Against the Grain
A Wonderful Weekend of Football: Breaking down the CFP Final and NFL Playoffs
Happy New Year H-town and welcome to the sheer chaos that is sports in the big 2025. If you're an NFL fan, you may be aware that the Steel City has turned on Mike Tomlin. Bill's Mafia has raised over 120 racks for Mark Andrews charity and the commanders are good at football now. Who would have thought? The unexpected isn't unique to the NFL. However, as the Cavs, Grizzlies and your hometown rockets are among the top dogs in the National Basketball Association. And Ryan Day kept his job by the skin of his teeth even though his Ohio State Buckeyes won the first ever 12 team college football playoff. Regardless of whether you've already gotten a 2025 sports bingo or lost your end of your bonus on a parlay on January 2nd that you still swear by. This is the show for you because we've just got to roll the music and then we will talk some ball. This is K true on 96.1 KTRU LP Houston and streaming live on your phone and on the web at KTRU dot or back to you Ian. Good morning Houston. I'm Ian Clefinger and welcome back to against the grain on KTRU 96.1 FM the Rice University student run radio show where we break down everything going on in the world. Of rice athletics in the broader sports scene from across the city of Houston. You can stream all of our episodes anytime by searching for KTRU sports on iHeartRadio spotify and Amazon music to stay in the loop. Go ahead and follow us at KTRU dot sports on Instagram and at KTRU sports on TikTok that may be extra important this time around as our airtime is going to fluctuate a little bit as we're working into the new KTRU studio in the Rice University student center. This episode is airing on Saturday at 8am on Patriot 96.1 FM and that is where you can find us for now we will keep you posted on any changes we've always got exciting stuff in the works and we don't want you to miss out if you have a question for the staff. Please feel free to DM us on either of the platforms we mentioned earlier Instagram and TikTok or drop a note to patronsports@gmail.com that's KTRU sports@gmail.com all lowercase. We want to know what you want to know so we can answer it on the air throughout the next hour you will be hearing from a team of student hosts I'll be getting us started with our first segment around the hedges here at Rice University it is common to say that the greater city of Houston is beyond the hedges so to start off each episode up against the grain we go around the hedges for a quick review of the biggest sports moments from the past little while from both Rice and the city of Houston we have not been with you since December 5 due to winter break finals move out move in all the stuff that we're going through as college students here at Rice so we have a lot to recap for you we're going to focus on Rice athletics a little bit. And this edition of around the hedges were start off on the hardwood with rice men's basketball since our last episode they are four and six one and four in the conference had a few good games few more bad games. There was a loss to an NAA school by one point at home that's just not what you want to see, but they had a couple of nice conference wins rebounded well be one at Tulsa and beat Charlotte around the new year. One thing that we mentioned that if you remember our season preview was how undercoach scott pair the team struggled to win close games yet one unfortunate status that they have lost three consecutive games by six points or less as a recording this episode. So apparently there is still work to be done in that category as owls are on a four game skit however they are 11 eight overall and although they are two and four in the conference which I believe is good for ninth at the American. There are only a few games in and they've had a few promising wins tray broad next is averaging double digits at 13.4 and Caden Powell has made a little bit of an impact down low averaging 9.2.6.7 rebounds and over a block again so far on the season. The Rice Women have also had their fair share of inconsistencies. They have also gone four and six since we last talked to you but they are three and four in the conference they are situated a little bit better and have been on a little bit of a tear led by Malia Fisher and Victoria Juarez. Both of those players have had multiple games over 18 points I believe since the new year started you may remember Malia Fisher is probably the best well known and was supposed to be the star player for the rice women before she was injured. She's recently come back and drops 21 against Tulane on New Year's Day also had 24 and their most recent loss to UAB for as a transfer from TCU I believe she's a sophomore. She has dropped 24 and 18 against Memphis at East Carolina respectively already in the month of January she's averaging 11.3 points per game in the last since the new year started even though she came off the bench for most of the first half of the season. It was averaging under eight points a game until that point. On the professional side of the hardwood the Houston Rockets are 15 and seven and since our last episode they are 29 and 14 on the year which is good for second in the Western Conference. Just behind the Memphis Grizzlies they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers by one point on Wednesday at home an absolutely incredible game. That's just a cavalier seventh loss of the season as they are the best team in the East and on pace to win 68 games to great great get for the Rockets there against impressive caps franchise. The Rockets will face Cleveland again on the day that this airs on Saturday January 25th that game is in Cleveland. We will be predicting that game in our prediction segment at the end of the episode and we will have an in-depth Rockets break down on our next episode next week. So if you are a big Rockets fan you want to stay tuned we have a lot of good NBA stuff coming your way. We're going to get back on the Rice University campus women's swimming and diving has gotten their season going since our last episode aired on December 5th. They won an open water championship in Miami which I learned is like a cross country meet for swimming where you just kind of have you have everyone does one longer race in the open water you aggregate scores for placements. They then lost to number 14 ranked Arizona State on January 3rd and are still awaiting results from a diving meet in Flagstaff Arizona against Northern Illinois, excuse me Northern Arizona and Illinois fighting a line I and they were back in action at home against St. Thomas on January 24th at 4pm which is the Queen are recording time and the time this episode airs. Both of our tennis teams have been on an absolute tear the last couple weeks men's tennis beat the Vicarros of UTRGV seven to zero beat for review twice seven to zero on Friday and then quarter zero on Saturday had a few stand out performances there on your syndicate 16160 in his first match on the Friday match. This is not what his single match 6160 who's not in 4s when they're double match 6 so just great dominance there from the album and they are back in action against nationally ranked number one the Texas Longhorns at the International Tennis Association kickoff weekend on January 25th at noon that will be just after this episode airs. They have also had great success, Alice and simply one of the most singles match excuse me 6061 as they beat the San Houston State Bearcat seven to zero on the road. And then they came home and took on the Lamar Cardinals they collectively out scored them 89 games to 14 across the nine matches that were played in a kind of standard tennis format there. That's a different action against the different set of Cardinals from incarnate word on Saturday at 2 p.m. That is, I believe, all the rights sports that have been in action since we last talked to you. Baseball season is starting up soon basketball is going down the stretch tennis is getting going with their main portion of their intercollegiate play season. I keep you posted on this this semester on around the edges we are actually going to take it now and continue talking about college sports we're going to talk more nationally though about the college football playoff that just wrapped up as Ohio State took down Notre Dame 34 to 23 on Monday to win the first ever 12 team college football playoff national title. Do we have any reactions or thoughts about Ohio State's kind of get our conversation started. I would just like to congratulate Ohio State and Ryan Day on their national title even though I am one of their biggest haters and thought they would lose the penalty in the first round. But I do think like they really did save themselves from an extremely disappointing season this year considering the money that went into the team and also all the NFL talent that is on this team. I would agree with that and I think not only did they save themselves embarrassment Ryan Day saved himself a job. Because basically his career and his job with Ohio State I feel like was basically done after the Michigan game if they didn't win the national championship. So I think it was a pretty incredible turnaround after the Michigan Moss, they were able to go from losing to Michigan, which honestly in hindsight is looking like a better loss than it was at the time with Michigan beating Alabama in their bowl game. You can only lose to the team up north so many times as a Ohio State coach before you're out of the job. And I honestly think that had they not won even with the run that they went on even if they lost the championship I think it would have been gone. That's absolutely agree that if they have lost a Notre Dame even after destroying undefeated Oregon beating Tennessee beating Texas like you just can't like he couldn't lose another game after that Michigan loss. And I guess I'm wondering if he keeps losing to Michigan does he still have a job if he sees continued play off success. It's like for for basically every other team it doesn't matter it's just like that one game is so important like it is the most important rivalry probably in college football. And probably a top five rivalry period. There's just so much hatred that I think that like you can only lose so many times before like, and clearly he can't win my game. Yeah and I mean with the roster comparison especially this year even in years before you argue that Ohio State has better team but this year especially it was so night and day that he had to win that game it felt like and he didn't. So it was really amazing to see that he could save his job just by winning a championship and players like Jeremiah Scott the Ohio State let's talk a little bit about the team they beat in the title game let's talk about Notre Dame making it a lot of feedback rebounding from there. So if you lost more than Illinois early this season and then being independent and making it all the way to the title game how do we feel about their independence given the format and their success as independent. How does that has that impacted by the new playoff format I think there's a lot of tight up there that we can. I think going forward. Like they're going to be at a huge advantage going forward because just from the money aspect. They got 20 million in additional revenue. That's the amount that Ohio State spent on their roster this year. So if you are able to put up seasons like this consistently that's a lot of money that you can keep putting back into the program to recruit better players to build better facilities and just put yourself at a position to compete at the highest level. Like Ohio State they have to split the money across all the teams in a big time. And I think going forward like it really is going to be a huge advantage especially in the long run. Yeah I think a couple other advantages they have is like the scheduling as well like it used to be with the 14 format that they were punished for not having as tough of a schedule. But now they can kind of sit back continue to win games be a very good team and then not play a conference title game not play as many big games as some of these other teams still make the playoffs and have the ability to go on a big run. I think one thing that that transitions into what we have to talk about is the significance of a conference championship for better or for worse for the conference champions. What are our thoughts on the impact of the first round by given to the conference championships and its merits and where it should go or where it will go going forward. I think honestly this year was kind of lucky for a few reasons. I think the main thing being like this year compared to a lot of previous years I feel like there wasn't really clear cut like cut and dry like top talents at any of the top of the conferences. And in addition to that like I feel like a lot of teams like look at how state this year they just got hot at the right time and I think that is something we're going to see like going forward a lot where teams like kind of just will get hot like they're the first to loss team in the national championship era to win a national championship. And if it was still the four team format they wouldn't have even made it so I think it's really interesting to like look at it. But that being said like it kind of does sat in me as a college football fan to see like the devaluing of like a conference championship like where now like you look at Georgia right like Carson Beck gets hurt during that game. What is the impact of that going forward like are you going to be playing your best. Like players during that game like you can realize that you're not going to get punished from losing that game like look at SMU they still made the college football playoffs regardless of losing that game when like it was kind of up in the air if they would. So like some of the suggestions I think just like a really bad like the AAC is talking about like making it like a second and third place game. And this is a real thing and giving like the conference winner a buy like so if they don't even play in the game and I think that's just stupid. And I definitely agree that the four teams losing was a big game like yes Arizona State and Boise State were lesser teams to an extent compared to Texas, Ohio State and State who didn't get the buy. But like Georgia and Oregon, Oregon loses to Ohio State he may be earlier in the year Ohio State was just hot Georgia loses their quarterback. They play a good Notre Dame team and it's like I don't think there needs to be a pole revamping of the system because the buy is I think extremely helpful. Because you look at some of the previous years teams get healthy. Like in that 3-4 break that they have and then come playoff time they're fully healthy rested and then go whereas the teams without the buy are now having to play another week. Even some of them after losing the conference then playing in the first round and then having to play in the second round like I think there is a lot of benefit to get your players healthy and fit for the game. I think that's true but I think there might be an issue with the bumping of a team like Boise State. In terms of the structure of just the tournament and the bracket. I think like I don't remember what they were actually playing. In addition they were like 9 or 10 like in the pole. I think the reason you see the best team versus the worst team like a 1 vs 8 or a 2 vs a 7 is so that you end up with the best teams towards the end. I think you disrupt that a little bit if you see it the way they have. I think the problem with that is you devalue the conference title games. If you have this expanded playoff where you're going to have first, second, third, and fourth in the conference making the playoff. So if you don't reward the teams for winning their conference in some way it's just complicated. So at least the buy gives some sort of incentive to win your conference. I agree with that but I also think there is something to be said about looking Notre Dame. If you look at them going forward they could basically be a lock for this seed for the end of time. And that I feel like is almost just as big of an advantage because you get a home playoff game basically. And then how the seating works is you're always going to get the easier path in the playoffs. So I don't know how big of an advantage it is. Like really at the end of the day especially like we saw all these teams lose. But I also think like for a team like Boise State it would be a bigger advantage if it was like a home game and they got to host it like on campus. I think that's just something I was thinking about that should be noted. Because on the first round like there is like now like a clear cut like home field advantage I think that is something that is definitely helpful that like kind of devalues the buy. I think the home I honestly have forgotten about that a little bit when I asked the question but I remember watching the first round even though some of the games weren't for us. So if he's home what he's on campus whole game like playoff environments is absolutely what we have to keep those in mind over here to see. I think that was so good for college sports and for those kind of things. I thought it was amazing all the atmosphere even though they would blow out pretty much like it was still like electric from the beginning of the end. And honestly I didn't like the format having like the bowl games in the second round and then the semi-finals being another bowl game. I thought there was like a significant money advantage in terms of that as well as it just felt weird to see if he went to bowl games and then play for a national title as well. I almost would like to see another like another round of homes where the teams who get the buy play at home as well. So Notre Dame is now going to play and happens Ohio State is now traveling across the country to play in the game. Like you see those big matchups with the buy having much more than a sandwich. I also think it's interesting to note that a majority of the bowl games take place in the south. So like this is something I saw like people talking about like okay so like Ohio State won this year, but you're basically traveling to like let's say Georgia won. That would have been basically a home game right. And just like going forward like with all these games like even the Notre Dame Georgia game in New Orleans like obviously like there was a lot that happens like surrounding that game but like that could also basically be seen like obviously the SEC travels but I think it's just interesting to note that a majority of the bowl games do take place in the south. So I think like in years when that CC isn't as weak as they were this year I think that's also going to be see something that plays a more crucial like even look at the Ohio State Texas game that was in Dallas. That's a home game for you take. So I think it's just like an interesting thing to note. We have real quick before we run out of time for a comfortable discussion max view of any thoughts on Brenda's comments about the weakness of the SEC. I mean I just think people are overreacting to the fact that there's not a Alabama running through everyone or having a Georgia win 65 to 7 in the national title game. I don't think they're necessarily like significantly weaker they just didn't have like a dominant team and I don't think the people who are hating on the SEC for being bad now would want to go back and watch Georgia beat everyone 65 to 30 over and over again in the national title game. I think it's I think that's a fair point but I also think like the competition has just gotten like it's not like the SEC is the only conference that has competitive teams. I would actually argue that this year the big time was significantly better than the SEC and I think this is something that like going forward like needs to be considered because like you were hearing like before the playoffs like all the SEC fans coming out of the woodworks complaining about like not getting like Alabama and not getting South Carolina and not getting all miss them. And I honestly think like with how many teams are let in like I do think it devalues like the regular season like like I mentioned before like Ohio State is the only two lost national champion in the national championship era. I think it's just like at that point faith is like in your hands and like if you can't get there with 12 teams like that's on you. I kind of see both sides. I think at the top honestly like comparable a little bit. But I think like Oregon or Iowa State 10 state like no one's out here saying that they're like really bad teams like I think that I think I think the like oh the SEC is so good like comes comes from the fact that like all the teams right outside the playoff were like SEC teams like there aren't like a whole bunch of big 10 teams like shopping for the woodworks trend again so I think like top to bottom the SEC has that taste I think at the very top. I don't think it's quite as strong as we were kind of made it was made to see going into the playoff especially an ethical outrage and then basis at the initial bracket. So I think there's like and then a lot of motion but there's also some truth that up and like a lot of things that people have been saying. We are about out of time for our college football discussion. We have a couple of quick messages for you and then we will be back in business with episode two of Garrett versus Andrew in their epic guest the player saga so we'll be back. All right first off we have a PSA from make a wish when the child has a life threatening illness most people can see there's nothing to be done but there is. Each child has a dream or a need or a wish the sole ambition of make a wish is to grant these wishes. You can make the contribution to help other children experience their dreams come true called make a wish foundation at 1-800-722-WISH or visit wish.org. And now thinking back on our favorite Rice K-tru shows we have a promotion draw the curtains take the phone off the receiver and turn down the bed for K-tru's afternoon delight. Tune in every Tuesday from 2-4pm for afternoon delight where we play two straight hours of 70s music punk to funk disco to yacht rock often with an arbitrary theme. That sounds like a great time to be had by all thank you Chloe and welcome back all you iPad kids it's everyone's favorite segment it's time for some more sports brain rock. Today we are going to be playing guess my player our very creatively named game and a sports variant of games you may be familiar with like guess who and 20 questions if you weren't with us last semester or two players will take turns asking each other guess or no questions and attempts narrow down their options of the first one to correctly identify their opponents player will be our winner I am joined by Garrett and Andrew if you listened to us in the big 24 you will recall that they had an absolute duel on NBA guess the player I believe they tied and told each other's player on the same guess I think they were like 16 or 17 questions deep they both had like kind of like relevant but like not super duper big name players just really great really great competition showing from both guys. That's exactly what we like to see on sports brain rot we have brought them back we've taken them out of their NBA comfort zone to the NFL playoffs and they have each chosen the NFL player that is on a 2025 playoff team they do not still have to be in the playoffs the playoffs that team can be eliminated and they are going to attempt to narrow down each other's player with their very deep football bags. So Garrett is going to get our first question today Garrett take it away. Well before I start with the question I just like to say Andrew it's not so great to see you in the big 25 I've been thinking reminiscing about our tie and today I'm ready. I'm ready to dominate and I hope you're ready to get dominated. I don't think so it's going to be like work for me to be honest strong words there from Garrett Garrett let's keep it clean game here gentlemen. Alright Andrew is your player in the NFC or AFC. My players in the NFC. Okay. I'm just going to ask you the same question start off basic AFC NFC NFC as well. Did your players team win their division. Yes. Did your players team. Play in the division around. Yes yeah they did. Alright so your players team won the division. I'm going to take a shot here. Is your player a buccaneer. No. Is your players team still left in the playoffs. Yeah. Is your players team still left in the plan. Yes. Alright we got an eagle. Alright is your player on the commanders. Yes. Okay. Wow. Is your player on offense. Yes. Oh boy. Can your player catch the ball. Yeah. Is your player. A wide receiver. Yes. Oh boy. Great. Great hold there from Garrett. Oh no. Is your player run the ball frequently. Yeah. Oh. I might take a shot here. I'm going to jump in real quick for those of you following at home. Both of our contestants probably have it down to just a couple of players now. Garrett knows that Andrew's player is a receiver on the Eagles and Andrew. Garrett's player runs the ball frequently and is on the commanders. So get your guesses ready at home. Garrett back to you. Oh I'm trying to think man who I got to get in a fox's head. Think about his psyche. Who would he rather choose. Twigman or Mr. self help book. AJ Brown. I'm going to take a shot here. And go with. Devontae Smith. Oh. Oh. Oh. Okay. We do get a redemption because that Garrett went first. So Andrew, you get one shot to keep the rivalry tied. All right. I think Garrett went with, you know, someone he really relates with being an uncamself. I think Garrett chose Austin equity. Oh my God. Oh my. This is absolutely true. You can't make this stuff up. Both of our contestants took I believe seven guesses, pulled it on the exact same try for the second time. I'm sure we will bring you a rubber match in one of our future editions of sports brain rot. Who knows what sport we will make them guess the player from. You'll have to stay tuned to against the grain. So find out Garrett. Congratulations on a well thought match. Both of you and Garrett. Why don't you take us into our next segment. Yeah. Congratulations Fox. I was hating on you before that, but good performance all around. We are now talking Texans, baby. We are talking the fraud team in some people's eyes. The first person I want to pass this on to just to get his thoughts on we're going to do a little post season segment and then do a regular season review before we dive fully into the postseason, but 20 seconds for less Julian Puerto. What do you think of the postseason run? I would just like to all the Texans fans and Texans players out there. I know C.J. Stroud you're listening to this right now. I would like to apologize formally to the team. I've disappointed my fellow Texans fans. I'm just not showing much belief in this team, but what I can say is, man, I was. Very proud of the effort that they put into these two games. They played in the playoffs. I was not expecting it to some extent, especially that chief's performance. I thought we played very well, barring a couple of plays. So I think it puts us in a good position to look optimistically towards next year, but. I have a feeling we're going to. Get into the nitty gritty of all this. Pretty soon. Well, let's dive into it, then. So just a little season rewind for y'all. We know the Texans started off the year very hot, then went a little cold, then heated up again in the postseason. Some would say great went over the Chargers 32 12 after being down what 6 0 up until right before halftime and then just turning it on and then lose 23 14 of the chiefs. But I don't think the game was as bad as that score says. It wasn't a one score game, but it felt like the Texans were in it. It felt like Stroud played really well. Good performances over all. So diving back into the regular season, Julian, do you think winning the division was enough this year? Did the Texans meet your expectations so they exceed them or did they fall a little short? Well, it's a bit of a. You have to you can look at this question a couple of ways, right? Where let's be real before seed winning the division, the worst division in football. This is the same thing that Brock Osweiler and Brian Brian Hoyer were doing back in the mid 2010s by no means is that an impressive mark, especially when you've got both the Titans and Jags picking inside the top five, I believe. Not an impressive. Season in the standings per se, even though, you know, I guess most coaches in the league would take a, you know, a division win, right? Even, but like, even if you watch the performances on the field, they were highly uninspiring most of the time. The defense often had to carry the offense. We'll talk a lot more about that, particularly with the news we got this earlier today about Bobby Sloeic being relieved of his duties as offensive coordinator. The offense definitely regressed. So did CJ. A lot of the times it was a Joe Nixon and Nico Collins show. So you wish you could have seen more out of digs and Dell, but the two of them, like, but their injury problems don't show a lot of promise. Yeah, I mean, that's an interesting topic. Do you think Sloeic is getting an unfair deal here considering he did lose, you know, his wide receiver two and wide receiver three, John Metche was having to be the second option, essentially in the passing game against the Chiefs and the playoffs? Like, that's not really easy for any OC to deal with. And you look at the stats of, like, guys like Stroud, Nixon and Nico, and he was putting his best players in a position to succeed to some degree, but they let go of the OC. It's a tough one, man, because the only game all three of those receivers played in the same, or I think they played two games together. I might be wrong on that, where the first game of the season gets the culture. We scored 29 points, decent performance. Actually, one of the few were the offense outperforming the defense. And then the following week where we beat the Bears in a very low scoring game. So the results are mostly inconclusive, but I think Sloeic still throughout the year showed major incompetency at the OC position. Unfortunately, because websites don't track second down stats, I don't have any way to prove it, but just from watching the games, I just want to say, I think we were probably the worst second down team in the league. We reached a situation where it was an incomplete pass or Joe Nixon run on first down. And then on second down, it was either a screen for negative yardage, a rush for negative yardage, or some bone-headed pass that would go for nothing or a pick or turnover. I actually pulled stats from the Chargers game, which even though we blew out the Chargers, we were struggling for that first half. By the way, shout out to Brandon. Brandon and I went to that game together. It was absolutely electric. The Texans had 19 plays on second down that day. Three sacks, two penalties for a total of 55 yards. That's 2.9 yards per play. Keep in mind that includes both rushing and passing. Less than three yards of play on second down is not going to do it. And it puts you in very tough, third and long situations that are going to be bound to get you, you know, fourth downs, or you're going to go three and out. So there were very -- there were a lot of situations where Sloeic was definitely not helping the team. CJ was obviously regressing. I think it's fair. Firing. And let's see if we can bring somebody in that can bring CJ back to his rookie or numbers. So with Stefan Diggs and Tinkdell then we're going back next year, obviously, and hopefully shroud rebounds from his sophomore slump. How do you think the Texans can best take advantage of the talents they have and do you have any idea that they could potentially hire as an offensive coordinator to kind of bring them a little bit further in the playoffs next year? Right. So offensive coordinator is a tougher position just because, you know, you're typically hiring from like wide receiver quarterback coaches. It's hard to tell. I get the impression that CJ and the quarterbacks coach, I don't know his name, but I know that they have a close relationship. So that might be somebody that they just hired from within. That's a typical Texans move I will say. But in terms of personnel, it's a tough one because Diggs was given that like weird one-year field, and he was out for a majority of the year. Tinkdell, who knows if he'll even play next season. I honestly think we need to look to address. I was going to say, I've told several people this that Texans should really only be addressing offense in the draft. We could use anybody on the offensive line. By the way, Laramie Tunsel was voted as a pole bowler. He's not that good. I do not know how that happened. I must be off of like previous success because he was actually one of our most inconsistent tackles this year. But yeah, offensive line, tight end. The guys here in the studio know my feelings about Dalton Schultz. Let's not give any hate to a former cowboy legend. All right. All right buddy. Um, but receiver is definitely going to be something we need to strengthen because even though Nico Collins is a top five or something, yes, if we're not saying that. Absolutely not true. No. Oh my God. That is so untrue. It's 100% true. He's not even the best receiver in his division. Brian Thomas Jr. Okay. All right. Watch the tape man. He should have had more numbers. That's that's zero out of 10. Okay. But the point is like Nico Collins can't do it by himself even though, you know, he's that upper echelon kind of guy. Who knows what CJ is going to look like next year. Um, so I would just say addressing the draft and maybe Joe mixing can help us get. I don't think so. Well, I think to me, I agree. I was rage baiting. You Nico Collins definitely is an elite wide receiver, but to me, the clear need is offensive line. Like I think skill possession wise, like, yeah, Dalton Schill does not that great, but he's a mediocre tight end and a league of a lot of mediocre tight ends. You have a good quarterback. You want to build around and have Joe mixing who was incredible. This year when he was healthy, it was unbelievable going into this year. I told Julie and I thought Joe mixing was going to be an absolute bomb. He was looking like he was on the wrong side of 27. He was a dog. Yeah. And he was carrying that often so many times it was hammering up and yeah, it was unbelievable. But in what makes it even more amazing is their offensive line was horrible. 31st run block grade from pro football focus 26th overall from PFF. I mean, Laramie Tunzel is probably the best guy on that line. He should not have been a pro bowler and he's also 30 like that is usually the age when you see like a left tackle have like maybe one or two more good seasons in them outside of Laramie Tunzel. This line needs a lot of rebuilding especially on the interior. Yeah, they've tried drafting there like the past couple of years Kenyan green out of Texas A&M in that first round tied us Howard from Alabama state a couple of years before that and we've had a couple other guys sort of plug and play there but just nothing outside of Laramie Tunzel, you know, you know, not this past season but he's sort of the only guy that's for sure been there. It's also a hugely injury prone offensive line. Not this past year but probably the year before that I think we were top five in O line like permutations in the entire week. That doesn't help the quarterback that doesn't help the O line. So I definitely agree it's going to be O line for bus next year because yeah, we I have it here. We gave up the third most sacks in the league 54 behind only the bears and browns. Yes, worse than even Max Bassertos, Seahawks, terrible offensive line and brutal and sacks in the division around by the way. Yeah and a lot of I think sacks sometimes is a quarterback stat of guys not getting rid of the ball soon enough. I don't think that's on strike like Stroud does not hold on to the ball too much like often. I don't think that's something you see out of him this offensive line is just dreadful. I mean, we saw it in the Chiefs game, right? They get down in the fourth quarter and they know they're going to pass and it's blitz blitz blitz and they get home every single time. Yeah, like match like spags is like ultimately predictable, but somehow unsolvable just blitzing on third down like people get annoyed of me saying that anytime they watch a game with me. And then yeah, the Texans just like the amount of times I saw like just Russia's go completely unblocked on a sack against CJ Stroud was just I'd never seen anything like it before. So yeah, absolutely, but I guess a bright spot for the team was the defense, right? Because I mean, not a lot of people knew who he was going into the year, but people need to start learning his name. Kamari Lasseter at cornerback that guy is a dog. Ham and Derek Stingley might be already like top fiveish like cornerback duos in the league. They don't call him the locksmith for nothing. He has been great. Yeah, Derek Stingley was so impressive this year too. He's a big team all pro obviously, but I remember his rookie year, Julian, you and I were talking we were talking about Derek Stingley being a bum, horrible draft pick. We were talking about him being a miss. He has turned it around in two years now and he was great this year. Like the first team all pro was deserved. He wasn't a guy who got it just because he's a big name. Yeah. And I wouldn't even say like big name is only because he's made the big name for himself this year. Like he's a he was an all pro this season. I'm pretty sure he's made the pro bowl and he doesn't just like defend the like he gets picks. He has past breakups like he can do just about everything. I know coming out of LSU, he had a couple like injury concerns, but he was pretty healthy. A majority of the year, not like the entire year this year. So glad to see him have a very positive season and hopefully it can be something to build off and could be a next Jaylen Ramsey hopefully, but it's a big name to live up to. So how happy are you with the performance of the pass rush this year, including real interesting? I really like both of our past rushers and Daniel Hunter because we paid him a lot of money to lead the team in sacks is a good thing. Twelve sacks, it's not a lot, but I think the Texans were like top 10 in terms of sacks. So you could tell that we were just spreading the wealth sort of around everybody. But Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson are definitely two guys that I really want to see like build on this year. Will Anderson was out for maybe like five ish games this season. He had 11 sacks in like 12 or 13 games. He was on track to have a monster year before he got injured. So he's a very bright spot on this team. He had like a couple of big sacks in the post even two. He had one on my homes early in the game that gave us that hope early on. Very happy with what they're doing. I mean, I really don't know what I don't have much negative things to say about the defense like because even at safety, Kaylen Bullock out of USC was very impressive. He had a couple picks, the linebacker position obviously had a lot of noise around it. Christian Harris was out the majority of the year as he's all shy or had that big hit on Trevor Lawrence. But I mean, if you can draft a couple of young guys, maybe steals later in the draft and get somebody cheap and free agency, I think this defense should be on track to be just as good as it was this year and I'm feeling pretty happy with it. Yeah. On that note, let's look forward to next year. I mean, we talked about it already. The defense is solid. There's no signs of it slowing down at all. You have your quarterback in the future. You have your weapons in the future. Our main question is the offensive line. How are we feeling about the Texans going into next season and do we think they can take the next step to getting on the tier of teams like the Chiefs, Bill's Ravens, you know, these perennial AFC contenders? It's always going to be tough just because I think as much as I hate to say it, CJ is not as dynamic of a player as Josh Allen, Lamar, Mahomes hasn't proven it like burrow, I guess. So it's going to take a lot. You know, we saw what a good defense, what an elite defense can do in a playoff game can keep you in it. I don't love, I don't love the chances of us challenging quite yet. I need to see like a, it's more about, I'll believe it when I see it, especially because the history this team has within perennial underperformers, no matter what the talent on the team is and well, I just like to see us beat some good teams because NFC North, even though they performed poorly in the playoffs this year, we were one in three against NFC North, blown out by the Vikings, very bad offensive game, that was an 86 yard game by CJ back in and then the Lions catastrophe, the comeback we gave up was brutal. So I'd like to see us beat some good teams because our record against like playoff teams this year was pretty abysmal and it seems like it's a young team that just needs to take that extra step with like a couple or, like a couple or a few more additions to the team. The Texans record this year, even though they finished 10 and seven, their wins outside of the division with the dolphins, cowboys, pats, bills and bears. So one good team in the bunch, they've really only beat one good team all year because the division was so dreadful. All right, we got about a minute left. Fox, Julian, I want 20 seconds each prediction of how the Texans do next year, postseason round and record. Yeah, I think record prediction probably 10 and seven again, but I think for the roster they have and the quarterback, they have anything less than a conference championship appearance and probably considered a disappointing season. So realistically, I feel like they'll probably be the same as this year, one win in the league and this round. I think I might agree with that. Our schedules a lot easier next year. I saw the opponents we have should be like 11 and 6, 12 and 5 season, but I agree if we can't get that one or two seed to maybe give us a chance at home seed advantage or home field advantage, sorry, then it's looking pretty grand in terms of breaking that AFC championship purse. We've never made it. And as long as Mahomes and Alan are still playing at their best, it's another early test. There's one thing one thing teams in Texas can't do, it's make a conference championship. There you go. All right. There you go. With that said, it is time to get into predictions. This week we are talking three different games. In addition to our underdogs, we've got rockets caps on Saturday and then we will be predicting the NFL Conference Championships, commanders, Eagles, and Bill's Chiefs. Julian, why don't we get started with you? Who you got? Rockets caps. Well, before we get started, I'd like to say what my underdog is if we could remind the listeners. Oh, sure. So, we, just a reminder to you, K true faithful fans. Every week each person picks an underdog, someone who's got to be at least plus 200 according to Vegas odds. If this team wins, you get a little bonus point towards your record for it. If not, no harm, no foul. So it's a little fun thing for us to pick a team that's probably not going to win, but we just have faith in for some reason. So, Julian, it's your underdog. So, I'd like to share my very original pick for my underdog pick. I have Nottingham Forest, it's another Premier League choice here. Nottingham Forest at plus 240 at Bournemouth. Bournemouth are missing. Their strikers due to injury. Forest currently third in the league, I think it's an amazing bet to take. Max. So, my underdog this week, I'll be taking the winners of four in a row that New Orleans pelicans to beat the Grizzlies tonight. I kind of did two for today, so that's a little bit cheating, but if you want the best value underdogs, I think you've got to go with Tennessee beating Auburn. Somehow, they're at plus 230, they're both top 10 teams. Yeah, they're on the road, but they can definitely win this outright. And if you want a bit more of a long shot, I got the bond, the St. Bournemouth are going on the road to New ECU, they've already beaten them once this year. So, although they've had a rock, you start to the A10, the match is really well here. I think this is a great spot at plus five, nine, six, six. For my underdog this week, I'm thinking is still a nova, is to beat Mark and Mike. I'm on the same way with Julian, Nottingham Forest over Bournemouth. Ian? I am taking the Syracuse Orange men's basketball team to take my football dog regular, the pit panthers down at home, plus 220 for the orange, both those teams kind of had ups and downs, I thought they could go either way, I don't hate my pick. We would hope not, Ian. You'd be surprised. I'm going to take Ludwig Aberg to win the farmer's insurance open at plus 400. It's kind of a unique pick, but he's playing really well and I didn't really love any of the other options. What is the farmer's insurance open? It's a PGA tournament. It's the plumber's invitational. Alright, let me get, I'm going to do a little foreshadowing here, I'm doubling down on my dog, I'm going with the commanders plus 225, the Eagles are the worst fan base in the NFL, most toxic, most despicable, there's nothing I want more than to see their fans lose and have to go home to their little shanties and fill it up. Alright, Julian, Cavs Rockets. Um, Cavs Rockets, alright, well, do you want to say Rockets did beat the Cavs very recently, but that was due to a sort of flukey, Darius Garland missed free throws at Cleveland. Cleveland are one of the hottest teams in the league throughout the season. I got the Cavs, sorry, my hometown team. I just don't think Cleveland is going to lose two games in a row to the same, though. It's teams off with the Cavs. I second match, I don't think they have these two in a row here, two in a row. I'm going to have to take the Rockets, I mean, this is the one time of the year they've looked human, and I just think the Rockets are going to be able to come out and take it out from under them. If Darius Garland and Donna the Mitchell play anything other than Hot Garbage, the Cavs should win this game. Yeah. I think the Cavs are just too good and have been too consistent, so like, pick against them at home against the team that I think is probably less polished of all there, so I will take the Cavs. I think this is kind of an interesting matchup, but I think I'm going to lean towards the Rockets behind the monster game from Jalen Green. Wow, that's a prediction. I love Tari and Amund Thompson, but I'm going to go with the Cavs. Just too good. All right, Julian, commanders, Eagles, who you got? I do want to say, the other day I was called out by our boy Luke McCaffrey on Instagram for commenting an Eagle emoji on my friend's post, and he said, "We don't need any of that energy here." I've learned my lesson, and going against all logic, sorry Luke, I will be taking the Washington left-hand up, who are we, commanders, to make the Super Bowl with rookie Jayden Daniels. It pains me to say this, but this is a horrible matchup for the commanders, so I'm going to take the Eagles. I think the Cinderella run comes to an end here. I got the Eagles in his favorites. I've also got the Eagles. I mean, I just got to start picking some favorites. Seguan's thighs are so big, give me the Eagles. I think the Eagles are the better team all around, and I was told even more strongly than David would just start picking favorites, so I would take the Eagles. Everything that I want is to see the commanders win, but every single thing in my mind and my gut is telling me that they are not going to win this game, and because I'm going to pick the Eagles. Guys, y'all already know who I'm picking, listen to your heart, you know who you want to win, you've got to will it to happen, left-hand up, give me the commanders. Julian bills chiefs who you got. Ah, the devil magic worshippers, the tailor-slifters, whatever you want to call them, nobody wants to see the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl, unfortunately dreams get crushed every day. People die every day, the bad things happen every day, and on Sunday the Kansas City Chiefs are going to get one step closer to the three team, Max. I just don't see a way to build win in the playoffs at Kansas City, there are 0 and 3 there, it'll be 0 and 4. You should never, ever pick against the Chiefs, it should be like a rule, don't do it, don't do it, and yet I find myself going with the bills, every love, not valid, let's go boys, come on, good mafia. Those mafia always this way. I'm going chiefs, they're a little mahoney. My, like, I might honestly argue that in some ways I'm going to build a better team at times, but I like, if I pick against the Chiefs in the playoffs, I feel like that's, I'm going to have a lot of words to use there if I was going to the Chiefs. I honestly agree with that, but I feel like great teams find ways to win even when they're not playing their best, and the Chiefs have done that the entirety of the season. There are so many games that you can go back and look at where, like, every single thing shows and, like, would make you think that they would not win that game or, like, their streak would catch up to them, and it would all come crumbling down, like, a house of cards, but I think they'd just have that witchcraft magic, and they're going to find a way to get this win at home. Josh Allen, he has an absolute cannon and a great arm too, I'm going with the bills. All right, that'll do it for our prediction segment. You can listen to us every Saturday at 8 a.m. right here on K-Tru 96.1 FM, or stream all of our episodes anytime by searching for K-Tru Sports on iHeartRadio, Spotify, and Amazon Music, and find us anywhere. To stay in the loop, go ahead and follow us @K-Tru Sports on Instagram and @K-Tru Sports on TikTok. We've always got exciting stuff in the works, and we don't want you to miss out. If you have a question for the staff, please feel free to DM us on either those platforms or drop a note to K-Tru Sports at gmail.com, that's K-T-R-U Sports at gmail.com, all lower case. We want to know what you want to know so we can answer it on the air. Peace out. [BLANK_AUDIO]