- 1 year ago
On today's edition of Zolak and Bertrand, Albert Breer who is the lead content strategist for the MMQB, joined the show. While discussing Belichick's recruiting tactics at UNC, Breer explains how the former Patriots coach is offering athletes incentive-laden contracts.
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00:00Burt, it's your first Thursday with us this football season,
00:02and there's no lunch here for you.
00:04I know.
00:04This is a bad start, guys.
00:06I apologize.
00:06It's not good.
00:07Yeah.
00:08This place dropped the ball.
00:10Yeah.
00:10I don't know what's going to happen,
00:13but I think we have to go back and figure out what was going to happen.
00:15Well, I mean, we've had some staffing changes here at the Sports Hub,
00:18or reduction, I should say.
00:20Not changes.
00:20It's just a reduction.
00:22And so maybe we'll find a way to right this wrong on our own.
00:30Lawful stepping up.
00:31I'll start begging for food.
00:33Without even mentioning this, we've already received one offer.
00:36Oh, really?
00:36Yeah.
00:37Yes.
00:38All right.
00:38Where's that from?
00:40From a well-established place in the North End.
00:44There are a lot of great places in the area.
00:46I mean, you guys have a big platform.
00:48There are a lot of great places in the area that could get themselves.
00:52Get themselves a nice bump, you know?
00:54Yeah.
00:55Two people went to Blondies after they did the food drop.
00:57I believe it.
00:58It was phenomenal.
00:58It is.
00:59Yep.
01:01There's Thursdays with Breer.
01:03You know, we're just going to need lunch.
01:05That's going to need to be a thing here.
01:07Bologna and cheese sandwiches.
01:08The man has a streak.
01:10He has a streak.
01:11The streak is now broken.
01:13What's that North Shore thing?
01:14Beef?
01:14North Shore beef?
01:15Yes.
01:16Beef of Burt.
01:18I like that.
01:18Beef of Burt Thursdays.
01:19There always has to be a beef tie-in?
01:21It's a buh, buh.
01:22We'd like Joe Murray to show up then.
01:24Sure.
01:25Yeah, we could do that.
01:26Did you see this new thing?
01:26Like, people are charging for bread at restaurants.
01:29They're starting to do that.
01:32For bread?
01:32That's different.
01:33You mean, like the bread you get before dinner?
01:34Yeah.
01:35Wait, so do they ask you if you want the bread?
01:37If you want bread.
01:37It's no longer free.
01:38I think we've seen that on a menu.
01:39It's like six to ten bucks.
01:42It's marked on some menus as bread service.
01:45Yeah.
01:45Not just bread.
01:45It's bread service.
01:46I mean, you think about it.
01:47If you're a restaurant and your prices have gone up, you're already sort of trying to make that margin of staying open.
01:54It's a tough business.
01:55How much is a loaf of bread now?
01:58I mean, if you...
01:59It's like if you're handing out $6 loaf of bread to every table and there are some people that don't even eat it.
02:03Well, now all of a sudden you're like...
02:04Well, if you bake mini bowls of a loaf of bread in your good restaurant, if you're charging 75 bucks for a steak, you shouldn't have free bread.
02:11That's a little different.
02:12Right.
02:13No, but like, okay, I can understand it.
02:15Like if you...
02:15Say you buttered it up and like you had like the cinnamon butter type and you really doctored the bread up or you give it a real nice thick bread.
02:23Yeah, I guess you could charge for that.
02:25With the butter.
02:26Salted butter.
02:28Okay.
02:28I mean, it was more about the cost of a loaf of bread.
02:30Like a nice loaf of bread.
02:32Nice Italian bread.
02:33That's probably five bucks now, right?
02:36Salted butter.
02:37That's your threshold there?
02:38That makes it fancy.
02:40Yeah, some of them do.
02:41The little grains of salt.
02:43We're going to write that wrong.
02:44We're going to write that ship.
02:45That's going to get...
02:46We're going to get that fixed.
02:48I know we'll get that fixed.
02:49I can say that with confidence.
02:50Can you say with confidence that Bill Belichick is going to fix what is wrong at UNC based on what you saw Monday?
02:57I don't know.
02:58So I have a buddy who his son was being recruited.
03:06He's not from the area.
03:07He's from another part of the country.
03:08But his son was being recruited by Bill and his staff.
03:12And so in the spring, he asked me what's going on there.
03:15So I dug around a little bit and it's just like, I think they were still getting their ducks in a row as far as how all this stuff works.
03:25And it was like right around then that their best player is this kid Bo Atkinson, right?
03:30So what I heard was he was offered an incentive-laden deal.
03:34Heavy on incentives.
03:35Their best player.
03:38Not paid by NIL, but you...
03:41Yeah, like it was going to be heavy on incentives NIL-wise.
03:45And that player is now at Ohio State.
03:49Huh.
03:49So, I mean...
03:51We'll just pay you.
03:52Bill is still putting the screws to players in contract talks.
03:56So it's Bo Atkinson is the guy.
03:58There's the kid's name.
03:59He played at North Carolina.
04:00I think he had like 10 sacks last year or something.
04:02Oh, yeah.
04:02No, only 10.
04:03So, I mean, like there's stuff like that that you hear it.
04:05And it's like these kids like can up and leave now.
04:10And a lot of the things like I've heard Urban Meyer say where he doesn't feel like he could coach anymore in college because you can't de-recruit the kids anymore.
04:18Like in other words, like you know what de-recruiting means.
04:20Like so when you de-recruit a kid, you obviously got to kiss his ass and tell him how great he is to get him in.
04:25And then the old process, the old Saban, Urban, you know, Kirby smart process is you get them in.
04:30And then it's like, all right, first day of practice, all right, Emma, for like, you know, I got you.
04:35Yeah, you can't do that anymore.
04:37So there's a different way that they've got to approach these kids now because of the danger of losing them, you know.
04:42And, you know, so I wonder about some of those things, the adjustment there.
04:47Look, I expected them to lose the game.
04:49Like I would have told you.
04:51Right, TCU's got a program.
04:52If I picked it before, like TCU's a better program over the last 10 years.
04:55The coach has been there.
04:55Not even close.
04:56Three years ago they were in a national title game.
04:58They were in a national title game, right.
04:59Like so I expected they'd lose the game.
05:00The thing that got my attention was the start of the third quarter where it looked like a complete bleep show.
05:07They come out of the locker room, first play from scrimmage, 75-yard touchdown.
05:13TCU's second possession, they converted a third and 20 with a throw right down the middle of the field.
05:19See that against Dallas.
05:20And then the next play, 28 yards untouched, like an off-tackle run for a touchdown.
05:26And then on the possession after that, sack, fumble, touchdown.
05:32So this was like in like 10 minutes of game action.
05:36Three touchdowns, like one on a long run.
05:39The other one set up by a third and long conversion followed by an untouched touchdown.
05:42Then a sack, fumble, return for a touchdown.
05:44Like that to me was like, whoa.
05:47Because that's more than just we don't have as good players.
05:50Like our players aren't as good.
05:51That's more than that.
05:52There was that report this week that it was talked about on a podcast that Bill does not allow Patriot scouts in a building.
06:00Do you believe that?
06:01So I thought that's the other part that really got me.
06:05These guys saw Pete Dammel's report.
06:07We did.
06:07We've played it several times.
06:08I can see across the board him making it difficult.
06:11Like Bill likes his door shut.
06:12So a lot of it, like a lot of that, like and I know a lot of people took it and was like, oh, who cares what they give him?
06:17You don't have to interview him.
06:17They were giving the scouts too.
06:18You don't have to interview him Sunday.
06:20So you don't have to worry about that.
06:21I believe that, like, he doesn't want to be bugged by people at this point.
06:26I believe that.
06:27No, but here's the thing.
06:28But make it team specific.
06:29But here's the thing, though, Zoe, is like, so they give that depth chart to the scouts.
06:35Do you know who would never, ever, ever do something like that?
06:39Saban.
06:39Nick Saban treated scouts like gold, right?
06:43Like you would hear about the spread.
06:45Like, I would hear from scouts about the spread that they put out at Alabama for the scouts, you know?
06:50Like, they treated the NFL people like kings.
06:55Why do you think Nick Saban did that?
06:58Because every one of the kids that I'm coaching, his goal is to get there.
07:01Right.
07:02So I'm going to do everything I can to give the NFL people the best experience I possibly can while they're here so they get a good impression of my kids, so my kids get drafted, so I can tell the next kid that I'm recruiting, we are NFLU.
07:16Right?
07:17So all this talk about being the 33rd NFL team and you're not accommodating scouts coming in?
07:23It's crazy.
07:24I mean, it's like, and like, look, Shiano, I think when his first time at Rutgers was notorious for this, Joe Paterno, and Shiano came from Paterno.
07:33Paterno was notorious for it when he was at Penn State.
07:36Like, the schools that treat scouts like crap, like, that gets around.
07:41And if you're doing that, and I'm not saying he's doing that across the board, but this could be a window into how those people are being treated.
07:48Like, that's not only, like, being a you-know-what, that can also, like, actually hurt your program.
07:55Definitely.
07:56You know, because every kid that is being recruited at that level, and so, every kid, like, every kid who's being recruited to the University of Maryland, right, what's his goal?
08:05To get to the NFL.
08:06So, every kid who's going, who's that level of player thinks, because you can't get to that level of football without thinking that you have the ability to take it all the way.
08:17Get a shot, right.
08:18That you at least have a shot to take it all the way to the top.
08:21And so, it's going to be a factor for you when you're making a decision, who can get me to the NFL?
08:26And so, Bill's NFL experience, he's undercutting all of that by treating the scouts this way.
08:31It makes no sense.
08:32And, like, that was the thing where I looked at, I was like, like, what are they doing?
08:37Like, is there any level of, is there any level of just understanding what you're dealing with and the effect that these things can have on people?
08:47I don't know.
08:48Like, I, it just, it feels to me like more we know better than everybody else.
08:56You know what I mean?
08:57Than anything else.
08:58So, do you think the Pat Scouts are out?
09:00I don't know about that.
09:01I haven't heard that, but I'll dig into that.
09:03Dig in on that, Bert.
09:04Find out if the Pat Scouts have been.
09:06So, Bard, who, like, is this actually out there?
09:08John Middlecoff.
09:09John Middlecoff said that there were Patriots scouts that were not welcome at UNC.
09:16Wow.
09:17Okay, I had not heard that, but that's a good tidbit.
09:19I'll dig in.
09:20See if I can figure that out.
09:21That's according to Amy, he said there are scouts that have not been welcome there because they are from the Patriots,
09:25and so they don't have the access.
09:27I mean, like, what's the sense in doing that?
09:28That's my point.
09:29Nothing.
09:30There's no sense.
09:30Cut your own legs off.
09:32I mean, it's just, again, like, I mean, that's, Saban had the number one recruiting class in the country how many years in a row?
09:40A million.
09:4117.
09:42If you looked at his teams, his teams looked different than everybody else.
09:45Yeah.
09:46You turned on the team.
09:46Yeah, I test alone.
09:47Why do you think that is?
09:49It's because he was able to go to those kids and tell them, I have five first-round picks every year.
09:55If you play well enough, you're going there.
09:57Like, there's no doubt about it.
09:59Like, if you play well enough for me, like, you are in the NFL.
10:03That's the most powerful recruiting tool a college coach can have.
10:06And so, like, the idea that you wouldn't be doing everything to accomplish that is, like, I just don't get it.
10:13Like, I just don't get it.