Thu. Sept. 3: CU Buffs begin season tonight at Georgia Tech | Coach Prime’s contract situation | Do the Broncos have a Top-10 offense?

0:00this is believed one network every topic everywhere. And good morning everybody welcome hot takes good minute rank try how are you this morning are you ready for game day George at Colorado. Yeah, absolutely. I love football college football and Thursday night games. I used to love covering them when I was at CU team was a hell of a lot better than but it's it's the start of football seasons fantastic. I love this time of year. Pinnett races college football NFL right around the corner. This is right in the wheelhouse Eric. How about you? I love this time of year is this the best month of the season because generally speaking I would say it's either April or September September start of the NFL season college football baseball pennant

1:02races hockey begins this month the NHL begins and the abs are going to be playing in September basketball is just around the corner or off the top of my head in April you have the final four start of the baseball season NBA NHL wrapping up the regular season the masters which is the better month to you. I mean it's clearly this month because April doesn't have football. Yes, it doesn't has the NFL draft. Yeah, but it doesn't have football games so and the draft is the draft me when your team when your team's good the draft is borderline irrelevant. I mean it's it's a new story but it's not nearly thing when your team stinks and you're trapped in the top 10 the draft takes on added importance. So for me, it's this time of year because of the protects of college football and NFL football. I love watching both. I would totally agree with you September is the way to go. Before we get the show going, the best way to buy what you want the price you want is it roller auction they're the leader in Colorado

2:04auctions for over 50 years on Tuesday outworld brewing is having an auction for brewery tanks, Cags and ice machine a convection oven and a whole lot more bidding has started a roller auction.com. Don't forget go to roller auction.com to learn about upcoming auctions. You can do it from the comfort of your own home. You can watch and bid online as it goes or you could just set a price walk away and hopefully you get it. Get what you want to the price you want today at roller auction time now for the lead. The lead is presented by Smokin Dave's barbecue. It is not just the best barbecue in town. It's one of the best restaurants in town. You can find Smokin Dave's barbecue in Denver, Lions, Longmont, Estes Park and Greeley. So Colorado against Georgia Tech tonight, how you feeling about the buff setting into this one? I mean, there are mystery for being honest with 15 new players again. So I'd be lying if I told you I had a good

3:04read on it. It's hard. I mean, and Deans, not the only one that does this now, but they literally turn over their roster year over year. So how are these guys going to jail? What does it look like? I mean, they I like the fact they switched their recruiting to guys who had proven it at lower levels to instead of guys with potential have been kicked off other teams. I mean, this at least gives you a better fabric of guys who've done it, who maybe are better teammates when things get weird and stuff starts done. Ravel, they have a little bit of pride in not mercenaries who are looking for the first to escape hatch the first time that you know, something goes wrong. They've got certainly better players on defense, boot carders legit. I know they like their linebackers, but they just lost their outside linebacker. So he's not going to be in school to get from Albany. And if we're going to be honest, the old line D line, you and I talk about it all the time, Eric is if that doesn't change significantly, it's hard to feel good about them winning this kind of game on the road. They're just the understeer on Sanders. They've been a

4:06finesse team. There's no other way to say it. And anytime they play a team that's physical, they have issues because they can't stop the run and they don't run. But with the new offensive coordinator, Brennan Marion, will that be different tonight? That is the most fascinating thing to me tonight. What does this offense look like with this go go attack with the run game? And how does that fit the skill set of Julian of Julian Lewis? I mean, how does that fit? I don't know. I suppose we're going to find out a lot of changes for Georgia Tech as well. They still have their stud running back from last year. They brought in a new one from Michigan traditionally. They're great, you know, in the trenches, but they have a new quarterback and a new system. Alberto Mendoza, the brother of Fernando Mendoza, defensively, Georgia Tech, they weren't very good in the secondary last year, but very good in the trenches. You know, Alex, now we're talking about this before you popped on before we started the show. He bet on the game. I was looking into it. There's too much up in the

5:08air here because we could have a Colorado TCU type of game. And, you know, obviously we saw that that was possible TCU granted back then the year before they played for the national championship, but Colorado came out and scored a whole bunch of points and then we got the famous line from Deon Sanders, do you believe in me now? There's always turnover in the NFL, but now with the transfer portal, there's a lot more turnover in college football. I would say for the first week of the season, college football is far more difficult to bet on depending on the matchup than NFL is, don't you think? Yeah, I mean, NFL is a little unpredictable early, but not like college because the NFL even though it's unpredictable, the games are still usually close. And that that parts hard, but I mean, it's like you're not, you know, there's the variances less in college football. Like tonight, we can see Georgia Tech win 34 to three or we can

6:08see C U, you know, in a shootout win 38 34. And that's something you really don't see in the NFL certainly. And it's just again, when people, how do you not know practices are closed and college football now for the most part? You barely get any look at these kids. So you just don't have a good idea. They changed offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators for the third time in four years. Deon has new coordinators, new coaches and 50 new players. I mean, that's just it's hard to predict. Even if some of them are really talented, you know, you just don't know how it's going to fit. So because for every Kurt Zignetti, where he takes gun guys and develops them, there's 30 schools who get a bunch of transfers who they don't coalesce, they don't like each other. And they go three and nine. Oh, I thought was C U Blaster. I'm sorry. Well, you're C U grad. So you are allowed to say that. But with that said, the best season under Deon Sanders was a couple of years ago. But I would contend that the

7:11most important game that he coach was that opener against TCU, in which he showed, Hey, I have the chops to coach, we have the players that can play and we went on the road and beat TCU, considering the expectations going into this season. And I haven't seen anyone pick Colorado to even come close to finishing in the top 10 in the big 12 this year. Could you make the case that this might be the most important game of his tenure? You could, depending on if you felt like there was a chance he was going to get fired at the end of the year, I still don't necessarily believe that because of the buyout. But yeah, I mean, if you win this game, Northwesterns, a winnable game, we were states a winnable game. Now you got some traction. I mean, it just keeps coming back to the same issue. You can't pay a coach 10.3 million dollars and not go to a bull game. I don't care if it's a bull that starts with a lawn mower with a margarita drink or, you know, a hotel resort. You can't pay him and not go

8:15to bull games. Like the math doesn't matter. That wouldn't matter if it was Deon Sanders for its Davos, sweetie was coaching C U. You can't pay a coach like that. It C U Boulder with their athletic budget and not go to bull games. So is it the most important? I would say it takes on a better tone set. And they haven't sold off all the home games anymore. Like the lusters off, understandably so. The TV ratings have nose dive. But that isn't really the issue with the TV ratings. It's if they stop selling out games and it looks like there's 10,000 open seats and people are leaving at halftime. That's where it becomes a problem. It's the financial component of all this. It's not just the losing, you know, and so I talk to people that I trust who think, you know, there's a real chance they can win six games. I don't see that. But again, I don't know the team yet either. So I can't say unequivocally they can't do it. They might have some guys who are like, oh, yeah, I've had a known this guy was this and this was this then obviously. So I don't

9:16I think you guess to answer question Eric, you can make the case. This is one of the biggest games of his tenure. Biggest, you know, his first one in hindsight was his biggest when they qualified for a bowl. I don't remember who they beat, but that was a big game, a big win, a big achievement for them. But yeah, this year, like he's the one that says we have to win, like it's on him. Now, he's got to show he can coach, take all the other stuff and strip it away. He's got to show he can coach Eric. That's for me, that's what's left now. Can he coach because he's healthier? He's in a much better spot. He's got coaches he trusts more. They recruited in a different way. Can he find a blueprint to win like six, seven games? Best case scenario, we're not talking about Deon Sanders job situation. And I think that would be a very good thing around here. But just for the sport of this conversation, let's look at worst case scenario, three and nine again. And as you said, they're not

10:20sold out. And people like in the Dan Hawkins era, and I was one of those guys, because I had season tickets at Colorado for five years. And when we went out at halftime to grab a brot or whatever it was in our tailgate, we never went back in. There was no point to go back in because the game was over and a drink looked a lot better than the play on the field from the buffs. Three and nine not sold out the stadium doesn't the stadium doesn't look half empty, but you could see a lot of empty seats with Deon Sanders having three years left on his deal at about 34 million. Do you think the new athletic director really has a decision ahead of him or does he just have to suck up what Rick George gave Deon Sanders? I think what the the ideal scenario in that situation, if they're three and nine and it's ugly again, similar to last year,

11:23would be both sides kind of mutually agree, this is not working. So if he were to kind of agree, it's not working. The money, no, I don't agree, but is Deon, do you believe Deon Sanders would give a any back? No, but could he cut a deal with, Hey, let us pay you out over the course of three years or whatever, like cut him a deal like because he let's say he's got a huge TV deal lined up and they say, we know this isn't working. You're kind of over it, we're over it. Can we spread this payment out over four years and you go get your gig and we move on. I mean, yeah, he has no incentive to do it unless he's just miserable and he's never shown that part, but you do wonder if it goes three and nine again, then literally you just have the one outlier season and the evidence is this isn't working. This isn't working. You can't keep firing offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators and getting 50 new kids every year and have go three and nine with the

12:24same head coach, like, but what he would have to be in a place, either from a health perspective, which I would never wish on him, or just like, this isn't working and walk, but he's not going to walk away from a dime. There's no question. He's not going to leave a dime on the table, but when he's structured a buyout in a way, there would make it easier for both parties to move on. I'd say doubtful, but I think that would be the only way to see you doesn't have a booster that's going to come in Eric and write a check for 25 million. They just don't unless there's some person out there that I'm completely unaware of, they don't have that kind of person that's going to write that check. If they win three or four games, would it be nuanced if they're close games, at least instead of embarrassing losses like we saw last year? I mean, that's part of the conversation. That's fair. Sure. They had a couple games like that last year. Well, let's look at the Georgia Tech game. Colorado got run over and only lost on the

13:26game. I mean, only lost by seven. I mean, if you get his Georgia Tech fun with like seven times in the first half, you should have easily won that game. I understand that. But what I'm saying is to someone who didn't watch that game and just looked at the final score, well, they only lost by a touch step. And that's what I mean by its nuance, how the game unfolds. Are they close games so and so forth? Because anybody who is betting this game tonight, if they just strictly look at last year's score, it will completely shape their opinion on how they should bet on this game. Yeah, you would bet Georgia Tech at home to physically win up front and win the game. I mean, Georgia Tech dominated them last year. The only reason it was close because I joke, I pretty sure memory serves. They had three turnovers in the first like six minutes and see you led like three to nothing. I mean, if see you leads in that situation, 17 to nothing, they

14:29win that game at home. They just they get the ball back at mid field. I think they only scored on one of those possessions. I was at that game covered that game and it just they got run over. But they were in it until the end and Haines came in a hell of a plant at the end of that game. Long run, he's gone. So that helps. Eric, here's what I would say to that. The problem in years past, you're perfectly, you're perfect. It's a perfectly sound argument. Man, we're close. We're right there. And then next year, just wait. The problem is most of those kids don't come back. Right. So it's not like, Hey, our software class, wait, other juniors. Oh, wait, none of them are here anymore. So that's the problem with the nuance that calls football. You used to be able to say that, man, look at these freshmen, look at these software. You know, I've good, they're going to be as juniors and seniors. Well, now, if they're any good sophomores at a place like CU, they transfer them to the school, they go get more money. So that's what makes it so difficult. Is it for me? It goes back to the blueprint of him changing to kids who are in prove it mode,

15:29San Jose State, small school kids that have a chip on their shoulder. Can he get a few of those with a few other, you know, clear blue chip guys to blend in a new blueprint? Because the old blueprint of bunch of guys, you've essentially either off high, you know, high profile programs, that's not working. That's not working. It's clear that's not working. Right. I mean, I'm not going to say you can make a strong case. And you brought in, you brought up that they have guys who have character now and are in proven mode and things like that. From everybody that I have taught to, they don't have guy as many guys or if any guys on the roster, who Vic Fangio would say it's death by inches. They don't have guys who point fingers. They don't have guys who show up late to meetings. They have guys who are willing to be coach. That's right. Right. And that is a positive thing. You cannot win on talent alone. Look

16:30how Kurt Signetti built his football program. A bunch of two and three star recruits in the big 10 championship game last year. Ohio State had 66 four and five star recruits. Indiana had seven four star recruits. You want to talk about a manual, monumental mismatch on paper. That was it. But Signetti wanted guys who were intellectually curious, worked hard, had all of those character traits that you want in a locker room specifically when things get off and fingers are not pointed. It sounds like Deon has more Signetti guys that he's ever had. The difference is Signetti is the best coach in college football. And his staff is nails. Yes, that's the issue.

17:32Is I like the better. He's the better offensive coordinator. Mike Shanahan and Denver or Mike Shanahan and Bloomington, Indiana. Exactly, right. And that's what I'm saying. We don't we can't say that about CU because we don't know anything about the coordinators because it's the third new one in four years. That's where coaching matters. And when Deon was surrounding himself with former NFL guys, are they really good coaches? I think Falk was. I don't know about the other guys. And they're not recruiting guys who played the NFL made a lot of money or not out on the recruiting trail. Drinking cold coffee, driving 500 miles to see some kid play basketball on a Wednesday night in Amarillo, Texas. Like they're not doing that. Signetti, if you read the stories, those guys are grinders. Absolute grinders. But then they they're so good at their thing. They run 90 minute practices. We're like we're in and we're out. It is a machine. That's not what's going on in Boulder. They don't have that kind of efficiency. But maybe we look at and go, yeah, well, at least they're turning the corner.

18:34They look better coach because every kid and they people think it's a pot shot. It's not almost every kid that did an interview that left CU. What did they talk about error? I wasn't getting coached. Right. I've done from back to quarterbacks to Jordan Seaton to Omari and Milt picked their stars to the guys who barely got on the field. Every one of them jumped on a podcast or did an interview and said, I just I wasn't getting coached. Well, when you look at Pat Shermer last year, he has a proven record. The problem is his coaching record isn't great. That's a great. It's terrible. Right. But you look at their new defensive coordinator. Is it pronounced Marvay or Marvay? I think it's Marv, but I'm not 100%. Came from Virginia Tech. By the way, Marv has had great success against George Tech just as an aside when he was when when when tech played tech, George Tech, Virginia Tech. Marvay was pretty good for Virginia Tech. But he has a proven track record. The new offensive coordinator,

19:38no, he hasn't coached a lot of big schools, but he has a proven track record. I'll bring up Signetti. Well, where did Signetti coach you know before he went to Indiana? You know where his first job was? Yeah, UIP I UPUI, right? No, that well, that's we we prefer to that is Uipui when we were in Indiana University at Indianapolis. His first coaching job was Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Okay. That was his first coaching job. Then he went to Elon. Then he went to James Madison. No, but somewhere in there, he went to Alabama to get so he could become a head coach. He he was at Alabama then became the head coach at Indiana University, Pennsylvania, then Elon, then James Madison. My point is Signetti proved despite not being a head coach at major powers clearly that he could coach. So I'm looking at this new offensive coordinator.

20:41The guy does bring shops to the table even though it is at lower levels. I hope what I'm about to ask you, we don't have this conversation three and a half months from now. But let's just jump ahead and look beyond the horizon. And I'm not trying to be negative with this, but I don't think it's an unfair conversation considering the expectations are not very high for Colorado this season. The worst deals you can make the case over the last 25 plus years in the state of Colorado are in no particular order. Chris Bryant, Russell Wilson, Mike Hampton. With that, if Deon Sanders is no longer the coach, where's Deon on that list? Yeah, and he's certainly top five. Well, I only came four. Early named three. So would he crack the top three? Would he crack Hampton? I mean, Hampton was the biggest name free agent in history of the Rockies and he lasted

21:44essentially two seasons. I covered a boat. No, I don't think he would pass Hampton because of Hampton was the top name free agent. And nobody wasn't like they landed Deon as the top free agent coaching prospect. I mean, he really didn't have any other offers outside of some interest from Auburn. The reason he could, if you wanted to argue and I don't have the finances in front of me, is see you doesn't have the money to pay him. Right. And that's why it's such a risk when they did this is it was worth the risk. Got him back on the map. And they I understand why they gave him a new deal, but it was with the understanding now you have to win. Like the first thing is you brought everyone back. We're on the map. But then as you evolve for them to pay him that kind of money on their budget. Yeah. It's like if you or I went out and bought a Lamborghini or a Porsche, I mean, be like, man, I really cannot afford this. But I use it for this event and this like it, it

22:45brings in clients or whatever is if you're a businessman, like it pays for itself in terms of I have to show up at that meeting in this because the cash aid. But if I'm just driving in her own and using gas to drive around in a Lamborghini, it's like, this doesn't make any sense. I don't have the money to pay for this. Didn't Rick George say when Gianna was hired, we need to find the money to pay him. Correct. He didn't make any it's completely transparent. And they did through sellouts and what changed in I L because they have the money. If it was just paying Deon, they would be okay. They don't have the money to pay Deon and pay the 20 million. You can give athletes. They don't have that kind of money. They don't have that kind of, you know, collective fund and a booster that's riding those checks. So basically they're running in the red. And that's why the sellouts matter and why a bowl game matters and why that stuff matters for them more than it would at most schools because they don't have people behind the scenes that are covering up for losses. They don't.

23:47They're running it like a normal business that requires we have to have success to bring raise ticket prices to get more revenue. That's not the case at big schools that can just write checks. You can make the case that the Russell Wilson deal could have absolutely crippled. The Broncos franchise. But it didn't because Peyton and Peyton helped the Broncos with solid drafting true decisions. They got out of it. They got out of that huge hole and they came out with blue skies ahead. So was it a terrible deal at the time? Of course it was. But what happened years later, everything seemed to be just fine when you look at the Rockies with Chris Bryant. One player was not going to turn around the Rockies forchets. Even if Chris Bryant had an MVP season, it's not as if the Rockies were going to be finishing in third place because they were not. So yes, it was

24:50a lot of money to a guy who didn't play. But at the end of the day, they were not going to be contending for a pennant. Dick Monford, I suppose, could afford to lose the money. But their farm system was so bad, drafting, developing, so bad. It's almost like yes, bad deal, but did it really make a difference. It's kind of like throwing a stone in the water. It didn't turn into a tidal wave. It just turned into a plop as much as anything else. But with Deon Sanders, two-year point, and I think you are spot on about this, I don't know if Colorado can afford to have that type of contract. Pey, Deon, for three more years, and then try and bring in someone new. That's why I might move Deon's contract if things go south a little higher up the charts because while Russell Wilson could have buried the Broncos with that deal, I don't know who they get in as a head coach in the big 12 that they're

25:53going to be able to pay. I think this using the analogy of throwing a stone in the water, where it's just a couple of ripples, it would not be a tidal wave, but it would be some heavy waves. Yeah, I mean, the budget is such a part of this equation, and you see this across the country, which, you know, schools that aren't blessed with these huge boosters to cover stuff, they start cutting programs. They start cutting jobs as professors. Like, college in general, now, if you follow the trend, it's not doing as well. Because kids are, and people are looking at it like, how much, what is the return on investment for this degree? If I'm going to spend 300,000 on a degree, what is the, you know, what is the return? What does my first job look like? You're seeing popularity of schools going to a three year degree, three year diploma. You see schools back east that are shutting down. My son was in an NAI conference where three of the schools they played in there that it wasn't a conference, but NAI competition, three of the colleges he played against shut down over the course of two years. So it's real. The budget issues with these colleges

26:58becomes real. And Deans, the highest paid state employee. And that works, again, if they're winning, or, you know, again, six and six, the math kind of works. You can't go three and nine. Like, it just doesn't work because people are going to stop buying tickets and they're going to stop buying sweets and they're going to stop, I mean, the m... Like, it's just, the, that spiket just starts turning off until it's a drip. They don't have someone to say, hey, hey, hey, can you bring the fire hose back over here? They don't have that person. They don't. And so that's why with Deans, folks that are just Deans fans, they think all the criticism is unfair. Look what he did for CU. And I would agree what he did the first couple of years was certainly amazing given where they were. But once they paid him the second contract, everything changes. He's got a coach now, Eric. He's got a coach. He's got to win. I mean, that's, that's nothing to do with anything else other than he's got a show we can coach and show we can win and get to a ballgame. He is pocketing money,

28:01stop pocketing timeouts coming up after the break. How good is the Broncos offense going to be this season? Will it be a top 10 offense? Oneguide NFL.com believes that will be the case. And this guy has a very good track record when it comes to predicting how good offenses are that eventually make the playoffs. That's next. Edwards Pipe in tobacco shop has something for every smoker and is your premier destination with an extensive selection of cigars, pipes in tobacco. They've got over 1,000 premium cigars, an expert staff to help you find the right stick and the largest walk in Hume d'Or in Denver. So you get the best quality. Whether you are shopping for premium cigars, tobacco pipes or accessories, Edwards is your go-to destination for everything tobacco. If you want the best, go to the best. Edwards Pipe in tobacco in Inglewood. With millions of page views every year, ColoradoProps.com is the number one source for the high school sports community to keep up with

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31:08Edwards has something for every smoker including over 1,000 premium cigars, the largest walk in Hume-Dor in Denver and an expert staff which makes it the premier destination for everything tobacco in town. Find them in Inglewood or go to edwardspipentobacco.com. Alright, TroyNFL.com's Dan Parr predicted the top 10 offenses in football this season and the metric is only offensive points per game. Offenses in the NFL are judged on yards per game. In this case, it's points per game. Last season, seven of the 10 teams he predicted to be in the top 10 for offensive points per game. Seven of the 10 made the playoffs and in 2024, nine of the 10 teams he predicted made the playoffs. He has the Broncos at number eight and wrote this. Denver has been hanging on the fringe of the top 10 in offensive points per game since Bonyx got here in 2024 ranking 11th in his rookie season 14th in 2025 respectively. The piece that could put the Broncos

32:15over the top, Jalen Waddle still have a terrific possession receiver in Coral and Sutton and arguably the league's best offensive line. A running back by committee approach should provide the desired balance on offense. The ingredients are there for Peyton to prepare a delicious stew. Last season, the Seahawks. He said would have the eighth best offense, which I never would have predicted them to have the eighth best offense in the league last year with Sam Donald. They had a really good running game. One of the best wide receivers in the game and I don't want to say that's pretty much it, but you can make the case. The Broncos on paper this year were better than the Seahawks on paper last year. So Seahawks last year, eighth, 25 and a half points per game. What happens with the Broncos if they are scoring 25 and a half points per game? Yeah, I mean they win the West and

33:18they're a position to go back to the FC championship game. I mean they have a chance to be the best team in the FC if they score that many points with their defense now. I'm a little worried about defensive regression. I've been transparent about that, but if they're scoring almost 26 points a game, your defense can have a bad day once in a while. You can win a game even if the defense has a bad day. So if they score that number, if they put up that number, they are going to be the one or two seed in the FC with a clear path to the Super Bowl. Here's the thing is that the Broncos offense did not have the type of opportunities that they are talking about potentially having this year. And what do I mean by that? It's not as if the defense turned the ball over a lot and gave the Broncos great field possession so they could score 30 yards to go. The Broncos defense needs to help out the Broncos offense in order to score by forcing turnovers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on,

34:19Eric. The defense needs to stay on the fricking field. There are third and punts. I don't want to put this on the defense. The only reason they won 12 years. I'm talking about complimentary football. Right, right. If you're going to score nearly 26 points a game, it's going to help if your defense forces turnovers. So you get some 40 yard drives, not 80 yard drives. I think that is going to help the offense tremendously. And listen, the guys on defense have talked about it a lot. Bans Joseph, Sean Payton, they have stressed. We need to force more turnovers by doing that. That will help the Broncos offense tremendously get to that 25 26 points a game, right? Yeah, but how do you force turnovers? You get ahead in games. For me, it goes back to the offense. Now, you can emphasize turnovers. They're a little like home runs. They kind of come in bunches. Yeah, I mean, you can emphasize it, but there's a there's a luck involved too, but they're

35:20definitely emphasizing it. And they're going to have more than 14 takeaways. That's 100% certainty. Well, I think they had 25. They're going to have 20 plus. Let's look at the Broncos defense in 2015. They forced a ton of turnovers. And that Broncos offense was far worse. That was a legendary defense, though. No, no, I understand that. But the I know it was legendary because of the players on it, the scheme that they played, but they forced turnovers. Just because you have a defense that can stop teams doesn't mean that you are forcing turnovers. The defense made the offense look really good because they gave them a bunch of short fields. My point is what if this and we've talked about comparing these defenses, and I'm not saying they are necessarily close, but the Broncos defense is excellent. They just don't force turnovers.

36:20Yeah, it's just, I mean, you have a hall of famous and where and Miller and a potential hall of, you know, a guy with an argument to leave. I mean, they were just they just have more talent, more depth. There was at that 15 team, I've never covered a defense like that. And they did it against the best quarterbacks. So again, this defense is really good. But into your point, fair, if they want to be in discussions as a great all-time great Broncos defense, they got to produce turnovers. I'm just saying they this defense the way they play, they don't take the risks that the other team that they did in 15. They to lead took risks like they had corners, they would take big risks to try to make big plays. If you're not doing that and Vance is more like, we'll give up yards in the 20. It's a little bit more fangio like the white Phillips, even though he learned under Phillips. And they in the Vance wins in the Red Zone. They hold them to field goals and like they they do it a different way. But if they want this defense to reach his potential, the offense needs to get the lead in some of these games, the force teams to

37:22take chances against the defense, where you're up 10 nothing at the end of the first quarter. And now are 13 to three at half time. And the other teams like, share, we can't just sit here and run the ball. We got to start throwing down field. And that's where certain comes into play or that's when a, you know, a mosque comes like that's where for me. You know, and again, some of it's on the defense like when you blitz, you're trying to get rid of the, you get the ball loose like Nick Benito, when you get these sacks, you can get a strip sack. Like some of that is coaching no doubt. But I just, I found it hilarious last year at the end of the year when paintings like, we have no chance because we don't get take away. So it's like, yeah, have you seen your offense in some of these games? Yeah. Come on now. Let's be fair. Your offense against the jets, your offense for three quarters against the Eagles, your offense on Thursday nights against the Raiders. Like, you had 10 first downs in that game. You have more penalties than first downs. Like it's, the offense needs to do its part. I, I'm just, the one thing is just so fascinating to me. This could click. And it's like,

38:23oh my god, this was the puzzle piece or it could be like, yeah, it kind of works. It doesn't work because they don't really run the ball like that. I just, I don't know. I, but I love the potential of it. And I'm on board that this is the piece that can get their offense into top 10. I totally agree with the assessment that they should be a top 10 offense. The Broncos since, I don't know, since manual Sanders and the Marriott Thomas, they haven't had a guy who can stretch the defense vertically. Now they do. So you got to account for jail and model. And if he starts stretching the defense, what does that do? It's going to force the safeties to stay back. It's going to open up the field in the middle. It's going to allow them to run the ball better. They haven't had a weapon like him in the Sean Peyton era. I think it's more that yards after catch the Eric. I don't think it's going to be the vertical thing people are envisioning. It's going to be the yards after catch on slants and quick hitters. And then eventually they're going to incorporate the deep stuff.

39:28But I don't think they're going to throw deep as much as people think early. It's more, it can wild take a three-yarder and turn it into 20. Can he take an eight-yarder and turn it into 40? Like that's, I haven't, I haven't had that. I think with Davis Webb, he wants to be aggressive and he wants to chuck it down field 20 yards. He does until they go three and out and it takes 80s, 45 seconds off the blink lock off the game clock. I don't think I'm going to be first down 20 yard pass, second down, 17 yard pass. I'm not referring to that. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is they will take more, I believe they will take more calculated risks offensively throwing the ball down field. There's going to be so much attention on Coralyn Souton and Jalen Waddle. Mims gets on the field. Try Franklin gets on the field. You know, all the attention is towards the top two guys. What's that, Paparine? Paparine. Paparine is not a deep threat guy. But he's the guy you could hopefully get in the middle of the field with Ingram.

40:30I would agree. But you still have Mims and Franklin. And while Franklin was disappointing last season with all that attention towards two guys. Franklin and Mims, when they're on the field with those two guys talking about Waddle and Souton, they will, I'd be willing to bet they don't see one double coverage coverage the entire season. Yeah, I mean, and they got to make plays when the opportunities come because it's not going to be consistent for those two. That's the problem is you may have a game with one target. You may have a game with six. And can you be productive in that scenario? That's one of the reasons Ingram struggled. He'd have a game with five targets and then one and then he just couldn't find any traction. But Coralyn Souton and Waddle are going to eat. They're getting nerves. And so everyone else out ingram, there would still be a niche for. But the other guys are going to get less. I mean, it's just how it's going to work. I mean,

41:32I don't want to look up at the end of the year and have Jaylen Waddle third on the team in targets. You better be one for me, but he's got to stay healthy and there's a lot of things to part of that. But if he and Souton, you know, they're both right there at 120 or whatever. Yeah. Okay. Again, and we just, we got to see the run game. We didn't really see it in camp. We didn't really see it in preseason. And I have no issue with that because there's no reason to show everything when you got the chiefs on Monday night and a new play caller. I'm with you. I think the inclination for Davis Web is to be more aggressive. But if if he's thinking along the lines of a quarterback in a game, the way you're more aggressive is you establish the run and force teams to account for that. And now the playbook goes boom, it opens to everything. That's what I hope happens. Give me a quick prediction on the Colorado Georgia Tech game tonight. Uh, Tech Georgia Tech 27 C U 20. I've seen that score before.

42:32Last year, you're going to go with the same scores last year, 27 20. I didn't remember what the score was last year. 27 to 20. So at the very least, you've done your homework and you're going to predict exactly what you saw last year. I like your chances. Quoting the great poet, George Carlin. I will give my prediction. Georgia Tech 30. That's going to do it for us. I take good men and rank. Make it the best possible day again. If you liked the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.