Mike DeCourcy Joins to Talk the Latest in College Sports

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00:00So, Mike, of course, he's the esteemed columnist at the Sporting News.

00:06He's on Fox Sports doing hoops and he's on Big Ten Network because he loves Indiana basketball

00:12and he's on coast to coast every week.

00:14He also has friends at the Pittsburgh airport.

00:18And what he does is he calls them to play jokes on me and has my flights canceled when

00:24I go into go to Steeler games.

00:27He makes one phone call and he's like, can you do me a favor and cancel that Monday morning

00:30flight back to New York City that Pharrell's on?

00:33And then sure enough, an hour later, I get a text.

00:35Your flight has been canceled.

00:37There are no other seats available until Tuesday at nine thirty six in the morning.

00:41It's all, of course, his fault.

00:42Hey, so let's start with this Penn State's Drew Allers coming back to his senior season

00:49in Happy Valley.

00:50And I said yesterday, Mike, I think he needs more seasoning.

00:53I've heard about his high draft stock.

00:57I am not buying it all that that kid is ready for the NFL.

01:01I never thought he was good at Penn State.

01:03In fact, I bet against him against Oregon because I said he'll be the guy to cost him

01:07the game. Sure enough, two picks.

01:09He cost him the game. He's not ready for the NFL yet.

01:12No, I mean that those what you're what you're hearing about him as a first round pick

01:18prospect is someone in the media trying to get attention.

01:21That's what it is.

01:22It's nothing more than that.

01:24And we shouldn't give credence to people who are just trying to get attention.

01:29We should give attention to legitimate analysis, legitimate reporting.

01:34And Drew Aller as a first rounder today.

01:37Come on. I mean, there's there's no way he gets past like three tests at the combine

01:43before they start knocking him down rounds.

01:46That's not happening now.

01:47He's a promising talent still.

01:49He's got a long way to go.

01:51And part of it has been that he has not had elite receiving talent at Penn State.

01:58I think everyone's acknowledged that.

01:59I mean, he doesn't have the Jahan Dotson's out there that they used to have at Penn State.

02:04They've had a pretty fallow period at that position.

02:08So it's harder for him to develop into a NFL style playmaker.

02:14But it can come and they may do well.

02:16Who knows in the portal at that position and and elevate Drew's development.

02:22But it's certainly not now.

02:24And that's why he wisely chose to listen to people who know.

02:30And I'm not saying me because I'm just talking about this for the first time.

02:33But listen to people who know and say, yeah, I need another year at Penn State.

02:38But you wrote about the kid that's leaving because it cost them him.

02:43And this is the cost of doing business now in college football with this transfer portal

02:50vacuum that sucks guys out of programs.

02:52Like how about the Marshall?

02:54They fired the coach.

02:55The entire team quit.

02:56The entire team is going to the portal and they canceled their bowl game.

03:00I mean, kids are transferring now like I'm walking down to my mailbox.

03:05That is true.

03:07Look, I don't blame this young man for doing this.

03:11In in the middle 2000s, probably around 2004, I'm going to say maybe a little right around then,

03:18Joe Flacco left Pitt after he was beaten out for the starting job at Pitt.

03:23And in that in that period, he had to transfer down a level in order to play immediately.

03:28He transferred to Delaware.

03:29And Delaware was a great program at that point.

03:31And it worked out great for him.

03:33And he had a tremendous career that included a Super Bowl ring.

03:36But now you don't have to do that anymore.

03:39And that's the right thing.

03:41You shouldn't have to sit out a year the first time you transfer.

03:45When you start doing it two and three times, I can be persuaded that that's not really right.

03:50But the first time it should be immediate.

03:53And that's what's going to happen here.

03:55Him having to leave the program now, I suspect that once he realized that he had if he once when

04:02Aller was coming back, that he had to leave in order to get some time as a starting quarterback

04:07and to get a reasonable NIL payout in the move that he had to do it now that the positions

04:15were closing around the country, other people were being recruited.

04:18He had to get on that merry-go-round.

04:21And look, the CFP championship is January 20th.

04:25If he happens to choose West Virginia, which is one of the schools that's been mentioned,

04:29they start classes on the 13th.

04:31So he's got to be there at some point around there.

04:34So I totally understand why he would have to leave.

04:37And I kind of think Penn State said, if you're going to leave, go ahead.

04:40Wait, wait a minute.

04:42No one goes to class.

04:44What?

04:45So wait, let me ask you this.

04:50Well, Rich Rod, we just mentioned earlier that he went back there after that messy divorce

04:55when he was in Morgantown the last time.

04:56I can't believe I'm seeing that guy go back to West Virginia after the way they hated

05:01each other's guts.

05:02But tell me how you think it's going to play out in Chapel Hill with Bill Belichick.

05:06What's your thoughts on that?

05:08I know you wrote about it.

05:09Yeah, I think it's a terrible hire.

05:11I don't think Bill Belichick, first of all, he has no experience at all at the college

05:15level, at the high major level, none, zero.

05:18He has less than I have because I'm sure I've been to more games than he has.

05:24It's absurd to pay $10 million a year to someone who's never done the job.

05:29And it's a much different job at the college level than it is at the NFL.

05:33At the NFL level, your job as a head coach is about 99% coaching and about 1% talking

05:42to the media.

05:43That's the split.

05:44If you're a college coach, it's about 35% coaching and then a whole bunch of booster

05:50stuff and fundraising and dealing with the media, as I mentioned, and having to recruit

05:58players.

05:59You can say, we're going to put it all over on this shelf and the personnel department

06:05led by Michael Lombardi is going to do that.

06:08But if you're not involved, you're not winning because if you have somebody big time coming

06:15in like Ryan Day or someone like that coming into someone's living room, and then it's

06:20like the GM from Carolina, where's he going to go?

06:24The coach couldn't even take time out to talk to him.

06:27Where's he going to go?

06:28He's going to go to the school that's really recruiting him.

06:31So Belichick has to be involved.

06:33He has no experience in that venue.

06:35I just don't see this working at all.

06:37And that doesn't even bring up the fact that he's starting this job.

06:40He will coach his first game at age 73.

06:43Hey, I'm old enough.

06:44I don't want to be in that.

06:45You know, I don't want to discriminate against that.

06:48But there just hasn't been a lot of success when they're mid-70s.

06:54I'll be lucky if I last five more years, Mike.

06:5973?

07:00Christ.

07:01I'll have a hip replacement, a knee replacement, a divorce.

07:06I'll be living alone, drinking out of a bottle.

07:09Honestly.

07:10DeBatza, you've seen him play 6'9", stretch.

07:14Is it true they're paying that kid over $7 million to play in Provo?

07:18No, my source says it's actually half that.

07:20It's still a lot, obviously.

07:22But my source says that those figures are overinflated.

07:27But I do have, again, reservations about that.

07:30Not about AJ.

07:31He's a terrific talent, and he'll do his best.

07:34But it's been pretty rare that teams that throw one one-and-done into a mix

07:41and not a full class of five-star guys like you've seen on occasion

07:45and are seeing right now at Duke with Cooper flags surrounded by five-star guys

07:50or at Kentucky when John Calipari was there.

07:54It's been really rare that you've had great success with teams

07:58that have brought a single such player into the mix.

08:01And it's pretty common, frankly, that coaches who've done this

08:07don't end up being in their jobs very long after this has happened.

08:11There's a long list of coaches who've tried this

08:14and within a few years found out that it destabilized their program

08:18and they're now looking for work.

08:21Mike, I watched Tennessee play Illinois in Champaign,

08:25and they both shot so poorly that entire game.

08:28And then, of course, Tennessee end-to-end bucket at the buzzer to win it.

08:32They got lucky.

08:33I still believe, Mike, that Auburn's better than them.

08:36Oh, I don't buy the poll at all.

08:39Look, I really like Tennessee's program,

08:42and Rick Barnes is one of the really wonderful men in coaching.

08:45But as with a lot of the teams at Tennessee,

08:47this one's offensively challenged.

08:49They are not the best team in the country.

08:51It will be very hard for them to win it.

08:53Auburn is better.

08:55As a college basketball team, I don't think they will win it either.

08:59But if you ask me to take any team to have the best record

09:04at the end of the regular season, the number one overall seed,

09:07I'm going with Auburn.

09:09Here's DiCorsi.

09:10Pharrell will be there for January 5th for the Bengal game,

09:13and he'll be there the following week for the wild card game with the Steelers.

09:16Can you have both of those Monday nights?

09:20Okay, let me know.

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