were a year ago. Will they
Speaker 3: make the playoffs? I don't know. If ten wins is
Speaker 3: going to make the playoffs in the NFC, I don't know.
Speaker 3: And if it comes down to tiebreakers, the Packers have
Speaker 3: already lost three NFC games. Those are tiebreakers, so it'll
Speaker 3: be a interesting But I think that's what That's why
Speaker 3: we play the games. That's why we go to the games.
Speaker 3: That's why we anticipate the games because we don't know
Speaker 3: what's going to happen.
Speaker 4: Well, you're seeing thrilling games. Oh Wayne, it's working out.
Speaker 4: You're gonna hear your people are saying they're staying tuned
Speaker 4: in to the to the final snap of the game,
Speaker 4: and the dagger call has had to wait some of
Speaker 4: these games. But they're they're finding away. You know, I
Speaker 4: just as an observer, Are they really that good? Maybe
Speaker 4: they are. You're winning games now and then you get
Speaker 4: hot you get as healthy as you possibly can, which
Speaker 4: they have obviously not been throughout the course of this season.
Speaker 4: But who knows. But the NFC North is it's wicked
Speaker 4: this season. I mean, you know, Airs are trying to
Speaker 4: figure it out, but the Lions are just killing everybody
Speaker 4: and the Vikings are eight and two. So this is
Speaker 4: this pretty good stuff in this division.
Speaker 3: Beware, I told our people from the Lions, I said,
Speaker 3: you guys, this is your year. You're the best team.
Speaker 3: You better win. You better hope you don't catch Patrick
Speaker 3: Mahomes in overtime in the super Bowl. This your year,
Speaker 3: Mike obot A. It's amazing. But you know, these windows
Speaker 3: in the NFL, and I'm sure to a lesser degree
Speaker 3: even in college, they open and close quickly year to year.
Speaker 3: And like I said, last year with San Francisco's year
Speaker 3: under Shanahan, to get it done, they didn't. And this
Speaker 3: year's been a kind of a bloodbath out there from contracts,
Speaker 3: injuries and everything else. Detroit they got it rolling, and
Speaker 3: I know they've had some injuries and misfortune to that
Speaker 3: type of thing, but they're the best team and it's
Speaker 3: not really close, folks. But that doesn't mean They're going
Speaker 3: to get it done, so we'll see how it goes
Speaker 3: well out to do it for us on this edition
Speaker 3: of the Ler of Vila Pay podcast special thanks to
Speaker 3: Andy Katz, college basketball analyst reporter. Our guest today, Our
Speaker 3: producer engineer is Dave McCann. Our executive producer Jeff Tyler.
Speaker 3: For math. This is Wayne. Thank you very much for
Speaker 3: listening to the Laere of Vie La Pay podcast.
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