- 4 months ago
Heisman trophy winner and Hurricanes legend, Gino Torretta, joins the show to preview the Hurricanes matchup vs Louisville. Plus, an in depth discussion with Gino about how QB development has changed dramatically since he was learning to play the position.
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00:00There is Gino Toretta on our stream, and Gino joins us on Thursdays.
00:07Gino, the Heisman Trophy winner, joins us Thursdays courtesy of the local 519 Plumbers Union.
00:13In football and in life, it's about being on the right team.
00:17Join the winning team at local 519 Plumbers Union, a proven path to a strong career.
00:24Visit Plumbers519.com.
00:27Gino will be on the call Saturday for Ole Miss and Georgia on Touchdown Radio.
00:34He is on the Toyota of Hollywood Hotline.
00:38Hurricanes, Gino, have a Friday night game.
00:40They host Louisville tomorrow, Hard Rock Stadium.
00:43They're two touchdown favorites.
00:45What do they need to be worried about?
00:47Is every game, because they don't have a ranked opponent left on their schedule.
00:51So, is every game moving forward for the Hurricanes that potential trap game or hurdle?
00:58Because it is almost impossible to go undefeated.
01:01Well, every game is a hurdle.
01:03I think that every game just makes the next one more important, every victory.
01:08I think that, you know, as we've learned with Penn State, the one loss went and turned into three,
01:16and the head coach was exited out the door with a $50 million check.
01:20So, you have expectations of getting in the playoffs, getting in the conference championship game,
01:26and hopefully fighting for a national championship.
01:28So, every one of these games is important.
01:31As far as the ranked, unranked, listen, I think that we're at a point in the season
01:37where some teams have not played a lot of strong opponents, or, you know, for whatever reason,
01:44I don't think the rankings are really correct right now.
01:47I mean, USC's only got one loss.
01:49They're at 20.
01:50Notre Dame's got two.
01:51They're at 12 or something like that.
01:52I mean, Indiana, so far, and Miami have probably had the toughest road to this point in the season,
02:00and they're both undefeated, and they're two and three.
02:03So, you know, I think Louisville is a quality team.
02:07They've given us problems before.
02:09Miller Moss, the quarterback, you know, he's a transfer from USC.
02:12He's shown at times he can be explosive.
02:15He's also shown at times he can make head-scratching mistakes,
02:18and that's why, you know, USC made the switch last year to Mayova
02:23and sent him on his way through the transfer portal to make him a bunch of money in Louisville.
02:28So, I think they have players, and listen, Jeff Brom was a teammate of mine in the 49ers,
02:35and he's a sharp coach, and listen, I don't think you can take anybody lightly
02:40because this is – it's kind of like when we were in school, Hawk.
02:44Like, this was the other team's national championship when they're trying to knock us off,
02:51and you have to take that approach.
02:54You're going to get their best shot, and you know what?
02:58You just don't want it to land.
03:00I want to talk Hurricanes, but you mentioned Penn State.
03:03Were you shocked that James Franklin was let go or no?
03:06I think that after reading some of the stuff that was going on, no.
03:13I think that, listen, they did everything they could for this season
03:18to be prepared to win a national championship or get back to that place,
03:23and they played very tight.
03:26They played very conservative like they didn't have a loaded team,
03:31a very highly paid team.
03:32And after – during the UCLA game, I mean, the end of half,
03:36they're down by 20 points, and James Franklin's trying to manage the clock
03:42to go for three.
03:43I've never heard of a coach with three timeouts, experienced quarterback,
03:47trying to go for three and not trying to score a touchdown the whole time.
03:50And then at the end of the game, not having his team prepared
03:55that the opponent was going to take a safety
03:57and let him take an extra six to ten seconds off the clock.
04:00Like, those kinds of things are just, to me, is egregious errors.
04:05But I think how he coached made the team even tighter.
04:09And the athletic director said, hey, basically we won a national championship
04:13and we're not getting it, and he hasn't been able to beat a top ten team.
04:17He beat the teams he was supposed to beat
04:19and never beat the teams he wasn't.
04:23And that's okay in a lot of places, but it's not in some place
04:26that's paying like Penn State and wants a national championship.
04:31Hey, Gino, getting back to UM for a second,
04:34do you still need to see more from Carson Beck?
04:37Because he had the USF game where he threw for 300-plus yards.
04:41And I know against Florida, I remember you saying, you know,
04:45you kind of wanted him basically sling the ball a little bit more,
04:48have a little bit more confidence.
04:49The bounce back against FSU was great, threw it 27 times.
04:54But do you still need to see another big game?
04:57Because I know Louisville's pass rush is really, you know,
04:59what their defense is centered around.
05:01Does he have to come out and show you a little bit more
05:03so that you have a ton of confidence in him to lead this team
05:06in a playoff game?
05:08I'm not worried about the big stat game.
05:11I'm worried about more of the consistency.
05:13I want to see consistency.
05:15And I thought Notre Dame, I thought he played well,
05:18and I thought the whole team got a little conservative.
05:20Maybe that was from Mario, hey, we're just, you know what,
05:22we got this, let's play conservative.
05:24I thought at Florida, he did not look as comfortable.
05:29Throwing the ball wasn't as accurate,
05:30throwing the ball as he was in the Notre Dame game.
05:32I just want to see more consistency.
05:34He's had some great games, which are great,
05:37but I want to see it, you know, consistently.
05:40I don't need to see 500 yards and five touchdowns.
05:43I just want to, you know, methodical, hey,
05:45get me in the right play and move down the field.
05:48And I think that he's done that for the most part.
05:53And, you know, listen, they got through the toughest part
05:55of their season, you know, so far, and they're undefeated.
05:58They're right where they, you know,
06:00where they dreamed of being in the summer.
06:02Hey, we want to be undefeated.
06:03And right here.
06:04And, you know, I normally tend to not like Friday games,
06:09but they've had, you know, they've had plenty of time off,
06:11so they should be well-prepared for the game and just makes
06:15for crappy traffic down here in Miami, getting out of downtown.
06:20But if you do want to compete for a Heisman trophy,
06:23you have to have 500-yard, five-touchdown games, no?
06:29I never threw for 500.
06:31I got a trophy.
06:32You probably didn't throw for that little.
06:34You probably didn't throw for that little.
06:36You probably threw for 600-plus every game.
06:38I would say this.
06:40You have to have a game where, or probably more than one,
06:46where the game is on you.
06:48And what I mean by that is the opponent said,
06:52we're shutting down the run, throw it on us.
06:56And if you can beat us throwing it, fine.
06:59That's what you got to have.
07:00And you got to have, you know, where they're getting to your pressure.
07:03And I will say, you know, if you're talking about the Heisman,
07:07you look at their schedule, not having a ranked opponent
07:10the rest of the schedule is going to hurt
07:11because you don't have that team at the end of the year.
07:15You don't have that Florida State game, you know, in late October.
07:19You don't have, you know, a November game.
07:21You don't have, you know, those kind of games at the end
07:24that are a feather in your cap and in the conference play.
07:28So, you know, but listen, I think that he just keeps doing what he's doing.
07:33I wouldn't worry about the trophy.
07:35That stuff takes care of itself at the end
07:37as long as your team keeps taking care of business.
07:39Now, let's see how much you know about your own career.
07:42Thanks to AI, I have some of your highlights.
07:45Do you know your single game passing yards record
07:50and who it was against?
07:52485 San Diego State.
07:54485 San Diego State.
07:56You nailed it.
07:57Do you know what your longest pass completion was?
08:0099, my first start in 91 against Arkansas.
08:0399 yards.
08:04Who was it to?
08:05Those are easy ones.
08:06Oh, Horace Copeland.
08:08Horace Copeland.
08:08Those are easy ones.
08:09You know how many career yards you had at UM?
08:12No.
08:14Between 7,000 and 8,000.
08:18Less than 8,000, more than 7,000.
08:20It's funny.
08:21On AI, it says 7,690.
08:24It says some sources cite his total passing yards as 8,225.
08:30So, I don't know which one.
08:32I'll have to ask John Root.
08:33I would say this.
08:33I think my freshman year, I think I threw my redshirt freshman year at 1,300.
08:38And I threw for basically three and three.
08:41So, no, it would be like 7,600, something like that.
08:44But, like, when we played, the bowl game wasn't counted in stats.
08:48Like Ron Dane, who basically scored more touchdowns than anybody ever and had more yards rushing than anybody ever.
08:55If you count his bowl games, like, some people say, well, those shouldn't count.
09:02Which, to me, it's like, okay, well, if our bowl game records don't count, how are you going to count a 15-game schedule stats versus mine?
09:11And, you know, I think the difference, I would say this.
09:14One of the things I'm probably most proud of, I think my junior year, I think I was averaging, like, 18 yards of completion,
09:21which is far greater than anybody now, all the short passes.
09:26And I think I averaged, like, 285, 288, something like that.
09:30I averaged close to 300 a game.
09:32And why could you average 18 yards a pass?
09:37Because your receivers were so good, you never had to check down?
09:40You never looked to check down?
09:42I mean, we went deep.
09:43If I saw it, I was throwing, you know, like I told you, throw that bleeper up.
09:48I'm going to go get that.
09:52That's the attitude we had.
09:53And I think that when I played, it was, you know, lack of a running game.
10:01And the opposing defenses were like, we're going to try to hit Tretter with the blitz.
10:06Okay, bring it on.
10:07I know I was going to take shots, but you want to put me in blitz, that means it's just Kevin Williams, Lamar Thomas,
10:13Horace Copeland, and those guys in one-on-one coverage.
10:16I'll take my chances.
10:17And, you know, I mean, heck, I try to tell these kids at Gulliver, Wesley Carroll is, you know,
10:23the receiver's coach and his son's there.
10:25And I threw Wesley a ball my redshirt freshman year.
10:29I was under center.
10:30We used to have basically a play.
10:32If you didn't guard the first slot receiver, all I did was tap my hip.
10:36And I was going to take the snap, stand up, and throw him the ball.
10:39I mean, it's a simple game, really.
10:41It's just, you know, just don't make it hard.
10:43I literally stood up, threw the ball sideways.
10:47It went maybe a yard and a half down the field.
10:50Wesley Carroll went 88 yards for the touchdown.
10:53And that went.
10:53Wesley Carroll has that kind of speed?
10:55Wesley Carroll.
10:56And I tell people, I go, I threw the ball less than two yards.
11:00And you know what it says in the stat sheet?
11:02One for one, 88 touchdown.
11:04And that's what I'm talking about.
11:07It's just get the ball out of your hand.
11:08Get the ball into receiver's hand.
11:11You know, the same thing with Beck is doing now with Tony and these guys.
11:14I mean, they got some weapons, and it's fun to watch.
11:18But, you know, a lot of it was we didn't throw a lot of short.
11:21I don't know.
11:22If somebody was going to challenge us, we were going to buy them.
11:25And that's.
11:25But I feel like it's more conservative nowadays.
11:28I feel like.
11:28Oh, there's no question.
11:29Yeah.
11:30Well, the game has changed.
11:32You know, the game has changed, and it's kind of frustrating.
11:35But Georgia, so nobody goes on their center, right?
11:39Everybody sits in shotgun, and everybody plays this kind of seven-on-seven game, which that's great to an extent.
11:45But it's also not great because you lose a lot of things that you can be successful at in a game.
11:52And that means quick drop back, throw a six-yard hitch, let that receiver move the ball down.
11:57So when you go to shotgun, what does it turn into?
11:59It turns into that annoying wide receiver screen behind the line of scrimmage, and you hope one guy makes a block,
12:05and you hope the guy falls forward for a few yards.
12:08But, like, Georgia did something last week.
12:10Hadn't seen in a while.
12:11And the only reason they could do it is they went under center.
12:13They got in the goal line.
12:15It was the old, you know, eye formation, wing set.
12:19The quarterback reverses out, shows ball, and the backside defensive end, he can't see, and he's not used to seeing.
12:26He's got contained.
12:28He crashes down thinking, oh, I'm going to light up the running back.
12:31Quarterback pulls that ball, runs around.
12:33Ten-yard touchdown.
12:35Game over.
12:35Georgia wins.
12:36And the only reason they could make that fake is they got under center.
12:40And that's the kind of stuff where, you know, I get the shotgun, and I like it.
12:45So why not?
12:47Why not get under center?
12:48Yeah.
12:49Why don't you see more teams doing that?
12:50Because it's a – we're in high school.
12:54I don't think we could do a center quarterback exchange.
12:56I don't know if our guy got under center or if our center would be ready for – to snap the ball like that.
13:03Literally, you don't do it at all.
13:05No.
13:05It's a different snap.
13:07I mean, think about it.
13:07All they're doing is throwing the ball back in an under center.
13:11The guy is snapping the ball to his rear end, and he's got to hit your hands in between.
13:15But you should be –
13:16But I'm saying it's just – it's a lost art form?
13:20Yeah.
13:20Yeah.
13:21And they're not forced to do it.
13:23Like, I see, you know, simple things to me – you know, football is numbers.
13:29There's 11 players on defense.
13:30They can only line up in so many ways.
13:33Okay.
13:33When they explode these formations and motions and there's no backs in the backfield, there's five offensive linemen, right, all the time.
13:41There's four D linemen.
13:43Now, when the defense moves out of that box and there's – let's say there's one linebacker.
13:50Well, that's five on five.
13:51I like my chances.
13:52I'm a runner at quarterback.
13:54I'm the sixth guy.
13:55Right?
13:55So, I'm like – I tell the kids, I'm like, if you see that, just go under center, you'll fire, fire, fire, and run quarterback wedge.
14:04I mean, you're going to get five yards just falling forward.
14:08Like, stuff like that, to me, should be second nature.
14:12But it's the same thing with, you know, why I don't agree with coaches being allowed to call timeouts for teams on the sideline.
14:21Like, you know, to me, it's like I had to know when the 25-second clock was going to go up.
14:25I had to know when there was going to be a delay game.
14:27And I either had to make a calculated choice, timeout or not timeout.
14:31And Georgia, last week against Auburn, their coach calls timeout.
14:35The officials stop the game, and then he tells the timeout, tells the officials, oh, no, no, no, no.
14:41I was saying they were clapping.
14:43I didn't want the timeout.
14:45And it's just like, okay, we'll take that out of the coach's hands.
14:48But there are just some things I think are very simple in the game that aren't done anymore.
14:55Gino, I don't know if you heard Tom Brady.
14:57He's talked about this a lot, where he says young quarterbacks coming into the league aren't developed properly.
15:03And it sounds like you're speaking truth to that, but it's not just in the college level.
15:09It's before that as well.
15:11Because he said they're coddled, and it's like all dumbed down for them so that they make no mistakes and that they're just doing one thing well.
15:19And they're not prepared when they get to that next level.
15:21And he went deeper into the fact that young quarterbacks in the NFL aren't in defensive meetings as well.
15:27Like, he kind of expanded on it.
15:30So a lot of they're not taught.
15:31You have to be taught, okay?
15:33It's like, to me, it's like, okay, there's 11 guys on defense.
15:36There's only so many ways they're going to line up.
15:39If they're going to blitz here, then there's weaknesses here.
15:41If they're going to play this coverage, this is where I want to run the ball.
15:44All it is is, you know, like in geometry back in the day, the if this, then what hypothesis?
15:52That, to me, is what a quarterback should be doing.
15:55If we call this play and they run this defense against it, then what do I do?
16:01And you have to have an answer for that.
16:02And if you're not taught that from college, and they're not, because you get to the pros.
16:10And in college, if you're, hey, you know what, I know that guy's not blocked, but I'm going to take my chances.
16:17Well, you take your chances in the NFL, and you're going to get concussed, and you're going to be knocked out of the game.
16:23And that's the difference.
16:24But some college coaches will take their chances and say, no, no, no, we'll be all right.
16:30And I'm like, I don't know.
16:31To me, I was taught, no, no, no, we're not going to be all right.
16:34We're protecting quarterback first, and then we'll let out, you know, two or three guys.
16:39You know, but everybody wants to release five receivers every set, and they don't want to protect the quarterback.
16:45And they'll take their chances and say, okay, well, oh, well, we got Lamar Jackson.
16:49He can run around and, or, you know, the kid in Buffalo, he can run around and stay upright for 10 seconds.
16:55And it's just like, I wouldn't teach the game like that.
16:58You know, it's great to have that ability and to extend plays.
17:02But I would teach it as, okay, if the defense lines up like this and it's third and six, what are our top five plays?
17:10Call one of them.
17:11And every single play and every single matriculation in your mind.
17:15Like the same thing where the quarterback should call timeouts on the field, not the head coach on the sideline.
17:22You know, it should come in, but I have been told by coaches in college that have been head coaches at power five programs that I make too much money to allow 18, 19 year old kid to get me in the right play.
17:36And, and to me, that would, that is a total cop-out.
17:40It's like when, you know, the Florida school system was doing the bonuses for the, uh, whatever the standardized testing score things, it would be like your, the teacher, as you're taking the test, just here, here are the answers.
17:53It's so much.
17:54That's how I graduated high school.
17:56Do you know?
17:56I mean, come on.
17:57That's what got me.
17:58I think what happens is big win against Western Kentucky.
18:01You know, you're the anomaly though, Gino, when it comes to young quarterbacks, being able to recognize all that stuff.
18:08Like, so you're doing it through your prism.
18:11And I don't think a lot of quarterbacks could do that.
18:13And certainly I think if a high school quarterback, I think they can, it's not hard to count to 11.
18:19Everybody can.
18:20I mean, we're, they're not going out there and being like, Oh my God, this is a science experiment.
18:24And they got to split an atom like in the middle of a play.
18:27It's, it's simple counting.
18:29I think, okay, here's our formation.
18:32How are they going to line up?
18:34I think if you had a high school quarterback, go from shotgun to run up underneath center and then yell fire, fire, fire, they would have the same react.
18:42The other 10 would have the same reaction as if they were asked to go split an atom.
18:47No, no, no.
18:47I got, Hey, I got them.
18:48I got them to throw them covered.
18:50I got them to throw them covered.
18:51I, I, I, I seriously, I go, I go, just slap your hip.
18:55I go, do whatever.
18:56Woo.
18:57Yeah.
18:57Like I go, I don't care.
18:58Just make sure you two are on the same page.
19:01But if the defense isn't going to cover you, just throw the ball to you.
19:05And I'm like, it's as simple as that.
19:07Just take what they're going to give you.
19:09So I think they can, they can all be taught.
19:12They're, they're smart enough to do that, but you have to expect that out of the player too.
19:17You have to expect that.
19:19Hey, okay.
19:20Why did, why did you keep this play on?
19:22Why did you run this play?
19:23Like Dennis Erickson was like, you can change the play whenever you want.
19:26Just make sure it works.
19:28I was like, all right, I'm good.
19:30Fair enough.
19:31So that's, that's, that's, that's, that's kind of how it worked.
19:34And Lamar said, you ain't going to win the Heisman handing it off.
19:36So we're going to throw it all the time.
19:37Gino Toretta, the Heisman trophy winner.
19:42He can be heard with us every Thursday, courtesy of the local 519 plumbers union with all the
19:48changes in how America does business.
19:50You can count out one thing, the union trained plumbers of local 519 join a winning team today
19:56with local 519 plumbers union, a proven path to a strong career.
20:01Visit plumbers519.com.
20:03Thank you, Gino.
20:04We'll talk to you next week.
20:05Always.
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