7-24-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 1: Ryan Day under too much pressure?; Geoff Schwartz talks Big Ten Media Days; what's happened to shopping malls
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McIlroy and Kubelik in the morning starts now. All right, welcome in. McIlroy and Kubelik in the morning. Media days for seemingly all of college football continue. Of course, SEC last week.

But there's a lot going on now. We're going to continue discussing them. Big Ten in full swing, ACC in full swing. Some interesting comments coming out from a few of those yesterday. I want to focus in just a little bit more on the Big Ten today because I do feel like there are a lot of interesting things happening around the Big Ten. A couple of national championship contenders, we know that. We talked yesterday about who actually we think could get in.

and maybe couldn't get in. Talked to a couple Big Ten folks about that one yesterday. We've got Jeff Schwartz coming up today. He's live at Big Ten Media Days. Did you see the Oregon Duck, Greg? I did. What did you make of it? Did they bust this out just for this? This has been around before. I've never seen it before. I guess it's a special edition for Big Ten Media Days. Money well spent.

Well, yeah, because they've got plenty of water out there. They can float it, right? Somewhere near their stadium? Outsen? Round? I think it's pretty sweet. It is gigantic. If you haven't seen it, definitely take a couple minutes to take a peek because it's got to be the biggest inflatable. It looks like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade float. Maybe you could double up and use it there. It's enormous. I mean...

Filling that thing with helium, given the helium shortage, would probably be a little expensive. And Nebraska would be mad because they can't do their balloons, and it's going to be out here. That's well said. Well, I had to fill up like nine balloons for a birthday party at Party City the other day, and it cost me $74, it felt like. I've got a hookup for you. Yeah, thereabouts. Good to know. But either way, helium shortage. Well, no, I mean, not two people running around like, hey, you've got a helium hookup. Oh, that's true. A helium guy? Yeah. Yeah.

Trying to make my voice squeaky. I don't know. The fine folks at Blakely's Bouquets can set you up with that. I'll just let you know right now. That's clutch. I did not know that they did the helium stuff. Good people there. Great people. Terrific people. But I did not know that they were in that game. I was a Party City loyalist until the other day. So, looking at... How does Party City stay in business? Balloons. Helium? Yeah. Yeah.

How many birthday parties, anniversaries, graduation parties? What else do we have? I'm good for 400 a year on birthday parties. But they're making that much money on those every day? I think that and Halloween. Oh, do they do costumes? That's still a thing. It's a go-to place, but most people's first, if not second.

Because you never know where you can find a spirit. Spirit typically will jump into an abandoned building, but you've got to know where one is. You've got to have a vacated Kmart somewhere to get whatever that thing is. There's multiple of those around now. Bye-bye baby or something, yeah. But Party City got a lot of junk, too. There's a good one down off 280. A lot of junk. Oh, yeah.

Like sometimes so junky that I just want to like grab something quick for the kids if I had to get something else. And I'm like, I don't even see anything that's not even correct. No, not that out. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like one of those places that has obviously figured out, you know, has cut out their carved out their space. But when you think about it, how much are you selling for parties every day?

I don't know. Last time I was in there, I felt like I think they had like eight or nine aisles, and they didn't really need the aisles because everything was on like the outer edge because you had the Halloween stuff in the back, you had the healing balloons up front, and then like the other aisles had like napkins and plates, and I'm like no one's coming here to buy that. The plates are an interesting play, and I do feel like the plastic cutlery is even cheaper than –

your normal run-of-the-mill plastic cutlery. I feel like when I have a pink fork and I'm eating cake, if the cake's a little dry, that fork's going to crumble into a million pieces. Like a paper straw? Yeah, it's a little like a paper straw. So it's unusually weak cutlery, and I don't have time for it, if I'm going to be completely honest. But I also know that they have pretty decent-sized inventory.

I mean, there's a lot of stuff they have in that store, so they must do pretty well. So what should they have to get you out of this thinking like, all right, well, you know what? I don't have any problem with Party City. Like I told you, I'm good for $400 a year. I just wonder how they stay in business and continue to make a decent amount of money just on party gear. Now, they also have gardening junk. I mean, they got junk. If you need junk, they got it. Like 4th of July junk, a lot of that.

Because that's when I happen to roll in there for something one day. If you need anything with a flag on it, water gun, balloon inflator. So they should be like Captain D's and rebrand themselves as Party Junk instead of Party City. Sort of. Okay. What's the biggest – what is the most niche store that surprises you that they stay open? I know exactly what mine is. Spencer's?

I feel like they run the gamut in just about everything. There's always teenagers. Yeah, but do you ever buy anything? I don't think I've – I've gone to dispensers over a thousand times. I've never purchased anything. I've never bought one thing. Because I don't think my mom would allow me to put it on my walls as a kid. So I don't think I've ever bought anything. Or would have been suspended from middle school if it took to the school. And sorry if I didn't want Freddy Krueger statues in my room when I was 11. Probably wouldn't have ended well for the sleep.

But no, I've never purchased anything there. No, I don't think I have either. But that's like degenerate heaven. Correct. So you could see where a lot of kids go in there and get the birthday money or happen to come across an extra $10. Like, what can we get? $10? Garbage Pail Kid Packs. Yeah. I haven't been there in a long time. I don't even think they're – are they really still open? There is one in the mall. I know that. There's a mall that's open? Correct. Wow. Between the – I told you guys about my last trip out there.

Not one place was a place that I had heard of. What are we talking about? The Galleria. Oh, Galleria. Went out there searching for a specific Christmas gift that the daughter wanted, and everything felt like this is the way it appeared to me.

Everything felt like, hey, we came across a shipping container of these things. Let's open a store for it. Yeah. And just slapped a name up. And what are the giant pillows that... My pillows? No, the giant, like, big round pillows that are like characters that the kids like. Squishmallows. Squishmallows. Yeah. Like a Squishmallows store. But it was called, like... Squishies. Squishy Pals. Something along those lines. Yeah. Like...

Pillow fabs. I don't know. Something. Every place felt like that. I don't know. Maybe that was their business model. Sports Inc. And it was all random jerseys. Just jumped in for the holiday season and then abandoned come January. It was like Sports HQ. And it was like jerseys. But then also in the corner, they had like a cowboy boot section. It's like half the container fell off with that, too. So I just throw those in there also. Yeah, that's what the whole place felt like.

So, I mean... Galleria does feel like a shame that it's become Eastwood Mall and that it's now the old Walking Mall. I do feel bad for the gallery. Oh, it's been the Walking Mall for a while now. I know. I feel bad for that because you know what's next. I never went to the Galleria. I've been there a couple times during media days, but that was usually to get a great rap downstairs or something like that. But no, I've never really been. I've been on the periphery.

If you could bring one thing back to the Galleria, what would it be? Aladdin's Castle. God, that was so good. What was that? Aladdin's Castle or Diamond Gems better? I was Aladdin's Castle's guy, but also didn't discriminate. Diamond Gems was pretty good. That's the first place I saw Afterburner where you actually sat in it. What is it? The arcade. Like old school arcade.

I feel like Diamond Gems was always like most of the games that were a quarter at Aladdin's Castle were 50 cents. It was an upcharge because it was Diamond Gems, quote unquote. Quote fingers. One Platinum Gem. How does that matter? Diamond Gem. Exactly. If I'm going that far, I'm going to Costco. I'm just being real. So hang on. Yeah, but you go all the time. You can also get everything there. I go once a month, thereabouts. Maybe a little. Maybe twice a month during the summer for the lake, but that's pretty much it. I honestly...

I don't really get out that much anymore. Have you seen this giant crawling out of the ground skeleton that Costco has? No. It's like 500 bucks, but it's legit. I kind of want it for Halloween. I don't know where I'm going to put it. There's a guy who wouldn't put Freddy Krueger in his bedroom. At 11. Sorry, the 12-year-old me didn't want Freddy over in the corner.

Exact prototype lookalike. Not great for the sleep cycle. Not a fake one? Yeah. I've seen enough movies to know that that thing's coming to life. That thing's not going to be there when I wake up, and then I have to find it. Then we've got a whole other clash on our hands. I might go Boardwalk Fries. They were that good. I saw them at the Atlanta airport. It completely surprised me. What? First off, it's there. What terminal? I don't remember. But also, they don't do just fries. They do burgers and stuff.

Oh, yeah, I knew that they had expanded their menu. Everybody's expanded their menu. Yeah, that's true. I guess Arby's and Taco Bell are doing breakfast and burgers. Even Chick-fil-A. Yeah, look at Milo's. They got everything now. So I just... Man, the Galleria. There was a dime. Yeah, the Galleria never really was a thing. The last mall I was in was Houston. And I feel like there's two very different worlds of malls out there right now. You have the Galleria, which...

Or Brookwood or just your run-of-the-mill mall. Technically don't really have Brookwood. No, Brookwood was in route to Galleria. Brookwood was the Galleria like three years before the Galleria.

I don't know. Like, Brookwood, I felt like, had a bunch of stuff like you just described. Yeah. And quickly went downhill. And I don't know about the Galleria. I haven't been there. Brookwood had Aladdin's Castle. Brookwood had KB Tour and Hobbies, which was big time. Parisians held on for the longest time. Well, there's just no in-between. It's like some malls just sell imported, nasty junk.

I think the Galleria, based on your description, is that what they're selling? I really don't know. I think there's portions of it that are headed down that line. Some of them are decent. Some of them are great. They have a Chick-fil-A, too. Yeah, so they're Brooklyn up until like a week ago or a month ago. Food Court is still hopping at the Galleria. I agree with that. Or you have like the mall that we stayed at in Houston for the national championship. We're connected to a mall.

And, dude, it is the nicest mall. It's like Prada, Gucci, Rolex. It's like the nicest stores in the world. You're saying they're two different Americas. Yeah, well, I'm just like, I don't understand. These malls look the exact same. All you have to do is just change out the retailers, and it's a totally different experience. It's just insane. So I don't understand why some malls are able to retain super, super high-end retailers, and other malls can't hold any. Okay, so...

If that mall were to have an arena football game, would you still feel the same way? I don't know if that mall would be big enough for an arena football game. But it wasn't, like, gigantic. But it's probably about the size of Brookwood. And I'm not kidding. Like, Fendi, Gucci, Coach. It's like every single... Like, Christian Louboutin, B.

You know, all these high-end boutiques. And it's like, I don't understand what the deal is. Like, North Park and Dallas, same way. You can go to Grapevine Mills, which is an outlet mall, just where we used to go, just like Galleria, just like Brookwood. Or you can go to North Park, which is like the one in Houston, which is like crazy, crazy fancy. Like, I don't understand how they can be so different. Like, where's the one right down the middle? I don't think they have those anymore. That has, like, solid stuff. Solid stuff, but not, like, elite stuff.

I just want the right down the middle stuff. I want a middle class mall. That's where I want to go. If you want that, you know where it has it. I'm being serious. The only reason I know is because I've been to this place so many times in the last two years. San Antonio. It's actually a decent mall. Like you're saying, down the middle. It's not all...

I don't want to go in and spend a billion dollars. I don't want to go in and spend three cents and buy things. Tag, but they have like regular sneaker stores and regular clothing stores. Did you say tag? Tag where?

Is that how you pronounce it? They don't have their own stores? I don't know what that is. I thought it was Heuer. Tag Heuer? Tag Heuer. I could be wrong. Sorry, I'm just regular. You're talking about the watch. I could be wrong. I don't know. Yeah, the watch. Tag Heuer. I'm not fancy, so I'm sorry. You already know. You have like an Apple Series 400 watch. It's fancy. I don't know if they've gotten that far down the road. That thing is stronger than the Titan Submersible.

Well, that's not saying much. This one doesn't run by a PlayStation controller. It was Logitech. Come on now. Either way. Key of T tweets in the show. At Mac and Q, we can always be a part of the show there. 800-239-9569. You want to get in? He says, bring back just for feet. I miss taking the jump shots. Now. That held on for a long time in the mall. Hibbett at Brooklyn Mall for a time had sport court with a goal that was permanently on about eight and a half feet. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And.

We used to go in there and play marathon games for a long period of time. No intention of buying anything in the store. The problem with Just for Feet, and I can say this being a former employee, one, the owner yelling at you. Two, the soundtrack they played because it was late 70s, early 80s kind of disco pop. And it was about the same 11 songs in rotation over and over and over and over and over again.

And after a couple of days you worked there, you're thinking, are we going to expand the horizon here on the songs at all? Are we just going to keep going over? This is a good one, G-Mac, and I didn't even get to mine yet. Jeremy Raines, Marcos Pizza. Who's keeping those doors open? I think I've met one person in my life that's ordered pizza there. Have you done the Marcos Pizza? I've never done the Marcos Pizza. It's pretty good. What's the ruse there? I think you pick it up and you prepare it at home. I was about to say, I thought Marcos is where you go pick it up and you cook it in your own oven. That's called grocery store pizza.

Yeah, but that's nasty. That's like frozen. Marco's is fresh. It's a fresh pizza you just put in your own oven. I don't know. I never had it. That's what I assume. Like DiGiorno and Marco's Pizza, two very different things. I haven't had either, so I don't really know. I used to get the California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas. Those were pretty good back in the day. Fancy pizza. It was good. It was good pizza. It's like pineapples and walnuts. It's also frozen and bought at the... No, you can get pepperoni, all the normals. Time. Pepperoni. Regular fixings.

Mint. All the fancy things. Oregano. Chutney. The one for me is, if you're talking like specialty stores that surprises me that they're still open, and I'm probably surprised that there's so many of them, it's Tumi. Now, Tumi's like the greatest thing ever. I have some pieces of Tumi gear. You can talk smack about a lot of things. It is fantastic. I'm not saying it's not great.

But the amount of stores that they have standing alone with, in actuality, the minimal amount of options to purchase and then how much things cost, it constantly surprises me that there's so many free. Because when was the last time you saw someone in an airport purchase something from to me and then walk out with it? I mean, I've never seen it. Never seen it. I saw Greg almost do it. Yeah. But he's like, I'll just order it. I'm not going to do it.

But that's where they keep their inventory. So you can't buy it because it might be being sent to someone that did buy it online from that store. So when I ordered my Toomey stuff, one was sent from Charlotte, and one was sent from Detroit, and one was sent from Nashville, and it all arrived in the same place. So I think that's the way they do it.

Also, Tumi is known for their customer service. So if you have an issue, you take it in. They handle it at their store. I mean, you don't need to buy Apple stuff at an Apple store, but they have a bunch of stores everywhere, and people buy it online all the time. But that's part of the appeal to the Apple store is being able to take it in, get a service, get it taken care of right in your own backyard. I think I've purchased every Apple item that I have in store.

But I'm just weird like that. I want to see it when I get it. You're old like that. I am definitely old. I don't know. I just feel like every airport has multiple Tumi stores, and you never see anybody buying anything there. And actually, if you pay attention, there's not a ton of people with Tumi luggage in the airport. Out of certain people, that's all they have. And that's fine. And I think they have great products. If you hate them, it's fine. Just admit it. To have that many standalone stores, it surprises me. That's all. Kind of like Party City. But also, I don't have a business brain.

Well, I've tried to start a business before. Failed miserably. Slightly superior to anything you would get at Party City. To me, it's the best. But I do think that I understand what you're saying. Like, people are just going to order it online. I don't think that's most people. I think most people that are going to vote by to me are probably a little older, probably a little more comfortable seeing it in person, touching it, feeling it, as opposed to the younger generation that would just order it online. Pickleback tweets into the show, Papa Murphy's is the cook-at-home pizza.

Antonio McBeth tweets in, you're getting Marco's pizza and Papa Murphy's confused. Apologies. That's fair. I hadn't seen the tape on either one. Marco's is a typical hot pizza place. Very good, too. My favorite. Papa Murphy's is the take and bait. Okay.

Is Marco's the place with the little tiny pepperonis on their pizza? That's Donato's. The cupped ones? No, Donato's I know. Donato's is legit. They look inverted. Yeah. I think there's one Donato's left on planet Earth. It's in Vestavia. Yes. I haven't seen another one in a long time. Okay. Yeah, the cupped pepperoni. Right. Yeah. No go. I don't know if I can do that because then you're just collecting all the grease. Like I know pizza's greasy. You don't have to put it in my face.

Don't brag about it. Key also tweets in, the old JW store. I need my cross-colored outfit. The cross-colored overalls back in the day. You want to talk about consumer habits? Think about what's changed more than the mall. That was our social life growing up, was it not? Go to the mall, mom would drop you off at the mall. Maybe you go see a movie, you walk through Virgin Records, you buy a CD. That was our life every single Friday and Saturday night. That or the video store.

Like, rather than Blockbuster. Yeah, I mean, Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, what have you. Yeah, those were big, too. But, man, the mall has changed so drastically. Considering the amount of hours we spent walking around that stupid thing. You met your buddies at the mall to hang out. Yeah, always. You went on dates at the mall. Correct. Anything that you needed, you went to the mall to get, basically, if it wasn't Kmart. I mean, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the opening scene is at the mall. And it's like, we're the kids in America. And it shows, like, all the kids, like...

You know, hanging out. And then if you're like me, you work at the mall all the time. I think at Brooklyn Mall I worked at four different places. What an employee you must have been. Hey, ask Landrum about managing Sneaky Pete's and trying to get it open for breakfast on a Sunday morning. Did not go well. Hey, we got it open. He didn't say four, right? He didn't say one. We got it open. What did I have for breakfast at Sneaky Pete's? Were the cash registers on?

No. Oh, no, no, no, no. They introduced biscuits back in the day. Oh, yeah. They were huge and they were legit. They were really good. And every single individual that had at some point attended Homewood High School who came through that day may or may not have paid for what they got. Yeah.

But we were open. The gate was – we figured out how to get the gate open. It took us 30 minutes after we were supposed to be open, but we got it. I hope the statute of limitations is up on that. We did a lot of bartering. Never trust two high school degenerates to open your store on a Sunday morning. Never. That will not end well. Foot action just for feet. A lot of hours logged at those spots. Do you remember Great American Burgers at Brooklyn Mall, John? They were like –

Fuddrucker-sized burgers. And they were, oh, man, I'm going to tell you what. They were incredible. And they had the huge, thick fries. Their fries were better than Boardwalk Fries. Nobody remembers that place. It wasn't open very long. But it was strong. Like Red Robin Fries? The gigantic ones? Steak for us?

I've only been to Red Robin, I think, twice in my life, and I went to Sweet Potato Fries both times. You all from Sweet Potato Fries were going there. That's where I go. It's the go-to. It's a must-have. Red Robin's a send. It's an underrated spot. It wasn't great either time I went. I'm just going to be honest with you. Haters. Don't care. We are throwing a lot of people under the bus today. And you know what? I like Red Robin. When you close half your mall, that's what happens. If you're still in the mall, what are you going to do? Still in the mall business, that's on you. Met Brandy at Brooklyn Mall. That Brandy? Yeah. Yeah.

Unfortunately, I was working at Foot Action with what – remember Apex jackets? The Cowboys wore Apex. Everybody else had Starter. And Jerry Jones, I guess, thought it would be cool to wear Apex. And it was like a big – like three big triangles across the front, like sort of like a seismograph. That's what our Foot Action shirts look like. So unfortunately, I had one of those on with black polyester pants. That was our uniform. So zero game? Okay. Yeah, it's – I mean –

She was performing somewhere in Birmingham and had like two Monstars walking behind her. Nobody was approaching her. Wasn't even getting close. But she came in to look at sneakers. That was my Brooklyn Mall moment. That was. Brandi A-List? That was the one. Yeah, that was it. Brandi A-List? For a time, yes. When? When she played Cinderella? No, I think. I was about to say, her 15 minutes was the shortest 15 minutes ever. You were probably playing Pokemon when that A-List thing happened. You were young for that. But there was a time, yes.

There was a time. Just because she's pretty doesn't make her A-list. Didn't say that. But there was a time. I know what you're trying to say. I know what Damien's trying to say. I'm not. Damien hasn't done anything all show. He walks in the second he hears Brandy. I'm saying musically, when music videos were the most popular thing in pop culture, there was a time that she was A-list. How long a time was it? How long is the video? I would say... 332, though. I think she had about a good two years. Yeah.

Yeah. Wow. I've seen some short runs at the top. You know how many more years Brandy has at the top than me? All of them. Well, for now. Yeah. Give it time. Read and react. Just start. Sold over. Never know. You never know. She has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Okay. That's a lot. How many were covers?

I don't think any. No, well, not necessarily covers, but heavy samples. That was the time in music where literally everything was sampled. Whoever that TikTok account is that breaks the songs down and shows you how many songs are sampled in each song, that is absolutely mind-blowing. I mean, he'll throw an OutKast song out there, and I'm like, yeah, they don't have anything in that. And then there's 22 songs from other people, and you're like, wait, what? Also starred in Full Moon, Greg, and Aphrodisiac, and Human.

You said she started full moon? Starred in. I would give her a lot of credit for that. Full moon fries, legit, by the way. There we go. You had the black and white cookie. Oh, okay.

I got nothing else. We can bash people on the other side of the break, but I got nothing else for this one. I've spent all my equity amongst my friends. All your brainy knowledge? Yeah, all my brainy knowledge. I got nothing. I know she played Cinderella. My sister watched it in like a Disney movie. She's got a movie coming out that honestly looks kind of good. It's a horror movie, but it looks like a get out. That's usually what I think of. When I see a preview and it's a horror genre, I know that that movie is going to be good.

Well, she was in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, so she's done that before. Right, yeah. Sequel? Yeah. Correct. Man, what a great movie that was. They held on. They still knew. By the way, born in Mississippi, Macomb, Mississippi. You think she's an old Mississippi State fan? I'm going to say State. Oh. Oh.

Okay. We'll be back with more right after this. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than a player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Gap or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in. McElroy and Kubrick in the morning. Was this her best song? I don't remember. I can't. I feel like it's either this or The Boy's Mine, and the other one's not hers fully.

Boy Is Mine, I feel like that's one that definitely rings a bell. Boy Is Mine. You know that song. Oh, yeah. No, but I'm just saying, is that undoubtedly the best Brandy song? Oh, it's probably the most popular. Yeah, that's what I meant. Oh, I don't know. I'm just saying most popular. I don't know. Yeah, best is subjective. I'm not here to give opinions on it. Brandy's discography. All right, via Apple Music. What feels more like 1998 than this song? It's up there.

I Want to Be Down. I forgot about that one. Via Apple Music, if you go to Brandy's account or whatever, Love Ain't It is the first song in Top Song. I don't know when that one was. But yeah, this was up there. I'm going to be honest. I'm looking at some of these songs. I don't recall many. But I bet she collected a lot of checks. Collecting, I assume. Here comes another one because of us. She's paid. John is in on this movie, by the way.

What's the movie called? I don't remember. Now you've got me really – you're all about it. I saw one trailer. All right, get into some college football talk here in just a moment. Alabama heat and humidity can be brutal. Don't let it affect your home and family. Keep them comfortable with an affordable train cooling system. Train is our official partner here at Jock's. They've been recognized as America's most trusted brand 10 consecutive years. Find a comfort specialist near you at train.com. And remember, it's hard to stop a train.

We're going to talk Big Ten media days with Jeff Schwartz here in just a moment. Ryan Day discussed his struggles with Michigan. One of the biggest struggles that we have is that when you lose a game like that, you have to wait a whole other year to get back into that game.

And, you know, for our guys who decided to come back, we had about 12 guys that made the decision to come back. That was one of the big reasons why they decided to come back. But what we have to do is build every day and grow every day and count on the work that we're doing on a daily basis that's going to matter as we get to the end of the season. You know, what we can't do is get too far ahead of ourselves and start to focus too much on that and get distracted. That's just the bottom line. But when you come to Ohio State, you've got to win that game.

So that's been a big topic of discussion for Ryan Day in his tenure at Ohio State. We'll continue discussing that with Jeff Schwartz, who now covers the Big Ten because he's a former Oregon Duck and Oregon is there for Big Ten media days in Indianapolis. We'll do that next right here on Jocks 94.5. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is Jocks 94.5 and jocksfm.com.

All right, welcome back in. Michael Roy and Kubelik in the morning. Appreciate you guys tuning in. 735 right here on JOX 94.5. Talk some Big Ten media days here in just a moment. First thing about our friends at Wayne's, mosquito protection, you've got to have it. That Mosquito Plus from Wayne's.

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Every new pest control service receives that Wayne's fire ant treatment absolutely free. 866-WAYNES-1 or visit callwaynes.com and let Wayne's continue to create your happy place. Let's go to the Buyers Right Hotline and talk to Jeff Schwartz who now covers the Big Ten. First and foremost, Jeff, just how weird is it being at Big Ten Media Days with your alma mater now a part of the Big Ten?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's going to feel real until we play games, but yesterday was the first day. We didn't get any West Coast teams. We get those teams today, two of them. So I think what kind of set in today when we talked to Winston Riley and Deshaun Foster about moving out east and the travel's fine, but just the deal of playing different conference opponents. You get into a rhythm when you play

teams every year, right? You understand the inside and outs of what they do and who they are and the coaching styles and the players and whatnot. And it's all new for all these coaches coming out. Even from the other way around, right? Coaches having to play some of these teams for the first time. So it's different. It's a different vibe from, I don't know if you've ever been to, you probably haven't been to Pac-12 media day before. It was a one-day event and it

I like the intimacy of it and how quickly it went, but this is three days. ACC was four days. These are ACC's three days. These are long media days. It's something that I'm not used to, but it was fun yesterday. I'm enjoying it. It'll feel real when we get to conference games probably. It still doesn't feel like it's actually happening. How do you anticipate them adjusting to a league that is almost exclusively ground and pound? I think their personnel from a...

Skill position standpoint exceeds that of everyone, not named Ohio State in the league. But in the trenches, it's kind of a different animal with more bulk than Twitch. So how do you anticipate Oregon being able to hold up in that regard?

I think we're going to be fine. I mean, that we have giant humans that often keep it going for us. I mean, that to me is not a concern. I think that's a little overblown when it comes to, you know, this idea of,

Joe Morward, which I know Cole's part of, it's not the Big Ten last year had a bunch of offensive lines that we were like, we've got to watch these guys. It sounds good. The Big Ten's big and physical. How can the West Coast schools play that? Oregon is positioned...

to play against these Big Ten teams. Our goal, obviously, is to have to beat Ohio State and build a team to be able to do that. Washington's going through a little bit of a rebuild with a new coach. I think they'll be fine eventually. USC's trying to rebuild the offensive team. Those schools...

We'll have more trouble, I think, than Oregon will. So I'm looking forward to it. Obviously, Ohio State's defensive line is fabulous. Michigan lost a lot, but they returned a couple guys up front, and they returned guys in secondary. So that'll be fun to see us go against them. But I'm not worried about the physicality of the conference. The Pac-12 last year was the deepest it's been on a defensive line in maybe my lifetime. When you look at how many guys got drafted from different places. So that's not...

But my number one concern about Oregon moving through this conference. Jeff Schwartz, former Oregon Duck, now covers the Big Ten, which is just kind of odd to say, for Sears XM, joining us now on the Buyer's Right Hotline. I want to go to USC because you brought them up. Do you lean more towards them being sort of a surprise contender for a conference championship, maybe outside shot at a playoff, or maybe being an underwhelming team this upcoming season, and why?

Well, the win total, I think, is 7.5. That feels about perfect for them. Look, Lincoln Riley, I think, finally...

came to his senses this offseason about where his roster is. They went really quick fix with a lot of positions when he first got there. We are learning as the portal continues year by year now that you cannot build your entire offensive defense aligned in the portal. You can add pieces, certainly. A lot of schools have done it, and it's been very helpful for a lot of schools to add certain pieces in those units, but

you have got to recruit big bodies and develop them, have them play for you. And USC just is not a talented team in the trenches right now. You know, there's not many players, maybe their left tackle is NFL guy. Bear Alexander is probably NFL guy up front for them. And,

It bears like 6'2", 290. It's not a big player. And that's it. And that's USC, who used to send all their linemen to the NFL. So they're just not talented up front. And then you look at skill position. Miller Mosser won the bowl game. I don't really know how much that matters to a season. But they also just are sort of –

As of right now, they're void of, like, high-impact skill guys that are going to be NFL players. They can be. At some point, there's some young players that aren't even draft eligible that Zachariah Branch and they're tied in. I keep forgetting his name, who's the Pug Street freshman in the last year. He's like 6'5". But, again, like, not a lot of NFL talent right now. So it's a team that's –

It's kind of shocking when you look at their roster and you look at what USC has been. Look at what Riley was at Oklahoma, and they just don't have a lot of pro dudes. I think that's going to really hamper their success this season when they have to play against teams they're just –

far better. They get Penn State at home, which would be good for them, but they go to Michigan, um, you know, they go to Washington late in the season, they got Nebraska late in the year, and Nebraska, I'd imagine, in week 12 is much better than week one with the quarterback situation. It's going to be tough for USC, um,

But I'm glad they sort of admitted where their roster is right now and how they have to start building the trenches via high school recruiting. Is it Deuce Robinson, the tight end you're referencing? Deuce, yes. Deuce Robinson, yes. He's going to be good. He's a good player. But even at LSU, by the way, too, which they're going to lose to LSU week one. So that's starting 0-1-1.

It is what it is, but it's not... Your USC, I think that could be a rough one for the Trojans. What about... Oh, go ahead, Greg. Yeah, you're good. No, you're good. Go for it. I was going to ask you about Michigan because that's another team that I think a lot of folks, including us, are on a little bit different sides on. I think the front seven is going to be nasty. I think the defense will be really good again, but I just...

I'm struggling to find a lot of levels of confidence with a lot of the turnover. And I know a lot of the guys, listen, we love strong. We've been around him. We've talked to him, but he hadn't been a head coach before. And a lot of other guys that helped build up that team over the last few years is going to be gone. And a lot of skill guys are going to be gone. There's some to like offensively, but it just doesn't feel like it's going to be the same. Where are you on Michigan this year?

I'm with you. I have them as one of my teams I actually like the most to be under their win total this season. They're just replacing guys a lot of players. Like, they replace 10 starters in offense and eight on defense. They replace, I'll just read down here, 4,200 snaps in the offensive line.

4,200 snaps me off into the line. They're going into a season with all new football players. Yeah, they have some guys on defense that are very good, and those guys are going to be first-round picks, and they'll help the defense out. But offensively, new quarterback,

new offensive identity because Harbaugh's not there. You might keep what Harbaugh has done, but you have new play callers. You have a new strength coach even in the building. Everything is new this year. And it feels like a year when you step back a little bit with younger players playing for the first time. And you have, you put Texas and USC in the first month of the season. You got Washington, you got Oregon this year, you got Ohio state. It feels like they're just not,

going to be the team they were the last couple of years. And nothing wrong with that. I think that it ends up being a situation where, you know, we like the hire obviously, but sometimes you have a pullback year after you lose what I think 30 starters or whatever it is. Like you, not that you can't lose 30, but you lose a, you lose 19 starters. It, it does feel like this might be a year when the eight or nine win season and then following year, they get back up at the double digits as these guys have some experience. Yeah.

I couldn't agree more. I just have a difficult time anticipating them making a lot of noise this year. It felt like last year was three years in the process of building, and they went all in, and now it's kind of back to square one. And everyone's like, oh, all they need is a quarterback to manage the game. Have you seen their options? They're not great. Correct. And managing the game is not that difficult. It's not that easy, as some people kind of want to make it out to be. A little bigger picture here.

From your perspective, you're new to the Big Ten. I know I'm excited about the high-level games, the Ohio State's at Oregon's, but I do feel like the quality kind of drops off pretty quickly. So as an Oregon Duck fan, Jeff, how is this transition being received? And what is the temperature like on some of the matchups that you'll have throughout the season? Yep.

So a good way to, I think, judge the health of your conference, to your point about the depth of your conference, is that media day, how many quarterbacks show up? Now, I know, I think the ACC makes everyone bring their quarterback. The

The Big Ten doesn't, right? And I think only five quarterbacks of 18 teams are here at Big Ten Media Day. I mean, that kind of tells you the health of the conference, right? Like, if you think your quarterback is going to be the leader of your team and be this guy who's going to be an NFL draft pick, I mean, he's probably going to show up to Media Day. Will Howell is not here, so that might be an exception. But Dural is not here either. I mean, do you think that a guy that Penn State is going to rely on to –

get him to where they want to go. It's a playoff berth. You thought, think he would be here, right? And he's not. So I think that sort of tells you where the confidence is right now, that the quarterback play is not at a level that is other places. It's not what it was last season. And I think that will dictate a lot of the, the success or lack thereof of some of these schools, but the most important,

One of the most difficult things I've mentioned this many times about Oregon and UCLA, USC, Washington going to different conferences. I grew up in the West Coast. My parents are Bruin alums. I went to Oregon. I'm a Pac-12 guy. When you grow up in a conference and you play in a conference and you cover a conference, you know them inside and out. Even now, I know those schools still fairly well. I can tell you their histories. I can tell you their history.

their program success, what they're good at, what they're bad at. I can recall times Oregon's played there, other teams have played there, how tough it is to play in Arizona at night in November, how tough it is to go up and play in altitude in Utah. I could mention all these things. I have to learn all these about the Big Ten. I have to learn who is...

the Stanford for Oregon, who's the team that just doesn't matter where we play, that game's always tough. And so it's going to be a learning experience this season to figure all those things out. It might take years because those happen over time. But I do like that it seems like Oregon and Ohio State are

natural rivals. I think it's good to have rivalries. I think that obviously we played a couple years ago, we played a championship game about 10 years ago now. We're recruiting at the same level. Our goals are the same, which is to win a championship. And so I do like that we enter the conference with someone in

in the conference that we can just compare ourselves to, right? That we want to beat Ohio State. We want to beat Ohio State. We want to play them in the Big Ten Championship game. I feel like that's a good start. You know, UCLA, USC, and Washington, I don't think quite have that entering the conference. So I do appreciate that. But I think you have to just learn about these schools in a way that you never had to learn before because you just knew the Pac-12 so well.

Jeff, we appreciate you hopping on, man. Enjoy the rest of Big Ten Media Days. Thanks for discussing it with us. We'll catch up with you again soon. Thanks for having me on, guys. Have a good day. There you go. Jeff Schwartz, follow him on Twitter at JeffSchwartz. Now covers the Big Ten, former Oregon Duck, their Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis. One team that we didn't spend a ton of time on there, Greg, was Ohio State. And I want to ask the question of are we making too much of Ryan Day's failures against Michigan? Or is that where he should be judged the most?

We'll discuss that on the other side because some of the other numbers are absolutely staggering around Ryan Day and what he's done. The help that you can get from Game Day Men's Health can also be staggering. If you're looking to lose weight, they can help with that. They can include medications such as semiglutide, also known as Ozempic. If you're having issues with weight loss, they have a nutritionist that can help you on staff. They want to help you with that, get you on a good eating program.

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Very cool locker room environment. Great people. Low pressure folks right there at Game Day Men's Health. Go see them and see what they can do for you. And tell them you heard about them right here on McElroy and Kubrick in the morning. Book your free consult at GameDayMensHealth.com. That's GameDayMensHealth.com. Talk to Ohio State next on Mac and Cube in the morning. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than...

A player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Cup or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in. Mack O'Royan, Kubelik in the morning, 7.54 a.m. right here on Jocks 94.5. All right, Greg, when we talk Ryan Day, do we make too much of the Michigan failures? No. No, I mean, as much as I would love. I feel like we are pretty level-headed when it comes to kind of giving coaches the benefit of the doubt.

I'm not one that you quickly rushes to like fire him or extend him. He's the greatest coach ever. I usually pretty calculated with how we approach conversations like this, but you cannot get dominated by your opponent. You cannot get dominated by your rival. Just can't. And if you look at the way Michigan was able to attack in the run game and creating big plays and just lapses in the

making, whether it be by offensive players or defensive players. I had a pick last year. Bad pick for

returned all the way inside the five. You had missed tackles in the back end secondary that led to catch-and-run touchdowns. You can't have stuff like that happen. And I think he's gotten tight the last couple of years. His team's gotten tight. And as a result, they haven't performed very well. So, yeah, I think it's deserving of the criticism. One and three versus Michigan. Here's some perspective for you outside of Michigan. Ryan Day is 56-8 at Ohio State. He's 55-5 versus teams not named Michigan.

You want to know what his record is against the Big Ten non-Michigan teams? Undefeated. 40-0. Yeah. 40 wins, no losses against conference opponents not named Michigan. Prior to July 1st. And the, well, fair. That's true because Oregon beat him. It's the only other weird. Well, the 55-5.

against teams not named Michigan. Four of those losses came in bowl games. Correct. Now, three of those four were playoff games. Yeah. They've lost to Georgia. They've lost to Clemson. They lost to Bama in the national championship. Just lost to Missouri? That wasn't a playoff game, but yes, it was one of the bowl losses. Yeah, plus Oregon. Those are your five losses. When you can name the losses, you're probably pretty good. You're doing things right, and I just feel like the criticism –

Be it fair of not only losing to Michigan, but how they've lost to Michigan is also not. No one brings it. Some people fail to bring it full circle with just how good he's been against everybody else. The defense, by the way, Greg, is allowed 15 points per game against Big Ten teams not named Michigan under Ryan Day. Thirty six points per game versus Michigan.

So Michigan's only doubled them up in the points per game that they put on Ohio State versus all other Big Ten opponents. This is McElroy and Cubelik in the morning. Passion, drive, and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. So

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