Hey everybody, it’s that time again, Fred and the Fantastics on PodClips and BLEAV. We talk about this, that, and anything in sports. And today, it’s Fred and the Fantastic and Art Sorce, former kicker for the Rams and the Trojans. And of course, he runs Galaxy Sports out of Pennsylvania. Artie, you lived a lot of your life in Southern California. Let’s talk about a couple of things that are happening in Southern California. Southern California, including the fact that on Monday night, excuse me, on Friday night, which is tonight, folks, we’re taping this about one o’clock in the afternoon on Friday. Later tonight, at six o’clock. UCLA is up in Washington. Meanwhile, the basketball team is facing Lehigh at Pauley Pavilion. Now that’s the second time this year that this has happened, actually the third, because last Monday night, the Bruins were up against the Rams, and I watched part of the game at Pauley Pavilion. And I swear to you, Artie there were not a thousand people there.

A lot of people dressed like seats?

Against Boston University, and they won by 30. But it’s irrelevant. I mean, you got to draw people. This is a joke. Cronin says, you know, we’re going to be fine, and this and that. And of course, later too,

Fred, in our era, do you remember that they used to tape delay the games and you watch UCLA or SC at 10:30 or 11 o’clock at night, that way, if you wanted to go to the game, you were part of a live broadcast? And now it seems like television is, is everywhere. And I’m wondering if, eventually, because of the price of tickets, the size of the, you know, the Los Angeles metropolitan area, there’s so many things to do, you know, I wonder if that does cause a problem sometimes, in terms of, if you’re a UCLA fan, do you want to watch the basketball team or the football team? And by the way, let’s take our hats off to Foster with the job he’s done with the Bruins. Their last three, four ball games, they’ve looked fantastic. They really have. And I mean, you know Eric Bieniemy with that offense, you know the quarterback from Corona del Mar, Garbers, has done a good job. That ball club’s seeming to peak in November and December, where you want a football team to do so. So, I mean, that’s going to be a heck of a game at, at Husky Stadium in Seattle. But, you know, to answer your question, I can’t get into college basketball right now, Fred, I’m more of an after the beginning of the year. You know, once we get into February and March, then I start taking college basketball real seriously, but not as seriously as I did for many, many years.

Cronin of UCLA made some comments that I’m surprised he made them. He’s not going to recruit any high school kids. Said there’s no reason to do so, which is really from the transfer portal.

Just play the transfer portal. And hey, you bring a kid to Westwood. I mean, it’s a pretty nice place to play basketball. I kind of, you know, it’s kind of sad, but I knew there was going to be something negative to happen. Because the hardest thing in recruiting, in my opinion, and I know this, Fred, as a football coach, you know, the, uh, 17-year-old who gets five years in a program is a different person than a 22-year-old. I competed against a kicker at USC that had been a, you know, went to Vietnam, kicked at Harbor Junior College. Was a guard, a federal guard in a prison in Fort Leavenworth. He was 28 years old. He punted for the Rams, named Glenn Walker. I was 17, fresh out of high school, and that was my competition, and he was smoking Marlboro red cigarettes, and I was like, you know, I still was wet behind the ears. And it was kind of funny, because it made me really have to grow up fast, because this was a, this was a full on man. And, you know, a 28-year-old competing against a 17-year-old. The only guy that was young, younger than him was, or older than him was Walt Ransom, who was the number one draft pick of the Red Sox, who led East LA to a junior college championship because he couldn’t beat out Rico Petrocelli.

You know, it’s interesting too. The whole thing is upside down again. Blame Mark Emmert and the NCAA five years ago, but Dillon Gabriel of Oregon has now been involved in 159 touchdowns either running or passing. Okay, for the all-time record. But the problem is, he’s now 27 years, two years at UCF, a couple years at Oklahoma. So I mean it. What do records even mean anymore in college?

I don’t know. You know what’s funny is, I looked at the, the Heisman odds right now. It’s Travis Hunter, the two-way player for Colorado at plus 120. Dillon Gabriel’s at plus 300 with Oregon, and Oregon’s got a great chance to win a national title. They got a little bit of a trap this week in Madison. They got to go through and play the Wisconsin Badgers at home, and you know, they’ve never been there, and I don’t know what the weather’s going to look like, but it’s been real cold, real damp back here you’re looking at Madison, Wisconsin. There might be snow, you know, Oregon, that’s going to be a tough ball game for Oregon and Dan Lanny. You know, there’s another good game in college football tomorrow that if you want to watch two, two really good teams, Tennessee, number six against number 11, Georgia and the, the loser of this game might be out, especially if it happens to be Georgia. And, you know, before the season, I think Georgia, Georgia, Texas or Ohio State, you know, along with, you know, with, with Texas. I mean, they were the teams that you were going to think about. But how about those Indiana Hoosiers, Fred?

Ten and 0. Yeah, hard to believe.

Who’d have thunk it?

What about your Lane Kiffin and the rebels of Mississippi?

That was a great. That was unbelievable. You know, he, his, his whole career came full circle to fruition. I mean, I remember, you know, talking to Al Davis, when I worked for the Raiders, about what he looked for in coaches, and he really thought Lane Kiffin was going to be the guy that he is now, way back 15, 18, years ago. But you know what Lane had to go through? He had to get fired on the tarmac at SC, he went to the Nick Saban school for badboy coaches. He got resuscitated there, just like Sarkisian. You know, what’s interesting is USC put all this, this stock into Lincoln Riley, and now he’s got somewhere between a 75 to $95 million buyout. And I’m looking at the other coaches that got fired by USC, Ed Orgeron. Let’s see. He won a national title with Joe Burrow at LSU, at John Robinson, the late John Robinson, my old coach helped him as a as an analyst there. And you got Steve Sarkisian, who’s got one of the best teams in college football now. He’s going to win a national title in the next five years. You got Kiffin, you know? I mean, wow. What an amazing, I mean that, what a defensive performance by Ole Miss. I watched him last year, and he got beat 52-17.

We’re going to take a quick break here on Fred and the Fantastic and discuss the National Football League.

Alright? Everybody back right here on Fred and the Fantastic. It’s Art Sorce and Fred. You can email us at sportsfred@aol.com. Let’s talk about a couple of the games heading into this weekend in the National Football League. How about the Ravens at the Steelers, seven and two for the Steelers, seven and three for Baltimore. I think listening to the radio, everybody likes the Ravens. Steelers under Wilson are playing pretty well. What do you like?

Well, this is an interesting spread. It opened at five points. And, you know, I look at a five-point, you know, because the three-point home field advantage, you know, it’s all the way down to three now, the over and under 47. I really like a high-scoring game here. I really do. I think Baltimore’s offense is prolific now that they’ve worked in their tight end again and, and, you know, got him playing Andrews he’s, playing strong, Lamar Jackson is unbelievable. It’s going to be a heck of a game. One of the interesting things is, you know, Pittsburgh has won six of the last seven games between these two teams. And I don’t think a lot of people know that. And so the, you know, if I had to look at it honestly, I’d love to see the Steelers beat them, but I, you know, I just think Baltimore is too tough. I mean, when, when Lamar Jackson gets loose in the secondary, it’s like Helter Skelter. It’s hard to keep those guys under control. And they got some good receivers, I think it’s going to be a little bit of a shootout. Um, I would have to say Baltimore, 31-27 over Pittsburgh.

Alright, your former team, the LA Rams, 4-4 off a loss by field goals, not going to get it done at the Patriots, 3-7. Do the Patriots have any shot here?

No, this isn’t. They’ve actually been the most improved team I’ve seen in the last three weeks under Jared Mayo. They’re playing good football. They’re not they’re not dominating anybody, but they’re not making the mistakes they made early in the season. I think he’s realizing that if he plays good, good, solid defense, which they’re capable of doing, and they don’t turn the ball over, they can play well, the Rams are favored by four and a half. It’s a long trip from LA to Boston, Foxborough. I would have to take New England and take, take the four and a half points. But I think it’s going to be a real tight 16 to 10 kind of game. And usually, Sean McVay finds a way to win those games.

Alright, the Colts and the Jets, Colts, 4-6. Jets, 3-7. Colts going back as far as quarterbacks are concerned, the Jets back to quarterbacks, but they’re not. Listening in to the New York WFAN, a lot of the fans hoping the Jets lose. They want to get that first pick in the draft. What do you like as far as two very average clubs?

Well, Fred, I just, I have no faith at all in Rogers. He’s falling backwards when he’s thrown his passes. He’s had nothing but leg miseries. And I think this is a continuation to being 40 years old, playing on AstroTurf. They’re playing on the AstroTurf in, in Lucas Oil Stadium in, in Indianapolis. You know, I actually have to take Indianapolis here. I don’t think unless the Jets can really step up defensively. And, and, and Aaron Rogers has a, an old Aaron Rogers game. I would have to go with Indianapolis in this one, and I’ll tell you, the game that intrigues me is Kansas City at Buffalo. Fred. You know, we’ve watched some of the great games of all time in the playoffs. Over the last five years, these two teams have played incredible games. Kansas City. We talked about it on Sports Overnight. You know, they’re undefeated this year, but they’re only, they only have a 58-point differential in those nine games. So they’re playing nip and tuck, tuck games. Mahomes is not having what I call a great year, but they’re, they’re undefeated. So, you know, it’s really interesting. Buffalo’s got a good ball club. They’re 8-2. I think it’s going to be a dandy football game. I like Buffalo in the game. I think it means a lot to him. We’ll see what happens in that one.

And again, we discussed on Sports Overnight America the Chiefs going without their field goal kicker, with Butker not being able to kick the 55-yarder.

Some of the great kickers in the league are really scuffling right now. I mean, yeah, Deebo Samuel almost wanted to take out, uh, Jake Moody in San Francisco last Sunday. I mean, he missed three field goals. I mean, being an old kicker, I know I’ve never missed three, but I missed two. And once you missed that second field goal. It’s like, whoa. You start feeling really bad about letting your teammates down. But I never been attacked by anybody. But then again, you know, I mean, let’s go. Your job is to kick the ball between the poles. So I wonder what’s going on, Fred, with the, with the place kickers of the NFL? I mean, they’ve, they’ve been incredible for the first 10 weeks. Last week it looked like maybe this season too long for the kickers too.

Last thing, you mentioned kickers missing. And you may you mentioned Moody. Deebo Samuel apparently said something and did something to, to Moody and the holder. Now, you know, so is something wrong? There’s got to be something wrong with the 49ers if one player goes after another.

No, yeah, you can’t have that. You really can’t have that. You know, there isn’t a kicker out there, and I’ve met a lot of kickers and have been a kicker. Nobody wants to miss, Fred. But like I said, if that plant puts an inch too far left or an inch too far back. You know that, that, that when you’re looking talking about projecting a ball 45-50 yards, especially, you know, in Santa Clara, San Francisco, in the windy conditions. I remember kicking in Candlestick Park in a pre-season game where they used to call them in the old days, exhibition games, and the wind was blowing so hard that from the right hash mark, you kick it and it would blow it left. From the left hash mark, you kick it and it would blow it right. The wind was just circling in old Candlestick Park. I just said, well, I just hit it hard, keep it, you know, a little bit lower than normal. And then, you know, what happens when that happens, you’re going to get a couple blocked here and there.

All right, in 30 seconds, on Fred and the Fantastic, Art, tell us what you think.

Well, it’s going to be a great sports weekend, Fred. Cleveland Cavaliers, off to a great start in the NBA, undefeated. I’m excited a little bit about basketball. I’ve seen a little more defense being played in the NBA. Great college schedule, you got a couple of good games. Texas and Arkansas, makes me harken back to the late 60s, the Southwestern conference, Frank Broyles, Darryl Royal, the old Texas Longhorns against the Razorbacks. That should be a fun game. Tennessee at Georgia in primetime on ABC and, of course, the trap game. And let me tell you something, Oregon’s in position here. They don’t have a real tough schedule. The rest of the way, they’re going to Wisconsin to play Madison, and in pretty tough conditions. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Dillon Gabriel and the Ducks.

All right, for Mario, for Art. I’m Fred. Thank you guys and gals for listening to Fred and the Fantastic and you’ll hear more soon. Thank you very much. Bye, everybody.