Danny and Dusty
8-28-24 Hour 1
[MUSIC PLAYING] AT&T customers switching to T-Mobile has never been easier. We'll pay off your existing phone and give you a new one free, all on America's largest 5G network. Visit T-Mobile.com/carrierfreedom to switch today. Pay off up to $650 via virtual prepaid mastercard in 15 days, free phone up to $830 via $24 monthly build credits plus tax, qualifying, porting, trade, and service on Go 5G next and credit required. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue build credits to credit, stop, and bounce and require finance agreements, too. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is Danny and Dusty. Meringue Tang is going to be a thing. You're not quitting anything new. With Danny Meringue and Dusty, the fan man here. All frozen monkey sounds in their cold gut. Feel like Danny Meringue pie? Danny and Dusty on the Odyssey app and 1080. Yeah, this is going to be awesome. The fan. Good afternoon. Hey, welcome in. Danny and Dusty, and this is a split show edition. This is going to be the new Wednesday normal for us right now. I am down in Otson Stadium right now. I'm overlooking the Oregon Ducks football field in Otson Stadium. I see the welcome to Otson sign. I see the Cobra Hills off into the distance. I've got it all going right here at Otson Stadium because I'm down at Oregon Ducks practice on Wednesdays for my sideline responsibilities. Hey. Are still in the cage. They don't let the Meringue Tang out of the cage, my man. No, you keep it in the zoo. Yeah, you can't be trusted to be walking, right? Last time you walked around this stadium, you ended up injured toward your hamstring. Yeah, I was literally walking around the stadium, not actually in the stadium. It was around the stadium or to the stadium to be more more succinct. But we will still party on. I can see you guys. You guys can see me for the YouTube party animals at youtube.com/tenityaimthefan. There will be a time where we will get the YouTube stream to travel down here with me. And we'll have a little camera up so you guys can see all the goings on of this-- I mean, it's a great view. But there's not a lot of action. But you'll be able to see me soon enough. It'll be OK. There's baby steps. Just working, working through the kinks. That's right. That's right. How's your wrestling Wednesday starting off, Mr. Murray? Not too bad. Just minor technical issues up here as I cannot connect to our little Google meet, because why would anything work normally? But other than that, we're doing pretty good. Wow. And apparently, or Joe Guy, already in on the Vancouver 4 Tech Science 503-864-626, he is our wrestling go-to. Indeed. And we do need to honor, at some point today, Rust, Psycho Sid, RIP. But he is already in with Happy Bash and Berlin, wrestling Wednesday. That's a very, very deep cut, I feel like. I feel like the Bash and Berlin, I'm just like WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, Monday, not Night Raw. That's Smackdown. You got that? Yeah. The only time I'm bashing-- I don't go outside. Yeah, no, no, no, no. The only time I'm bashing anything in Berlin, I'm going full World War II. Wow. Well, I mean-- That's aggressive, but totally unbrand. I mean, is it that aggressive? Are we-- Yeah, we're not at that point yet. We're still not over that. Yeah, we're still like-- I think our generation's probably the last generation, because we knew people that we're in World War II. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, we met some people that had fought in World War II. You're absolutely correct. So there's that kind of lingering hatred along with the generational time periods. We don't think about World War I, or the Civil War, or Revolutionary War, we can't laugh about South Socks, England Socks, but you know. But it's not like a real vitriol or hatred for the Britzer, or the South, in the sense of like-- No, we got over that. Yeah, no, you're done, done. Like Germany, we still kind of look at like, no, let's chill out on things, OK? Yeah, they still need to be checked. But hey, that reminds me when you said the Brits there. Have you seen the new Wider series on Netflix? No, did they try to make him British? No, no, they didn't try to make Wider British. No, it's a docu-series where they do the reenactment type stuff. It's actually really well done. But they bounce back and forth, and they basically give all of the background to the shootout at the OK Corral and kind of who Wider was. And why it was such a big deal and led to that? It's really fascinating. I don't want to ruin it for anybody. But the Brits were actually-- they actually played a role in the OK-- the shootout at the OK Corral, which I had no idea about until watching this documentary. I refuse to believe that Brits made it that far west. Well, no, no. You're going to have to watch it. It's about-- Does it have Kurt Russell or Val Kilmer? Neither one of those guys are in it. Sam, no? No, he's also not in it. But the actors are good. The actors are good. You're going to like it because it paints Wider up in a different light than Kurt Russell did. That's for sure. Well, he wasn't a good dude. Wider? Yeah. No, he was not a good dude. Now, this is something that I had heard before, but they go over it in the documentary, so this shouldn't be a spoiler or anybody. But the movie Tombstone kind of paints him as like this by the book "Laman," right? Yeah, no, he wasn't. He was a dude that he said he did not like to use guns. But the reason why he didn't use this gun very often is because he would just walk up to a criminal and just say, are you so-and-so and then punch them in the face and then drag them to jail. Yes. That was more of his style, which that is not the guy that we saw from Tombstone. No. But it tells the story of why the US dollar was trying to make its way back after the Civil War and Tombstone had played a massive role. Oh, OK. It's really good. You are a history buff. Yes. You would like it. It's the new ROC. The secret service part is part of it, right? Yeah, you're also a violent sicko. I am. And so you would also like it because there's plenty of that. My algorithm on social media is tuned just perfectly now to where once every couple of days, a fight gets thrown in there. Yeah, it's totally fine. Whether it's like a street fight or a military action, it's just like a little emerald legacy. BAM! Into my social media. I'm not sure I want anything white or perlated that doesn't involve Sam Elliott. Or I'll just grist for the mill. God, that's right. Yeah. Tombstone is one of my favorite. Tombstone is the movie I've seen more than any other movie. It's not particularly close. It's a good movie. It's the most rewatchable movie of all time. You can put it on in the background and just be totally fine. Every now and then, you'll be working on something, or it's just people are around. You'll throw a line will come up, and you'll say alongside the TV, and then you go back to whatever you're doing. Boy, you're not wrong about that. It's perfect. But all we get is like Shawshank and Conair. Like, why not throw in a little Tombstone on TNT on that rainy Saturday? That's where the change is, though. It's the Marvel movies now. You have an-- Spider-Man is the whole day, every day. Look, I am totally OK with Marvel movies being the new Tombstone replacement. I am OK with that. There's a lot of good lines. You can get in and out of it. You can pop back in if you want to turn your brain off for a few minutes. I'm one of those absolute lunatics who-- No one. Yeah, no, they can just stop right there. When I sit down to write, if I'm writing an article for the Patreon or something like that, I will have-- I've got three monitors, right? And one of the monitors will be on a TV show. I'll just put whatever, like I'll load in my XFINITY app or whatever, and find a TV show that I can just leave on. And then one monitor will be nothing but whatever research or videos or game film that I'm watching in the middle monitor will be whatever I'm writing. And I will sit down. I will do this for like-- when I write, I'll sit down for like four or five hours at a time and just kind of go into my own little world. And I will just pivot to the monitor to the left and turn my brain off for 10 minutes. And like whatever show is there, I will just watch. And Marvel movies are so perfect for that. I can just-- you can just cop in and out of them without any hesitation whatsoever. Absolutely. I'm with you on that. The Vancouver 4 text line saying I have robot voice right now. You're-- it's cleaning up. Yeah. So I think you're actually good now. Oh, all right. Do we fix the glitch? Joey's in the other room right now. And I think we've addressed it. Yeah, we just realized that the stream hadn't started yet because I'm an idiot. Oh, so I was right. Yeah. You were right. OK. Yeah. OK, perfect. Yeah. Not that you were an idiot, just that I didn't start. And look, in this case-- I'm going to lay out on this one. I'm going to let you guys settle this between yourselves. Joey's in the producer booth right now, just nodding and smiling accordingly. So-- All right. We've got a sports show, but believe it or not. Between us talking about Tombstone and wider and Marvel movies, we will have a radio sports program today. Jerry Allen, Voice of the Ducks, is going to join us coming up at 12.30 as we are down here in Austin Stadium. No better person to bring us into the college football season than Jerry. And he's going to sit down and put the headsets on and have a conversation with us about the 2024 Oregon football season. I want to get his thoughts on Tombstone as well. I know he has thoughts on Tombstone. We'll also got a lot of college and NFL news and notes. The crazy part of yesterday was some names actually getting lopped off of NFL rosters and getting swooped up today. We got to some of them yesterday during yesterday's show as they were happening. But boy, some real surprising names getting cut and now trying to find new homes across the NFL. And again, list season, it hits you like a ton of bricks right before week one of the NFL in college football season. So we'll have to get listical too. So we've got to-- well, all of a sudden, we have a ton that we need to get to on this Wednesday afternoon. I'm down here at Austin Stadium. Danny, still back in the studios, along with Russ, holding it down on this wrestling Wednesday. Where we got to start this bad boy off, a big decision was made in the steel city. This is Danny and Dusty on the fan. 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Go to Shopify.com/Audicypodcast to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com/Audicypodcast. Now, at T-Mobile, get four 5G phones on us and four lines for $25 a line per month when you switch with eligible traders, all on America's largest 5G network. Minimum four lines for $25 per line per month without a paid discount using debit or bank account. $5 more per line without auto pay, plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge. Phones will be at 24 monthly bill credits for well qualified customers. Contact us before canceling entire accounts to continue bill credits or credit, stop and balance on a required finance agreement too. Bill credits and if you pay off devices early, see T-Mobile.com. - I'm not sure how surprising this is to anyone, but the Pittsburgh Steelers have named Russell Wilson, the starting quarterback for week one in Atlanta against the Falcons and Kirk Cousins. Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, kind of a back and forth throughout the preseason, mainly because Russ's availability for the first couple of weeks, he just wasn't able to play. But I think after what everybody saw from Justin Fields, this seemed like the no brainer that you go with the vet. - I mean, the thing I take away from this is broken dysfunctional Russell Wilson is still better than Justin Fields. And that kind of tells you everything you need to know about where they actually are with their quarterbacks. It's not a good place. They're not, and you can say, "Oh, there they'll probably shift to Justin Fields because there's more potential there later in the season." But like, if you're gonna do that, then why not do it now? Like, I don't understand the reasoning if you're going to make the switch eventually, because the idea that somehow you'll be better today, but with Russell Wilson, but better in the long haul with Justin Fields when they're both not good, I don't, it doesn't make any sense to me. My brain just cannot handle, this is like a double negative being a positive. It just doesn't, the math does not make sense. - Well, yeah, that goes back to the old adage. If you got two, you got none, right? - Yes. - And so you're gonna go with the guy who is, I guess, less dangerous in the ways that it will hurt you? Maybe that's his new nickname, is less dangerous. But he is in the fact that what was the bit why the wide criticism of Russell Wilson in his time in Seattle, right? - Mr. Unlamey. - It was that he was a very good play action passer, could push the ball down the field, get those big chunk plays, but he was risk averse. And a lot of times for a quarterback, you want a quarterback who is risk averse and doesn't get you in trouble by trying to force the ball in throwing interceptions. But Russell Wilson was kind of on that extreme end of it, right, where he wasn't throwing picks, but he was taking a lot of sacks. And I guess if you're Mike Tomlin, who's a defensive-minded head coach, it's better for you in your mind, right? To be able to punt the ball away, then sudden change, bring your defense out on the field. That is the reasoning that I can get to that point, but to what you're saying, Danny, is I agree, in that neither one of them are a good option, if that's the mental gymnastics that you're gonna have to do to stick the landing on rust being the guy right now and saying, "Well, you never know, down the road, Justin Fields can be that guy." - The thing, I take this in general, it's just kind of looking at the state of quarterbacks around the NFL and kind of the idea of which ones are on the most solid footing. We know like who the top 10 quarterbacks are in the NFL. We talked about the quarterback tiers yesterday and kind of the where things sit with, once you get past the tier two guys, which is essentially your top 10. You get into that tier three, those guys all felt like they're on solid ground, but you get into that tier four group and you start kind of going, yikes. I don't know, and even some of the tier three guys towards the bottom, you're like, "I don't get it." Does this feel like the least stable quarterback position in the NFL right now? - Yeah, because I think in any of the other ones that we could talk about, whether it's Minnesota with Sam Darnell and you have J.J. McCarthy, one, J.J. is a rookie and hurt. So that kind of helps the, wow, you know, we're gonna roll out Sam Darnell anyway. In New England, at least you're selling that, and we talk about this a lot with the trailblazers, right? Sell, you have that Hopium, the Hop from the fan base, that in New England, you have J.J. Coby Brissett, but that's only because we're waiting for Drake May and he's gonna be the guy somewhere down the road. In Denver, it is, can't be much worse than what we had last year. And we got a rookie in Bonix who's looked wildly efficient throughout the preseason and everything that Sean Payton said he was gonna be for us. He's gonna be that guy. We all know this, we talked about this one. Bo is named starter, right? He's gonna go through his lumps. He is a rookie in the NFL where they are very well coached and everybody is the best player on their college team, right? Except for maybe if you went to Georgia. But you have, there will be a learning curve, but you have that hope of he's young. He can learn, we can go through this and we expect this. Pittsburgh is really the only area, the only place where you're like, man, we're in the drags of it no matter what. I mean, even Seattle with Gino Smith being your number one, you're going, he went to a Pro Bowl. He went to a Pro Bowl for us and we have Sam Howe who looked electric at times, right? I think you're right in that. Maybe your Vegas Raiders are the only other franchise that are kind of in this boat right now. - Maybe? - I mean, and I'm sorry to say that, but at least your fan base is on, we got the plan and the plan is to get the quarterback of the future next year, but that's not the mentality of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is, they've got a roster that's gonna be good enough to go nine and eight, eight and nine, be right in the middle of the pack because their defense is still gonna be really good. They're still gonna have a good run game and they're gonna win a lot of games, right? Your hope for your Raiders is, you kind of send it in the side of the mountain this year, right? - Yes, I mean, that's kind of the idea and that's what the Steelers have refused to do and you look at every other team in the NFL. I mean, is there a team that hasn't done that with the exception of the 49ers who stumbled on it and then literally they're the literal last pick in the draft after, of course, getting all the way up to number three. So they have literally hit both extremes, but I mean, everybody wants to talk about how you can't tank in the NFL. Every single team with the exception of the Patriots in the past 30 years has had to do this and even then he replaced a quarterback that was drafted where? - Number one overall. - Okay, so it's like this whole idea of like, oh, we can just kind of figure it out and maybe we can find value, like, sure, that's fine, but at some point in time it's becoming so apparent that you have to. Now, whether or not you get it right, I think that's up for debate, but this whole, like, I would love for somebody, like what the analytics community, whether it's, you know, PFF or any of the other groups that to take the quarterback dad, and they probably have this over the last 50 years, hell, let's just shorten it to 30 to like the passing era, and look at draft value for quarterbacks and then the actual winning components that came with patchwork quarterbacks. Quarterbacks that weren't a part of, or weren't supposed to be a part of the solution as it were, because if you, if you are a Steelers fan and you are so deluded that you have gone full Chicago Bears and be like, no, no, no, Justin Fields, I can see it, like, that's a level of copium that I just can't, like, you've watched this dude for four years being not good. - Yeah. - The list of guys in the history of the NFL, let alone modern passing era, who have done nothing in four years, you're like, I figured it out, and I think we're seeing a bit of that with Sam Darnold in Minnesota, this is your, what, six, your seven? - Yeah. - And it's all because of draft value. Darnold being a, you know, a top pick and Fields being what, pick 11, you just see this start piling up and it's just like, I can't wrap my head around it. - I know it hurts your brain. Vancouver for a text, 950-3864-6326, your dollar goes further of Vancouver Ford, they treat you right before, during end after the sale, visit them online, VancouverFord.com. The New York Giants are in that boat too, with Danny Jones and Drew Locke, right? And it's not a fun boat to be in. It can seem very lonely, it's only at times, but I mean, we're going down and we can do that then. All right, the bottom three, you know, quarterback situations, if you will, in the NFL, you can go Pittsburgh, Vegas, New York, which one is the most desolate at this point? - Pittsburgh. - You think it's Pittsburgh? - Yeah, because they don't have to be good enough, or you're not gonna be bad enough, right? You don't have the path to it. I think that's the legitimate thing, and that the Giants, like, they'll play Daniel Jones, and they're gonna be terrible, because he's very bad. He's just not a good quarterback, and that team is just so bereft of any actual talent on the offensive side, outside of neighbors. And the Raiders, like, it is what it is. Like, I don't care what Antonio Pierce does, they're gonna suck, they're just not good. There'll be the little defense that could, where it's a bunch of guys you've never heard of that may end up making, like, probably, it would not surprise me that the Raiders end up like a top 12 defense in the NFL. Like, it's weird as that is, they just-- - No. - It's like, it doesn't really make any sense, but like, you look at the roster defensively, and you go, well, no one sucks. You know, and then you look at the offensive side, and you go, wow, there's a lot of suck on this side of the ball. So, and in today's NFL, I just don't, I don't think you can, you can be that unless you have this overwhelming defense and being productive, and honestly, I hope they don't. I hope they don't, I genuinely hope they don't, and it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, you probably should've done this last year, dummies. - Yeah, absolutely. You know, as you were saying that, I was going through, did you see ESPN had their list of the most of asking quarterbacks, or asking players in the NFL about quarterbacks where the top quarterbacks, who's, what Ricky's gonna have the best career, who's the most overrated and underrated quarterbacks in the NFL, and as you were talking about that, Justin Herbert was fourth on the most overrated, but he was also fifth on the most underrated. - It's a weird spot to be. - Isn't that a weird spot? - Yeah, well, I think we need to talk about this a little bit later in the show. This is, it's a squirrel moment, but it's also, I think, kind of poignant. On my way in today, I don't know what wild hair just crawled up my back, but I was, Brandon Roy popped into my head, and I tweeted out some of the general idea of, he was the perfect encapsulation in the NBA of that boy, Nice, where it was the perfect combination of aesthetically pleasing, like the quote unquote real Hooper, while also being a super high end talent. And I was actually kind of wondering, like, does that exist in the NFL? Like, is there somebody in the NFL that you just has like a near universal approval rating where you're just like, they're really fun to watch. I don't care what team they play for. Like, it just feels like they don't necessarily have to be the best player on the planet, but there's just-- - Like it wouldn't have been Larry Fitzgerald out of town. - Yeah, yes, 100%. Like, universal approval rating, every player, like, nobody's calling them underrated. Nobody's calling them overrated. They're just going, rated, just, but it's also, it's what they do is beautiful, but it's also even for like the real, like, I, analytics is the devil, like, he's a real Hooper, he's a real baller, he's a real play, like, 'cause I feel like Herbert is to an extent one of those guys, but he has his detractor. So, even if he's on the list, he doesn't make the cut, if that makes sense. Do you know what I mean? Like, does somebody use-- - Well, I think it's Patrick Mahomes, 'cause he's just faring away the best quarterback in the NFL right now. - Yeah, but he has his detractors. - Yeah. - You know what I mean? - I think people need to pipe down with it. - They're dumb! - The only reason why he has his detractors is because they're just people that don't like the best. - Yeah, absolutely. - Yeah, well, that and his wife and his brother. - Well, that too. - I think those are probably the other thing. And they think, like, what, 'cause I think Herbert does kind of fall on that because he throws like one of the best balls you've ever seen, and when it leaves his hand, it just looks beautiful. I remember telling Andrew Nemek when Justin Herbert was a junior, I think. No, it was his senior year. It was his senior 'cause he got hurt as junior. When he was a senior at Sheldon High School, he threw a ball at Providence Park, and I looked over at Nemek, and I said, that is the most beautiful football I've ever seen a high school quarterback throw. It was a crossing route, hit a crosser in the middle of the end zone, and the nose was down, it was on a line, and his receiver had no other option, but to catch that ball, he could not drop it. And I just looked at Nemek and said, that was incredible. And I am with you. There's something about his spiral that you just go, yeah, that's pretty, man. He does throw a beautiful football. - But you know what I have in that sense? - I have a couple of guys. I have a couple of guys that popped into mind. But what we need to do right now is we need to class this show up a bit. We're gonna class this show up. Jerry Allen, voice of the Ducks, he's gonna join me in the booth at Austin Stadium next first. You got Jeff Rust with the Sports Inter-Update. (upbeat music) Welcome back into Danny and Dusty. I am live at Austin Stadium right now, looking out over the valley, and a beautiful day down here in Eugene, Oregon. And we are joined with Danny back in the studio up in Portland. We are joined now by a man who usually gets to set the scene, but I get to take it over for today. Jerry Allen, voice of the Ducks, how you doing? - I feel a little uncomfortable sitting this close to you, okay. So I'm gonna widen out just a little bit here. - I mean, is that the real reason why you send me all the way down to the sidelines for these games? - Well, just saying, yeah, kinda, we voted on it. - Don't feel bad, Jerry. I literally sit on the other side of an enormous table up here. So trust me, I get it, I get it. - All right, here we are. We're fine, it's finally game week for the Oregon Ducks. This off season, we sure, 'cause there's a Fiesta Bowl, but it's also seem like it's taken forever because of the hype and the excitement surrounding this team. Can you remember a time where there has been this much excitement heading into a season? - You know, maybe Marcus Mario does last year when we knew that Oregon had a pretty good team and a chance to get to the national championship game. He was the guy that could get you there, and we could sort of sense that. I think Dennis Dixon, the year that we lost Dennis, we knew midway through the season, not preseason going into, but once that season started, we realized here's a guy that has a great chance to win the Heisman, we can win the national title. So there were those times when you felt that excitement, but maybe not as early as we are this year with the change to the Big 10 and all that, you know, the nation's talking about Oregon and the Big 10 and Ohio State and the Big 10 and the Ducks and the Big 10. I mean, it's pretty cool. - Yeah, Jerry, one of the things that I've kind of wondered sitting from the outside looking in, you've been there for a long time, you've seen the different iterations of this program. And for me, my criticism of Oregon has always been that they just didn't have the horses and the trenches to be on the level of saying that we are a national title competitor. That feels like, and it looks like it has changed over the last couple of years. And they can put those horses on the front of the cart now and go, no, we're here with everybody else. What has that transition been like kind of watching that ascension of, hey, we can do it every couple of years to, no, we're here year after year after year now. - Well, we knew, Jordan and I talked about the pieces that were missing, or maybe not a pieces that were missing, but the depth that did not allow Oregon to continue through a season when they would start well and then suffer some injuries and then you didn't have those backups that dipped. But I'm playing Ohio State in a Rose Bowl and a camera a year it was, but we matched up pretty well. Land backers for about the same size, both sides, but Ohio State's linebackers were not only big, they were faster than they'll get up. We couldn't compete with that. So there were areas or levels, as you say, that Oregon wasn't quite at year after year. And we've seen it develop now. I think Mario Christoball really should get credit for bringing in some bigger, stronger, faster guys and really got Oregon up to a different level. And now Dan Lanning has really topped that. And so now you're seeing across the board starters that can compete at that level with some of the bigger schools. We're talking about Alabama, Ohio State, putting guys in the NFL and the trenches. Oregon's doing that now, and so yeah, it's changed. And we can see when we weren't there and we've seen them slowly gain ground and get to what would we believe they are there now. With hype, do you get a little-- at times, do you get a little cautious, like too many people are talking about the ducks? Yeah, I do. I find myself doing that. I mean, I got to dial myself back because you watch practice and you talk to the coaches and you read the headlines and you listen to ESPN. It's like, yeah, that's what we're going to do. You know, and it's the wait a minute, wait a minute. OK, because I'll find myself starting to talk like that with people, with fans. And it's like, now I've learned to say that all said, everything I just said, but now you've got to prove it, OK? Haven't proved a thing yet, got to prove it. Jerry, there's a ton of transfers into Oregon this year, with two very prominent names in Evan and Dillon. Outside of those guys, who is just kind of popped on the scene and through practices, through camps, that you've been like, oh, this looks a little different. Well, it's almost a little difficult to answer that question. One, I'm not supposed to talk about what I see in practice. They got-- I think they got a sniper. Yeah, I know. They're right now. But the real reason is, it used to be that you would see a kid coming in like Jonathan Stewart, a Royce freeener, something like that. And they just stood out. You just knew. This guy's different and they would run through people, around people and past people. And now, you're not seeing that guy. I mean, sure, there are a couple of guys that stand out. But the reason you aren't seeing that one or two guys that are running circles around people and are stand outs is because there are more stand outs. So you've got-- in a long past, you had maybe a five star, maybe a four star, maybe a couple of four stars and three stars. Now you've got fours and five stars in. And so you don't have the guys that separate themselves and make you go, oh, wow, you're seeing that more as a team or a group of guys, rather than one or two individuals. And I think that kind of goes to-- it has to be a very specific skill set that makes that guy pop now. And that's the credit to the roster building that you're talking about. Because I remember last year, the buzz around Tess Johnson was, this guy's just different. And then we saw it took him a while to kind of ramp up and get up to speed with the offense and terminology and such. But by the end of the year, we were watching Tess Johnson. In that twitchiness, that speed, it's completely different than anybody on the field. And those guys like Tess and Evan Stewart, same thing, they make the guys who are around them so much better because they're competing with guys that are level above them or were expected to be a level above them. And they're competing with them, and it makes them better. So you're not seeing-- I mean, Tess Johnson, I think, is a tremendous leader of the Whiteout groups because guys want to be like him. So they're competing with him. They're trying to be better than him, which has made them better than they were, which is maybe kind of hard to understand. But I'm impressed with Oregon's wide secret group, running back group. I mean, we just start breaking down groups. There's a guy here and there that stand out. But I think the thing that's going to carry this team this year, Dusty, is that it's not just one or two or three stars or just a couple of guys here and there. I think it's the team in general that have raised their level of athleticism and quality. Jerry, I want to keep you around here because I want to ask some questions. We were talking about those guys with the twitchiness and the guys that just stand out. And I want to get your thoughts on-- you've seen a lot of University of Oregon football. Who have been the most explosive players, your favorite players to watch here at the University of Oregon? And we'll get that from Jerry as he joins us from Watson Stadium on Danny and Dusty on 1080 The Fan. Danny and Dusty, Split Show, we're going to be doing these Wednesdays as I'm down in Eugene for Ducks practices every Wednesday morning and bringing you Danny and Dusty in the afternoons. And we decided to bring on Jerry Allen, the voice of the Ducks. You've seen a lot of Oregon football, Jerry, and a lot of explosive players. Who are some of the guys that stick out to you as the gamebreakers that were just so much fun to call? Because you never knew when the game was going to turn on its head. You know, I'm going to say one of the first guys that you're going to say, he wasn't a game breaker. But he was, and that's Bill Musgrave. Oh, yeah? OK, Bill Musgrave wasn't one of those powerful runners. He didn't have the greatest speed in the world. He didn't have the greatest arm in the world. Bill Musgrave had a knack of knowing where everybody was at the right time and getting them the ball. He wouldn't get a fight in there like John Elway. He was just going to get him the ball. And then that very first game, go back to Colorado when they upset Colorado in Boulder. It was the beginning of something special. It's where we are, I think, in 2024. I think he started. But he was one of those guys. I'll tell you something. He said, Jeremiah Johnson. I saw him at practice the other day. JJ had, to my mind still, the best straight arm as a running back I've ever seen. He came in right when Twitter had started. And almost instantly, Jeremiah's stiff arm became a Twitter account of its own that took on a life of its own. It was a thing of beauty. It really was. Just punishing Eric Castle. It played in the secondary, along with, oh my gosh, Ashlyn High School. Chad Kota. Chad Kota. Those guys laid the lumber. I mean, fun watching them come up and hit somebody and knock the ball loose or do something like that. I think, this is where you're just talking about Royce Freeman. Jonathan Stewart is one of the first guys that I remember when fall camp started, he came in as a freshman. And we looked at him, and his legs were bigger than my body. And we kind of looked at him and went, holy cow, well, why didn't he go straight to the NFL? And that's the way he played, too. He was a specimen. I think watching Joey Harrington, Keenan Howery, it's tough to go down a list and leave somebody out. But those are the names that pop out. Another one is Hello De Nada. Oh, my goodness. Hello De Nada was the anchor that every team in America wishes they had every year. Yeah. I mean, he was a double team guy. He was good, I have to be double-teamed, which made the whole defense better, so. He was so big that they would double-teem him, and he still wouldn't move an inch. Oh, no, yeah. No, he was a rock anchor in the middle. And then he got to the NFL, and it was like, well, it's not just a Pac-10 problem. It's the problem of humans trying to move Hello De Nada. And he was so soft-spoken that you could set this close to him and not hear what he was saying, because he was so humbled with very, very soft work. Now, there were so many of them, guys. I mean, it's hard to stop talking about the list. Jerry, in the same vein, unfortunately, it's the end of the Pac-12, but it's the beginning of the Big Ten for Oregon, Washington, USC UCLA. There's going to be that kind of line to draw, where those four teams have some shared history that can bring with them. But when you're going into that conference, what are the things that you're kind of hoping to experience or to see? What are the things that you're looking forward to as you move into a new conference covering this team? Well, one of the things I'm looking forward to may say, I want to see USC, UCLA, and Washington continue to have success, along with Oregon, to be able to put it in the Big Ten and have the rest of the nation finally say, holy cow, they play football on the West Coast. I think those four teams, being in the Big Ten, if they can be successful on a regular basis, I think we'll open a lot more eyes across the nation. I'm looking forward to that. And then, obviously, the venues, the history, the tradition, rich Big Ten, I mean, going back to Ohio State again, back to Michigan, and then to Illinois, going to Penn State. I mean, these are venues and teams that have watched for years and years and thought we're the hotbed of college football, even though we're the West Coast packed club, that was more college football. What place are you most looking forward to go this year? Because you got the Rose Bowl to start it off. You talk about venues. The Rose Bowl to start it off, then West Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue, with the big drum that they bring out, the big house in Michigan, and then Madison, Wisconsin, and also research stadium, but that's a familiar place. Actually, you haven't been there since the new stadium. I've not been there. Okay, so those are the five right there. Easy answer for me, 'cause we've been there, and their fans are much like Oregon fans. It's one of the toughest places to play, and that's Madison, Wisconsin. I mean, when they get jump going, that place vibrates. Yeah. And it's a great college atmosphere, and so I love Camp Randall is special. Hey, they don't do any of these places, throw things at sideline reporters, 'cause Texas Tech was not my favorite place to go and get water bottles and tortillas thrown at me for three and a half hours. Well, you've done a game down at Arizona State recently, okay. No, no, last year was the one after Texas Tech. I was like that, Arizona State, I can't do it this year. Oh, there's, yeah. Launce is just tortillas. Water bottle is a little dangerous, though. Tortillas, I can eat it, tortillas. I can send some cheese to some folks in Wisconsin and have them throw that out. There you go. Okay, great. You can't wait for that. Wait a year, we'll probably have some snowball somewhere, 'cause this is gonna be cold. That's right, mid November, November 16th in Madison, Wisconsin. Yeah. I'm not built for the coldies. It's frozen, thunderous. You gonna be on that sideline wearing one of those puffers? Is that what we're gonna give 'em you? I'm gonna look like the Michelin man on the sideline down there, are you kidding me? I'm gonna go find George Costanza's jacket. (laughing) Yeah, I'm gonna look like the little brother from the Christmas story out there. You're doing the star wattle? Yeah. You're gonna roll me out to the sideline that I'm just gonna prop me up. I might wear the duck costume. I don't know. That'd keep you warm. It would. You have two pair of long underwear and a puffer coat and it'll be a 75 degree day. (laughing) Exactly. Historically speaking, we've gone through, go to the Big Ten. That's gonna be an awesome change. And it'll be very welcome. It's been pretty crazy to think of how much more publicity Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA have gotten just by this move, right? Everybody wanted to say the East Coast buys wasn't real. I think one thing that we have found quite clear is that it's real because you go to that conference and it's like, all right, now they're playing big boy football. Are you gonna have your eye on any of the other former Pac-12 teams that you're gonna be keeping tabs on? Yeah, I mean, I'll kind of watch Cal, with Wilcox there and some of the guys that played for Oregon and coached at Oregon. ECC football. Yeah, I can't imagine that. That is mind boggling to go from the West Coast all the way to the coast, come back and play and go back. Now, it doesn't make a lot of sense. That's gotta change in the next two or three years. Cal, I'll be interested in watching Cal. I'm kind of curious to see really what happens with Oregon State and Washington State. I just thought that was so wrong that they did not end up in a power five conference somewhere, they deserve to be. And so, for the next couple of years, I wanna watch what they do and how that all plays out. I hope that they are successful and get where they need to be and where they should be. Other than that, I don't care about anybody else. Perfect, yeah, I don't. It'd be fun to watch Arizona and Arizona State, but we don't have to play 'em. I'm glad we don't have to go to Utah anymore. Yeah, see, and that was the one I have grown such an appreciation for Utah in their time in the Pac-12. I respect them very much. Yeah. And Kyle Whittingham seems like a guy who is a great guy who kind of does it the right way. And his program is, it's amazing to see, they went from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 and then flinched and blinked. They were ready for the challenge. I hated playing there 'cause their fans were great. And that was a tough, tough game. And I'm glad we don't have to play 'em anymore. Maybe they'll make it in the 12 team playoff and we'll make it in the 12 team playoff. That would be correct. I hope that happens. Okay, I hope that several pre-Pac-12 teams, as well as several of the Big Ten teams end up all in the 12 team playoff and it would be like the Pac-10 over again. In Pac-12 over again. Do you think that that's what would get the Pac-12 finally some credit? Is it's finally gone and it's like, all right, so you got the Big 12 champ in Utah. You've got, you have a Big Ten team in Oregon. You can get another bid from the ACC. I don't know if that's gonna be happening with Cal or Stanford this year, but you could get one feasibly. No, I mean, I think Oregon, USC. I think Utah, certainly. I don't know, Arizona has got a chance. Yeah, Arizona has got a chance. So even Arizona State, yeah, it could happen. I think that would be fun. Yeah, that would be. It'd be awesome. All right. You're ready for this game yet? Oh, we got Idaho this week. What do you know about the Vandals yet? Vandals, pretty good ball club. I mean, they lost most of their offense, but most of their defense comes back. They're a good program. It's like, I'm gonna say this about everybody Oregon plays this year. Be aware of your opponent, but be more aware and concerned about your own team. Don't beat yourself. So you could let Idaho beat you or you can play your game and make them have to try to beat you. And that's gonna be a tough thing to do. But Idaho, I love playing Idaho. I love playing Portland State. I love playing those teams in Oregon. And this is the hard part for these FCS schools because Idaho is kind of the poster child for it. Coach Jack down there did an insanely good job of building up a program to be a quarter final team in the FCS playoffs a year ago. Very quick. And then the transfer portal opens up and their quarterback goes. And now he's starting at Oregon State in the range of Ani McCoy. Their running back was a thousand yard rusher. He is supportive. He's gonna be playing a lot of snaps for the University of Utah. And you go, we're back at square one again and putting in all of that work to build up to that point. It's kind of weird as I've been looking at Idaho and doing the prep. It's like, a lot of the guys that should be back and making that one more run that we've become accustomed to, they've taken off and they go to another place. And it's a credit to the staff of Idaho. And also those guys for saying, I can go to the power five, but it takes away from the FCS experience a little bit. - Well, I think, and you gotta be aware that the reason they were good enough to go and make that step up on the portal is because he brought him in, you know, he developed. So I think he's a great recruiter. I think he's a great developer of talent. So I expect the guys that he did bring in up the portal and the guys who were freshmen or sophomores last year are gonna be improved. - So I think, I think he is still gonna have a team that was, I'm gonna say, just as good as they were last year. - Yeah. And the pride of Lake Oswego, Jack Lane. - How 'bout that? - Playing quarterback for the Vandals. - Playing, he's gonna play in Austin Stadium. - Jerry, thank you so much for the time, man. I appreciate it. We're gonna have to do this more Wednesdays when I'm coming down here. - I'm always here to be happy to do it. - You live here, right? - Thrill, yeah, I live here. Sleeping bag right over the corner over there. Yeah, I got the bathroom down the hall. There's no food up here. That's the only problem. - The stale popcorn. - No food, and unfortunately you're parked closer to Dusty. (laughing) - Thanks for having me, I guess. - Yeah, thank you, Jerry. - All right, we get to hour number two. Let's get back to the NFL a little bit as roster moves, roster cuts made across the NFL, some surprises that popped up. This is Danny and Dusty on the fan. ♪ He's been over here ♪ - AT&T customers, switching to T-Mobile has never been easier. 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