FiredUp Network
Thursday, August 15:Time Out
Welcome in to Time Out Kansas City, here on the fired-up network. Gerald Bentley, today I'm joined by Keegan Russell from the K.C. Sports Authority. Keegan, it's a busy time of the year. We've got pretty much everybody playing or ramping up to start playing now. It is time for the National Football League for college football. Soccer's getting back going in. The regular season baseball's coming in, the stretch run, and everything is available right here on the fired-up sports network. You can download that TrueTV+ app and watch it wherever you watch TV. It's available on almost every App Store. Keegan, how you've been doing? It's been a little bit since we had you check in. Yeah, I've had a wild couple of weeks of work, haven't been able to do a ton of podcasting, but definitely keeping up with all that's going on from the Royals baseball stretch here into playoff potential season, to achieve training camp, KU football's ramping up their fall training camp, watched a lot of Olympics last few weeks. It was fun to see some local people make some big-time trophy wins out there, get some medals, but yeah, it's still been a very busy couple of weeks of sports. Yeah, I mean, not even mentioning the Olympics, which absolutely just overwhelmed. We'll get to that a little bit later. Big story that came out today for the first time ever in Kansas City area college football. All three teams, all three major area teams, KU, K-State and MU are ranked in the pre-season top 25 and they went in order, MU, K-State, KU. That's that's pretty impressive. I don't think we thought that was going to happen after Missouri left to go to the SEC and honestly after KU went to a death spiral. Yeah, I don't think the odds of all three happening at the same time are pretty slim. I haven't done the research to figure out the last time that's happened. I can think back to '07. Yeah, never? Okay, because '07, you had KU and Mizzou both in there, but I don't think K-State was top 25 at the time. Yeah, it's exciting for all fan bases there. Yeah, that was the Ron Prince era of K-State, so it wasn't a fond era to look back at. Yeah, I mean, they're all there and they all seem to have pieces in place to continue being good, which is something that even during that, that glory days of the Mark Mangino Gary Pinkle era with K-U-M-U, KU seemed to be kind of on the Razor's Edge because Mangino as much as you like a man. I mean, the guy just didn't seem to be put together to be a good long-term answer as a head coach, just a little bit combustible. Yeah, I think if you ask a lot of fans here though, we were pretty ticked off. I don't want to get into the details of why he was fired and he was a tough coach. He was hard on guys, he may push guys too far, but he put together a group of players that were not that highly skilled or recruited and turned them into winners relatively quickly and then was immediately shown the door and thus the 12 years of turmoil in Lawrence, which of course we're well past that now. Lance Leipold has done a very quick turnaround, probably one of the quickest turnarounds in college football to now have a team that a couple of years ago had zero wins in this year is potentially playing for a college football playoffs. Yeah, I mean, they can definitely get there because you have a possibly a big 12 that's much better situated for a long run of stability now, but you take away the big bad wolves, if you will, with Texas and Oklahoma out of there. KU has every chance to be the premier program in the big 12 now, don't they? I think they definitely have the opportunity. I mean, just from a recruiting standpoint, the last couple of years since Leipold's got here, not only has he hit the transfer portal pretty hard with some top guys and some guys that were highly ranked recruits at other programs that just didn't have a spot there, they're also getting their own high school recruits started to pick up. So I think we're on the up and up for sure. The loss of Texas and Oklahoma, those are two really talented programs that have been doing it for a year and a year out. So yes, the big 12 should be open for grabs the next couple of years and I think both KU and K State are certainly primed for that and then maybe speaking of prime, maybe Colorado out there once they start developing their program. But yeah, KU should be in a position to be back towards the top of big 12 standings for the next couple of years and be a program that's not just a basketball school, a school that you can expect to be up there to win a big 12 championship in football now too. Yeah, because they're going to have everything. I mean, this year is going to be a little bit weird. They're going to play their out of conference games at Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas at the Legends, Sporting Stadium. Then the conference games are going to be played at GEHA Field at Arrowhead. So going to be a little bit, still going to be a strong home field advantage, but not not on campus. I think it is the Children's Mercy will be great. Yeah, I think that one's going to be fun because it's going to be so close right there that the atmosphere will be insane. I think Arrowhead is the one that you just don't know what it's going to be. Is it going to be 40,000 fans? Is it going to be a full stadium? I'm sure the Chiefs are going to have a little bit of influence in getting fans there, but back at the earliest part of the spring, we talked to Devin Neal on our podcast, KU Running Back, and we were talking about what's it like going to be playing your senior season away from Lawrence and he goes, "Man, he kind of sucks and we don't get to play here, but we're going to be in two different stadiums close to home, so it's still going to feel like a great environment." And he kind of said, "Hey, it doesn't matter what field we're playing on. We've got the talent to go out there and win." So, yeah, I think KU is going to be looking forward to those matchups. I think the KU Iowa State game is one I have circled as the one I'm most worried about from a fan attendance perspective because Iowa State travels so well, but Devin said one of his ones he's got circled, of course, is that KU Colorado game there at the end of the year, and then the first game at Children's Mercy just to get out there and you get back in the pads. But yeah, quick shout out though. If you guys want to check out that episode, it's back on our YouTube page. Maybe since you're late. Great interview with Devin Neal Sopon to have him come on and I think he's going to have a fantastic senior season with the potential to knock out a couple record books. Yeah, I mean, he's definitely got that ability and hopefully we're going to have Jalen Daniels able to showcase his ability and light it up on the field because last year never got healthy. I mean, you had just being there which helped a lot, but now we really need to see if you're looking for KU to match the expectations. You need Jalen Daniels to have a big year. Yeah, that back's going to be a question all year from fans, but I think not just KU fans, but college football as a whole knows that if Jalen's healthy and that back holds up, KU's got one of the most dynamic offenses in the country despite losing their offensive coordinator in the offseason. KU's returning like, I think it's nine or eight of their 11 starters from last season with a couple guys shuffling around, but all their receivers are back, all their running backs are back. If Jalen's healthy, we've got one of the most dynamic groups of Jalen, Devin Neal, Daniel Nash, Lawrence Arnold, not only in the big 12, but of all of college football. So they are in a prime spot to show up and if Jalen is healthy and lives up to the hype and potential we've seen, you're looking at one of the best quarterbacks, not just in the big 12, but a guy that should compete for a Heisman. That is a safe to say that with Lance Leipold being the head coach, being an offensive guy and a lot of his staff has been with him for a long time. I don't think you're going to see that much of a disruption with coordinator changing. The system's still going to be in place. Yeah, I think it'll be the play callings a little different. I think one thing we might see some more of with coach Grimes is maybe a little bit more of the getting guys in space with some bubble screens. You know, Cuddle Nikki's offense was a lot of shifting in motion to get the defense confused. I think we'll still do a lot of that, but KU's got a lot of speed on offense in the receivers and they've got two dynamic running backs. So I think we'll see some scheming up to get guys in space and then let the downfield blockers do their job. So it should be an exciting offense yet again, one that I think last year for good chunks of the season, even without Jalen Daniels, we were still a top 10 offense nationwide. I don't see that being any different this year. Now they showed that comeback ability to team the other team in Kansas. They're looking for a dynamic offense and they have a guy who's an electrifying runner. Avery Johnson, he he capacities of all two. How do you feel about Avery stepping in? He is going to be the starting quarterback. He's the man previous quarterback. He's starting for the Ohio State University now. Yeah, there's there's a lot of hype surrounding Avery Johnson and rightfully so. He's a tremendous athlete. Good size for a quarterback as far as height, but I think what worries me is with his running style, is he going to be able to take the hits? You know, he's relatively light. He's under 200 pounds. Is that going to bode well in the full big 12 12 season? You know, he obviously didn't play a ton last year, but in sparks in spurts, we saw how talented he is. I don't I guess as a KU fan, I haven't watched enough tape on his arm. So I don't know how much he's beating you through the air necessarily, but I know K state has been a factory for offensive linemen. So he's going to have a group to run behind and he too has two very talented running backs and DJ Giddens and Dylan Edwards to using the backfield. So I think just like how when you look when you line up against Kansas and you see a dual threat quarterback with two amazing running backs, I think you're going to see the same thing on K state and it's going to be an offense. You still have to be concerned about because at any given second, one of those three could light you up for 20 30 yard run down the field. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I'm a little skeptical. His his health is going to hold up again. K state fans are going to say the same thing about Jaylen Daniels because he hasn't shown me, but I think the same thing can be said about Avery Johnson. Tremendous talent. Tremendous athlete, but is that body going to hold up in the in the gauntlet of a big 12 schedule now like Kansas. They don't have the toughest big 12 schedule this year. Both both schools kind of lucked out a little bit there, but it's still big 12 football. He's going to get hit a lot more this year, and he's going to be the primary focus of most opposing defenses. Oh, absolutely. He can gun the ball. I mean, he is a he is a legitimate passing. He does have a kid. He has a can. I've seen videos of that arm. We just haven't seen it. I mean, again, I think his statistics were decent last year and in the short amount of play, but how much of the offense is going to be structured around him throwing the ball versus running the ball? I think that's the question. Yeah, no, absolutely. And especially you got Chris Kleinman as the head coach, who is a run first coach. I mean, he just is. Even with Will Howard, who's now going to be playing for Ohio State and is by any one's definition of pass first quarterback. Will Howard ran the ball a lot and supposedly will Howard. I saw a report this morning that he ran 22 miles per hour in a practice session. So at six what 64 to 40, he apparently he's got some speeds. Maybe we'll see him run the ball even more this year, but yeah, every Johnson, he's going to be a tremendous talent. He's going to be fun to watch. KU fans are going to hate seeing him though the next couple years. I'll tell you that. Oh, yeah. Well, the difference between Avery Johnson running and Will Howard running. Avery Johnson has that evasiveness. He has the ability to move to make guys miss. Will Howard go straight? Yeah, it's fine if he doesn't work for it as well. He's like a running back out there. He's got the score and a running back with the ability to throw the ball. Yeah. Will Howard runs more like Alex Smith? Yeah, I was thinking right now. Yeah, I was liking it. That's right now. That's like Ben Rothelsberger. Just like the ball girl. Now Ben wasn't a running quarterback, but when he did run, you just run for it. Use your sized advantage to push over. He's not a Josh Allen and stop. Now quarterback whose skills are more in here than they are, you know, physically Brady Cook starting for MU. He has a couple of great wide receivers showcased by and headline by Luther Burden. MU, they got a shot, right? I mean they're ranked 12th in the preseason. They're sitting in the playoff position according to the preseason rankings. They got an easy schedule in the SEC this year. They do get a ton. They're just like KU and KSA. I mean, again, all three of these schools are in a prime position this year to let the schedule play to their advantage. I think that also there's going to put some pressure on all three schools to showcase what they can do. Yeah, Missouri's got an excellent shot. They've got probably the most dynamic threat at wide receiver in college football this year, possibly top three at least, but they don't have the heaviest gauntlet of a schedule. They get an open up big or SEC play with Vanderbilt. They get Oklahoma at home and I think they have Auburn at home too, but I don't believe they have Alabama or Georgia or even Texas this year. I'll have to double pull their schedule for them talking, but yeah, they are going to be dynamic. Brady Cook, I don't know. I mean, again, I'm not a Missouri guy, of course, but Brady Cook is one of those guys that, you know, I think it definitely really helped him that he got playing time his sophomore year even though it wasn't a ton. But he's shown steady improvement year after year and I think he's going to be a guy that's also primed for a big year. I don't know if he's quite necessarily a Heisman candidate yet. I think he's got potential for sure if Missouri can run the gauntlet. But yeah, they're sitting as a top 12 team to enter the year with the way the college football playoff is set up. I think they could get in without even winning the SEC as long as there may be a one last team, but they also have a good shot at making the SEC championship and maybe they pull off a stunner late in the year. Well, and I think they're going to start out on a real up note. Like you said, they open SEC play against Vanderbilt. Okay, that's fine. They open the season on Thursday night football, August 29th. They're taking on the Murray State racers and that's when Murray State out of Tennessee and the Ohio Valley Conference, the juggernaut in football. I guess they would like to say to him that they're at Texas A&M in Alabama. I read that wrong. Kind of like South Carolina opening up the season against Old Dominion and Mississippi State opening up the season against the East Carroll East Kentucky University and Alabama taking on that juggernaut of football, the Westrink and Tucky Hilltoppers. So the SEC, they don't mess around. They only play. 65 points red. That's why it's going to happen. Yeah. But you know, I think you're, I think you're seeing what MU wanted when they went to the SEC. Hey, we're going to challenge it up and you win 10 games in the SEC. You're good. I mean, you're going to a high level ball game and if a game or two goes your way, you're a national title contention because you're on the door already if you have a winning record in the SEC. And I think something that's gone really sad and really is just now bubbling up. The SEC isn't the domination that it used to be. I mean, it just isn't. Cause you got teams that have consistently been bad. South Carolina, Arkansas, they're not good. Vanderbilt, except for a couple of years when James Franklin was there, they're horrendous. So it's not a murderers row anymore. Yeah, they don't feel quite as bad as leaders. Yeah, they're not as deep as years past. I mean, they still got some they got some juggernauts out there. Oh, sure. But you do have you got Georgia as long as they're not driving they're they're solid. Driving in a little bit of an issue. The team fights song is Sammy Hakers. I can't drive 55. So they're, they got their challenges. I mean, in Alabama, you got new coaches after historic run by Nick Saban. Yeah, that's a very big question mark. I mean, I know Jalen Millrose talented. He's going to be a Heisman candidate, but Alabama without Nick Saban. I mean, you still probably want to bet in favor of them being good, but how much are they going to look the same as, you know, what Saban was versus a completely different, different ballgame. I'll say that. I mean, that's got to be a question mark. For me, honestly, I was talking with the buddy the other day about the SEC and I think the team that's probably not getting talked about enough that has the chance to I mean, I know they're highly ranked, but to me is Ole Miss. Jackson Darts fantastic. I know they lost Quinn Sean Judkin, Ohio State, but Lane Kiffin's done a tremendous job. I think he's got a chip on his shoulder this year to go out there and prove that Ole Miss can be sustainable. So to me, they're the team to look at the SEC this year. Obviously, Georgia's going to be good, but I think Ole Miss has a unique opportunity to be solid. And of course, Missouri too. Missouri's in a good spot. Like I said, they've got a relatively favorable schedule to make some noise. And if they can get past Alabama and Texas A&M on the road there, then they're in the driver's seat for an SEC championship appearance. Yeah. How do you feel about Kalen DeBore at Alabama? Do you think he can I mean, they still got talent. So I think coaching aside, if you've got some of the best players in the country, more times than not talent can get you far. But I think, yeah, I think everyone's going to be analyzing the first three games of the year. You know, how many points do they score? What's the spread? How do they look? But I think it'll be fine. I mean, they've got, they still got tremendously talented coaches on that staff. And guys, they've been a program a long time. And again, they've got one of the five best quarterbacks in the country. So if it's a fall off, you know, it might not be what other schools experience. It might be they go from a one loss to zero loss team to a three loss team, which I know for them is huge. But for the rest of college football, that's not bad. You can do it one time. I think Alabama is just like Ohio State and Texas. You're allowed to lose three games once. Then you're fired. So the pressure's on from the second you say, yes, I want that job. Just ask Ryan Day. I mean, Ryan Day, if Ohio State doesn't have a huge year and pummel Michigan, Ryan Day is probably gone. Yeah, especially with USC and UCLA, Oregon coming in. I mean, Oregon's got Heisman favorite with Dylan Gabriel. But, you know, Ohio State brings over Chip Kelly in the off season as offensive coordinator, which I thought was kind of an, you don't see that often where a head coach of a premier program steps down, goes to a better program, but to a lesser position. They're in a unique spot. You know, Michigan without Harbaugh now has the making of a crash and burn immediately. They're still very talented. I think you're great guys. But this should be, I mean, Ohio State's year. Those fan bases like to talk about it's their year every year. This is the year Ohio State needs to be in the college football playoff finals or semifinals at least to make a statement because if you let USC Oregon and some of these teams come in and they're making a dent in the big 25 or whatever they are now, then that's not good for him. So yeah, all the pressure on Ryan Day, he's probably been on the hot seat for a couple of years now, especially with as talented of the teams as they've had. I think there's going to be a lot of people looking at Will Howard there too, you know, the former K-State quarterback. Can he go up to a bigger program and compete at an even higher level because he, not that he had bad numbers at all last year, but he's not the typical star-studied quarterback that we've seen out of Ohio State. So I'm interested to see what they look like. I think they're going to run the ball a ton. They still have some talented receivers, but they're going to run the ball a lot with with Judkins up there. But yeah, he's got a lot of pressure to perform. Yeah, I mean, he's not fields are strout. That's for sure. So yeah, it's going to be really interesting. Let's say go over to the Kansas City Chiefs. Training camp wraps up basically tomorrow and you got exhibition game number two, pre-season game two coming up at GEA Field at Arrowhead, Saturday at three, the Detroit Lions coming in, a rematch kind of of the opening of last season. It's a rematch except the game doesn't really matter. Yeah, what do you want to see from the limited time the starters are in there against the Lions? Honestly, I don't think I care enough to need to see much other than health. Obviously, we lose Marquis Brown last game and he could miss the first two to four games of the season or longer. That's obviously a big gut punch. Maybe some of these three through seven wide receivers can a guy like Justin Ross find a way to let his talent showcase itself with Kidarius Tony always being hurt, but who's going to step up? You know, Rashid Rice is probably going to be the wide receiver one of sorts now with Hollywood Brown out. Absolutely. I think offensively maybe outside of that is just Jared Wiley. I think fans want to see, can Jared Wiley step in and be the tied in two right away in Kingsley lock down that offensive tackle spot on the left side? You know, it seems like Kingsley already did lock it down because they got him out of there after the first series. And they looked good the first series. But, you know, I don't know, with Hollywood Brown out Tyree Kill came back from the same injury in four weeks, but Tyree Kill a lot more heavily muscled than Hollywood Brown, so it makes sense he would come back faster. Hopefully he's back for week two but do you feel like you're good with Rashid Rice, Xavier Worthy, Justin Watson, McCall Hardman as your top four receivers? My gut says yes because we've seen what my homes did in a Super Bowl with nobody. And when I say no, but I mean like guys that are literally not on an active roster or expected to make an active roster this year outside of Justin Watson. So yeah, you got Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reed, Travis Kelsey and a nice piece with Isaiah Pacheco. I don't think you're concerned as much. I think what will be frustrating is you won't be able to open up the field like you maybe had hoped. We know Xavier Worthy is a guy that is prone to be dinged up here and there so if he also, you know, busts his ankle a little bit early on now you're looking going okay can Rashid Rice handle the load like you did down the stretch last year? Can Justin Watson take a bigger role? You know, is it McCall Hardman getting back in the swing and things? So I think there's a little bit of a concern factor but we know in all honesty if we're really talking about the Chiefs, the regular season doesn't matter. You know, last year it was gloom and doom after the Raiders loss and then we got to finish the season and go win the Super Bowl. So I don't think it's that much of a concern, what I will be concerned with and I don't think this is going to happen but wouldn't it be so Roger Goodell and NFL to then come out with the Rashid Rice suspension the next week or two and it also is the first two, three games of the season so now you're missing two guys. I don't think it's going to happen but that would be very NFL like to put the Chiefs in that position but yeah, I think they're going to be okay. They do have some interesting receivers in that 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 spot. It's funny, last year going to training camp, it was man, how are they going to keep seven receivers? And it turned out six of them were garbage for the most part. And then this year, the same thing Caderius Tony can't stay healthy, is he going to play? Sky Morris, he on the bubble right now as far as making the team or not. Can Justin Ross push himself ahead of those guys? Nico Ramesio, who's probably going to make the team as a special teams guy, could he see the field? And of course fans want to know that first round pick we spin on Xavier Worthy, can he plug in and make an impact immediately? And I think that's my biggest question is, can Xavier Worthy as a first round pick make an immediate impact? We saw Rashee Rice as a second round pick, make an impact down the stretch. It took him a little while to get going until everybody realized he's the only one capable of making plays. So can Xavier Worthy step in immediately and do that? I think that's what Chiefs fans care the most about. Well, and Xavier Worthy is the bigger question, right? Because Hollywood Browns on a one year improvement contract Worthy, you spent and you traded up a first round pick, he needs to be able to play. Yeah. Because you can't pay the stars what the Chiefs are paying the stars and not cash in on a first round pick. That'll end up hurting if he doesn't. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. My concern level is not that high right now. Yeah. Fair enough. The thing that jumped out at me with the first free season game is, yeah, you know, once the starters in the second string have their two series, the rest doesn't really matter. But the kick offs. God, we looked horrible at it. Thankfully not this fast. It's going to be I think it's going to be a thing around the NFL the first couple of weeks to get adjusted too. But yeah, not great that I can picture. I'm watching it in my head right now and breaking like eight tackles up the middle there. That's definitely a problem. But again, preseason. Not a huge concern. Dave Toad is probably one of the best special teams coaches in the league and he's got a good crew there. I think what it'll be interesting though is just to see the strategy of do teams adjust how they're going to kick? Do we want it to get into the landing zone or is it just hey, we're better off? Let's just start at the 30. Yeah. One somebody was talking about today that the average starting position last year was the 29 yard line. So what's one more yard? Just start and go. Or do you want to have some of these opportunities to see some plays happen? I think what will be interesting with that new rule is it definitely opens up the opportunity to see more exciting plays on the receiving end. Like I think it definitely opens up the opportunities for the kick receiving team to go out and make an impact whereas the rules before, I mean, it's almost impossible to make an impact on kick return with the old rules. But that'll be interesting. I think it definitely opens up the opportunities for guys like Luis Rizamet to put his skill set in. But yeah, it'll be fun to watch how teams strategize in, you know, is again, be a guy like Justin Reed every once in a while out there. It's an extra tackle. I don't know. Maybe it's Chris Jones. We saw him kick a field goal in practice this morning. It was terrible, but he made it. But yeah, I think that'll be interesting to watch. But not again, one that since it's pre-seasoned, let's get all these hiccups out of the way now. Again, I don't think I'm concerned there. It didn't look good though. Yeah, no. Final Chiefs question. Are you a steel hat? Are you excited about Carson's deal? So Carson's deal that picture going around of him holding the alligator? Honestly, what stood out the most to me other than holding the alligator is his freaking thighs right above his knee. I mean, those things are massive. So that usually for running backs that have a little bit low center of gravity with those legs, he seems like a guy that if he develops well, could be a churner. He could churn some yards and fight. Maybe if he's got some of that Isaiah Pacheco in him to fight for yardage. But we've also seen Andy Reed say, hey, if he's capable and shows promise, then maybe they use him in a full back capacity. And now you've got another running back on the field that can block and open up the pass game a little bit there. So I think it's fun watching him. I don't think I have high expectations for him because we're talking about third, fourth string running back there. But I think he's going to make an impact. And I think he's won fans are going to gravitate towards pretty quickly. Oh yeah. Especially on especially, I think he's going to be great in special teams too with that. Yeah, he'll have the rest of this he plays with. He did have stats almost identical to Kareem Hunt when he played in the Mac before transferring to UCLA. Rush for over 1500 yards. I mean the guy has shown that he can be a feature back. I don't, I'm not saying he's going to be a feature back in the NFL, but honestly a targeted, undrafted free agent and a seventh round pick there's not much difference. So yeah. I mean we've seen just about this play on him as they were on pajakka. Yeah about the last five, six years now. How many running backs could we throw out there that were undrafted that have made a significant impact in the back field the last four or five years? It's becoming more common. You know that not that running backs of time a dozen, but you don't have to go out and spend a high pick or even a mid round pick on a good running back. You can find a guy that can fit into your system and do just nicely. And I think steel has the potential for that, especially in our system. But yeah I think again it's it's nice that you don't have to spend a premier pick or cap space in the running back position group because we've got guys that are capable of doing it and don't cost much. Yeah which is a good combination. Let's go over to a team that's you know contributing with guys who don't cost much to your Kansas City players. We've been doing a lot better than we had before. Before the season I thought they would be a lot better than they were the prior year. I picked them to go 72 and 90. Not horrible. You know solidly average, just slightly below average. There's 65 and 54 as we speak. How much do they end up blowing my pick away by? If they go one over 500 from here I still think 91 is is what we need to shoot for. I mean Minnesota. I mean as we're talking this game is going on right now. Minnesota just it's 11 to 3 and it's the seventh inning and the rules look like they don't belong being in the same ballpark as them. And Cleveland's still fantastic. 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I'm not going to be patient. I can't wait. If you give me a taste of what it can be, I expect that to be now moving forward. I think that's where some of it comes in. If you listen to Vern's postgame, you still get the after bad loss for those fans are calling it and then the next night it's, hey, great win. The boys are back then. That's why there's 162 games. You're not going to play every night. You know, sometimes you're going to get beat up, but can you respond the next day? I think just with the impressive play they've had this year from four or five six guys on the roster, the expectations jumped quickly at the beginning of the year was, yeah, can this team win 65 games? We'll be happy with that. Just go improvement and then compete next year. And then it was, oh my gosh, this team's capable of potentially winning 85 to 90 games. All right, well, guess what? The expectations were here. Now they're already here and there's no bringing them back down. So I think that's where the fan base feels at least. They've shown their ability to perform at that level and are still capable, but they got to be able to beat good teams and they can't go, they can't be losing series down the stretch against the teams that are going to be playoff contention teams. They just can't. Yeah, now you got to start pulling some of these out or, you know, then it's just the run to get over 80 and let's see where they end up with get that winning record, which for the Kansas City Royals, having a winning record is a big deal. Oh, yeah. I've lived here since 2000 and there haven't been many. What? Just three? Oh, three. 14 and 15 because 16, did they finish above 16, 17 or are they just under? 16 barely 17, no. So, yeah, I mean, you got a handful and so less than what you can count on one hand. You got the winning records on one hand, so it's not a negative. I'm pulling for the best. I'll be happy with the winning record if they get to the playoffs. Awesome. I don't think this is a World Series winning team, but if you just get there, great because I do think they're set up well for the future. I don't think you need to add a lot of pieces this offseason. You're set up, actually, I think in a better position for long-term stability than the 14, 15 teams were because their window was already closing when they won. Yeah, and you still have some pieces you can move in the off season to get better and you've got a lot of guys still under club control. Sure, you've got some of your one-year rental pieces that you signed the off season that you could bring back or look to extend, but you really don't have that much money tied up. So, you've got options, and John Sherman said, "Hey, if we feel like we can compete, I'm fine adding payroll if it's the right type of player." So, you know, I haven't looked at the free agency for this upcoming off season, but there's going to be positions of need to fill in this team. And I think with the emergence of Vinnie Pasquentino this year alongside Bobby Witt, they just got to find some stability at second and third there. Figure out if Garcia is a second baseman or third baseman or if he's a trade piece. Obviously, they've got to get better in the outfield in the off season with what they've had, but yeah, the fact that we're still sitting here complaining that they're, what, 10 games above 500 coming down the track, shows you how spoiled fans get when you start winning. So, winning obviously cures all, but this team's probably still ahead of schedule from where they expected to be, at least general public. I know they in the clubhouse probably thought this is right where they should be, but to the public in a fan base, they're still ahead of schedule. So, can't be upset too much. Obviously, they have gaps in the team that we're seeing with the way some of these games are going, but if they figure out how to even get close to a wild card or make the wild card, you've got to be perfectly happy with that. Oh yeah, it'd be an amazing, amazing season. Last Royal's question, do you want to see Vinnie Pasquentino signed up long term? Have you seen enough of him? Oh, I think absolutely. Yeah, we, Chris and I were talking about that at the beginning of the year that he needs to have a good first half of the season bouncing back from that injury. I think we've seen enough, I don't think we needed this entire year to see enough. The power pop is there, the defense is there. He's finding big hits in big moments and he's continuing that. I think he's a great cornerstone piece, him and Bobby, being two of the offensive faces for the next several years. I think it's going to give you some of that what Eric Hosmer was for us back in 14, 15, 16. A little bit different play style. I think Vinnie's got a little bit more power pop as far as home run potential, but a guy that is a doubles machine, hits the, finds the gap, gets guys over, scores runs. Again, we had an episode come out the other day that Bobby Witt and Vinnie Pasquentino are one of the best two-man punches in the AL right now, top five as far as performance on the field offensively. So yeah, lock him up. Let's get him here. There's really not many guys that first base down below him pushing for playing time. We make product experiences gone nowhere. Jack Kaggleon obviously is there and I'm sure they'll figure out how to get him some outfield reps, if they want to keep that arm strong enough to pitch and be a two-way player. Vinnie should be a long term. Really, as I look at it right now, those are the only two guys, him and Bobby, that I would be confident locking up for five, six plus years. Yeah, because I'd say Michael Massey, but you need to see him healthy. Again, yeah, another guy that can't get out of a sore back. Well, and maybe he needs to move to the outfield because if the problem is rotating and bending, you do a lot less of it in the outfield than you do at second base. Yeah, so we'll see. Or he just becomes your everyday DH graph. Yeah, they got time. They can figure that out. The Olympics are over like we talked about. The next major international sporting event is the World Cup coming in 2026. Are you excited about it and is Kansas City going to be ready for it? I think Kansas City is going to be ready for. There's a lot to get done, but we've seen the advancements Kansas City has put in the last four or five years. The new airport is obviously huge for that. We've heard Clark talk about some of the things they need to do to Arrowhead to be ready. We've talked before on this podcast, too, that Kansas City is a growing soccer community within the U.S. Both teams here locally get lots of fan support, so I think Kansas City is going to be excited. Infrastructure is maybe the one I'd be worried about. Can Kansas City handle that extra traffic flow? Because we're not the six lane highways that you get in Denver or Dallas or places like that. So that might be a concern, hotels and all that. But I think you got to look forward to that because it's going to be a huge boost of commerce for probably both states and multiple counties. It's going to be a lot of fun. How often does your city get to host something like this? Maybe once or twice in your lifetime if you're lucky. Kansas City has never been that city to be on the map for that. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be exciting. I think we even saw what I can't remember how many weeks ago it was now. Some of the games that were played here with the international stars being in town. A lot of great fan support. So I think it's going to be great. Looking forward to it again. I'm not a huge soccer guy myself, but the big time international competitions get me more excited. But I will say, as a not so much soccer fan, it is frustrating to see that men's soccer on the U.S. side right now just does not really compete internationally. I know we've had that conversation before too, that they find a figure that out. To be fair, the way they picked the Olympic rosters really didn't set us up to win. We made it to the knockout stage, which I think is good for the team that we had. It was a matter of teams making players available, which a lot of MLS teams were in regular season. They didn't make their starters available to the Olympic team. There was a couple of guys who could qualify because it was 23 and under that couldn't play on the Olympic team because they are starting for the U.S. national team. Jake Davis, who ended up going as an alternate, would have been a starter. But sporting kept him because he's an integral player for sporting. So it really wasn't our best foot forward to use a soccer phrase. I mean, we were kind of playing on the back foot from the beginning because the other nations, their main lakes, their premier lakes, they're an off season right now. Yeah, and I think what I've learned since season, so it could have been a little better. They weren't winning anyways. I think the difference I've seen, especially this year, I think the women's NBA did it right. They took time off and closed to shut down for it. I think that's what you see with other countries too. For other countries, again, I'm not saying the U.S. is a bunch of spoiled athletes, but for other countries, the Olympics is such a big deal for not just their team. Yeah, they cut it off. Everything shut down for that stretch to let them go compete first off, but to then for the fans and their country citizens to watch it. And I think that's something the U.S. should definitely look at for sure. And maybe the NBA is going to be in off season by then, so that doesn't really hurt them as much. But maybe Major League Baseball looks at shutting down for two weeks for the Olympics. Maybe our country is a hole from a sports perspective. It needs to dedicate that time there to let these guys go compete. Because again, how often do you get to suit up for your Olympic country's team? That's something that you should take seriously. And if you get that opportunity, you should be fully diving into that. So closing the sport down for a little bit to let them go compete at the highest level. I think it would be a fantastic idea that we should copy. Yeah, 100%. And then we do have a couple of big soccer matches coming up. Sporting Kansas City, they're out of the lake scop. They got, they got thumped by Columbus for Nail. But they're still alive in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. It's an important championship. They're in the semifinals. It's at Children's Mercy Park August 27th. They take on the Indy 11. Indy 11, a team from the second division, U.S. Soccer League. They've advanced to the semifinals. You beat them, then it's anybody's ball game against Seattle or LAFC for the championships. The sporting still in position to get a championship. And then the U.S. Men's National team has their fan appreciation night for this run with the Copa America tournament. They're at Children's Mercy Park September 7th, taking on the Canadian team. So you got a little bit of soccer coming in there. You have a big women's international competition. Finals happening at CPKC Stadium this week as well. The current, they're in the semifinals. They take on the sundowns from the South African League. They win that. They advanced to the finals. That's on Friday. If you have a Visio TV, it's on your home screen when you turn it on. Visio streaming it on every TV. So it's actually a pretty big deal internationally. That is coming up on this week, Wednesday and Friday here in Kansas City. So we've got a lot of soccer going on. But with that, we'll go ahead and we'll move over to our knockout stage. It's weekly champions. Thank you. So there you go, wrestling spotlight. Got the wrestling spotlight championship here. Keegan, who's your champion of the week? Man, that is a good question this week. I feel like we've got to go Olympic route with this. And I'll go, you've got a couple options out of Kansas City area. Let me go Bryce Hoppel, the Kansas Jayhawk, who looked tremendous in the Olympics in the 800. I believe if I'm not mistaken, he set the world record again for that. But I'll go Bryce Hoppel because again, from a Kansas perspective, it's not that often that you get a Kansas Jayhawk at the highest level in the Olympics. And he dominates that sport here in the country. So I think it's great to see him go in competing internationally and performing really well. So I'll go Bryce Hoppel, Rock Shack. All right. I'll give a runner-up mention to U.S. women's basketball assistant coach Kurt Miller. We're classmates in grad school at Cleveland State University. So good to see a Viking up there making some Olympic highlights. But I'm going to go with the cult of personality who's taking over Kansas City by storm. Carson Steele running back. He won the week. So he gets the championship and I'm guessing he's probably a pretty good pro wrestling fan as well. Yeah. He looks like the part. Yeah, it looks like he could step out there and go compete. He's out there wrestling alligators and crocodiles. I'm sure he can hold up just fine. I think he can do it. Yeah, we may be seeing him eventually with L.A. Night. Yeah. But hey, we'll go ahead and wrap it up here. You can stay tuned to the fired up network from our sports and enter to AMENT. Download that true TV plus app. You can also see us on carbon TV and sports TV. Before we go, Keegan, where can people find a Kasey sports authority? Yep. You can find us also over on YouTube. Just search Kasey Sports Authority or @KaseyPod. Any of our social media, same thing @KaseyPod. We've got a lot of college football stuff coming up. Fantasy football, some sports betting over the next couple of weeks as we get into college football in the NFL season. We'll still be talking baseball down the stretch and then, of course, getting ready for Kasey basketball season. So still a lot on our end. Yeah. But I think the next couple of weeks it's going to be the bigger topics. Getting into fantasy football and getting you prepped for your season there to hopefully go out and win some leads. Sure. Yeah, it doesn't stop. The sports world just keeps rolling on. And so does fired up network. Stay tuned for more right here. For Keegan Russell, I'm Gerald Bentley. Thanks for watching us here on Time Out Kids City. Good night.